 |
         
|
NBC's Williams, co-anchoring from Amman, rounded out his tour in Baghdad with an expose of one of the vaunted luxury palaces built by Saddam Hussein in what is now the Green Zone. The al-Faw Palace, a resort retreat for the Baath Party elite, was certainly large enough, with 62 rooms and 29 bathrooms and a water-skiing lake. But opulent--not so much: "The famous chandelier is part-plastic. The walls are paper thin. And a lot of the gold is not at all."
While other Baghdad correspondents were talking to Gen Petraeus, CBS' Allen Pizzey claimed an Exclusive with Gen Michael Walsh from the Army Corps of Engineers. Walsh is in charge of restoring Iraq's electricity grid. His schedule for completion is 2013. Pizzey called electricity "a cornerstone of the new counterinsurgency plan here because unless people have tangible benefits there is little reason to support the government or oppose the insurgency." He showed us the makeshift fixes that Baghdadis have jury-rigged in the meantime: "A rat's nest of wires drapes every alleyway."
You must be logged in to this website to leave a comment. Please click here to log in so you can participate in the discussion.
