MSNBC?s Arnot Balances Dismal Iraq News

[Turfgrass]

Hardball?s Week of Reporting Included Genuinely Good News Most Americans Have Never Heard

The major problem during Vietnam, you?ll hear journalists say, is that public debate about the war was skewed by the Johnson administration?s erroneous happy talk. When reporters like CBS anchor Walter Cronkite began giving sour reports about the state of the war effort, the public?s support inevitably evaporated.

This time, the coverage suggests that reporters are bending over backwards to give the public a pessimistic portrait of the current U.S. mission in Iraq. Less than a week after the war started, on CBS?s 48 Hours, Lesley Stahl raised the specter of the only war America lost: ?You fought in Vietnam,? she reminded Navy Secretary James Webb back on March 25. ?Any feelings of deja vu?? Eight months later, CBS News is still pushing the public to see Iraq as another Vietnam.

As in any war, there has been a lot of terrible, painful news coming out of Iraq this year. But MSNBC?s Hardball last week featured five days of in-depth reporting from Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Bob Arnot that went beyond the knee-jerk negativity of everyday network news:

? November 10: Arnot took his cameras to a Baghdad shopping district which bore no resemblance to a war zone: ?Look at this,? he instructed host Chris Matthews as he stood in the center of a wide boulevard. ?They?ve even painted the flower and tree boxes by the side of the street.? Arnot began exploring the stores: ?Look at the quality of the shops. Now, gold you can get here for a very reasonable price. This is 21-karat gold. And they have beautiful necklaces, bracelets, rings here, high quality. Security is good enough that they can leave this window open.?

? November 11: Arnot visited a town in the Sunni triangle, the region which has been most dangerous for American forces, and showed how the Army works with local leaders to enact improvements: ?Colonel [Nate] Slate and his men have refurbished a water pump station, irrigation ditches and schools....Children used to drink filthy water from this ditch, many sick, some dying of dysentery. Now a new pipeline built by the Americans brings the village clean water.?

? November 12: Arnot traveled to a religious city west of Baghdad and heard complaints about the media?s negative coverage. ?The people of Kazimayah tell us that the picture painted by al-Jazeera and other Arab satellite stations is a bleak one of daily death and destruction. Kazimayah?s leaders are so eager to show Iraq?s real story that the ayatollah himself sends his top lieutenant.? The city tour shows a thriving marketplace and U.S. soldiers at ease with Iraqis.

? November 13: Iraq?s industrial production won?t reach pre-war levels until 2004, but the economic story isn?t as bad as reported elsewhere, Arnot tells us: ?People have money to spend because government salaries have gone up and Iraq?s unemployment number is significantly lower than expected. It?s not the 70 percent you?ve heard of; it could be lower than 20 percent.? That 70 percent figure was cited repeatedly by ABC News the previous week.

? November 14: ?There?s certainly a lethal insurgency trying to derail the birth of the new Iraq, running up the body count for the evening news,? Arnot explained in his wrap-up piece. ?But the new Iraq is being born nonetheless....The U.S. military, America?s civil administrators and Iraq?s peaceful majority are in the fight of their lives, a hot war that is far from decided. But it is not a lost war, nor a hopeless one. And that is the real story.?

 

[djv]

I agree it is a good report. But on each of those day mentioned American men did die. I dont know how to weigh deaths to Markets being open and price of gold cheap, There. Does nothing for me here. We still have 60% of Iraqis just wanting us to go away. I wonder who ever gave a crap about the estimated over 10000 Iraqi civilians that have died. I guess they were coming to bomb America to. Hey Im happy there are some good things going on there. But not at the expense of any of our men and woman.

 

[Turfgrass]

The price for freedom is not cheap. It is always paid for in blood. The men and women you talk about are sacrificing there lives so that others (our children?s children) can live in the freedom we now enjoy. How soon you forget the events that have happen just two years ago. So, it does ?do something for you here? you just don?t realize it. These spectacular strikes are but a small piece in the larger war raging in Iraq. That missile attack launched on the al Rashid Hotel in Baghdad when Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz was staying there was widely reported. He was unharmed, but the attack killed an American officer, scarred the outside of the building (which has made a good TV visual whenever the story is repeated), and scared many reporters who breathlessly reported how lawless the city must be if such an attack was possible.
But the military followed up by catching 18 suspects. Once in custody, the thugs were quick to rat out their friends. Those arrests led to the arrest of two dozen more enemy fighters. Why aren't retaliatory strikes reported more prominently?


Coalition forces are routinely catching the men who are planning and carrying out attacks on soldiers and civilian infrastructure:
? The 101st Airborne nabbed seven individuals suspected of perpetrating attacks on American troops on Nov. 7 by conducting a series of nighttime cordon and "knocks" (entering homes). The suspects also allegedly harbored weapons caches.
? The 82nd Airborne detained five anticoalition fighters--one a former Republican Guard lieutenant colonel--on Nov. 6. The five men are regime loyalists and were sought out by U.S. forces because they're believed to have planned and carried out attacks.
? On Nov. 6 coalition forces were monitoring the site of a seized weapons cache when they spotted two men looking for the rocket-propelled grenade launcher and other munitions. When the men spotted the soldiers, they ran. They were ordered to halt, but one--who was carrying an AK-47--opened fire instead. The soldiers shot back, killing him and catching three others.
? The 12th Infantry Regiment was attacked with 10 rockets on Nov. 7. Soldiers spotted where the rockets were coming from and returned fire. A patrol simultaneously closed in on the enemy's position. The attackers attempted to flee as the soldiers approached, but all three were shot down and killed as they ran.
? The 82nd Airborne carried out the first phase of Operation All American Tiger on Nov. 6, detaining three members of an anticoalition cell in Husaybah and several others. The men caught are suspected not only of carrying out attacks but also of providing safe houses, weapons, transportation and funding to militants.
? On Nov. 7 one division carried out 168 patrols--eight of them jointly with Iraqi border guards and policemen--as well as two raids and three cordon searches. The operations yielded 39 detainees, including several individuals known to be involved in attacks on coalition forces.
? A man believed to be a former bodyguard of Saddam Hussein was captured in an early-morning raid on Nov. 8 south of Kirkuk. Coalition forces went after him after learning of his possible involvement in attacks.
? On Nov. 7, acting on the tip from a local sheik, members of the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment seized a large weapons cache 20 miles northeast of Fallujah. The following day they returned to the same site and found another large stockpile of weaponry, including 194 152mm artillery shells, 84 antitank missiles, 45 high-explosive and fragmentation rockets, 34 155mm artillery shells, four 57mm rounds, five 115mm rounds and one 125mm antitank round as well as thousands of rounds of small arms ammunition.


All I wanted to do was inform others of what they may or may not have already seen or read.

 

[djv]

Price of freedom, you lost me. I was doing find and was very free before Iraqi war. In fact no one has ever proved Iraqi was intending to do a thing to us. Iraq the flint stones of middle east could not threaten us period. Where does everyone get this run scared chit about Iraq.

 

[AR182]

i am a fan of hardball. i think it's the best show of its kind on tv. i also think arnott is doing an excellent job reporting the good & bad of the happenings in iraq.

 

[IntenseOperator]

Great post Turfgrass!

I'm going to send this to the gulf and see what kind of response I get back.

My bud has bought jewelry there and sent it back to his wife here. He's been gone almost a year and has missed an anniversary, his wife's B-day, and both his kids. The prices are supposedly fantastic for top shelf stuff. Many parts of Iraq are in great shape.

 

[Snake Plissken]

In fact no one has ever proved Iraqi was intending to do a thing to us. Iraq the flint stones of middle east could not threaten us period. Where does everyone get this run scared chit about Iraq.

Come on DJV I know you don't believe that!! Sadam Hussein's' former scientist admitted that he wanted nukes and for what???? Self Defense?? I don't think so. We are more safe with him gone. How any one doesn't see that I cant understand. I would feel a lot better if they can catch him. He has a ton of cash on him with a huge chip on his shoulder just ready for what? REVENGE. He was pissed after the 91 war I could only imagine what he wants done now that he is out of power and his sons dead. The sooner this thug is caught the sooner you will see things get a lot better in Iraq as far as the resistance. Don't forget over 3000 people didn't feel threatened on 9/10/01. All I can say is Thank god we have a president that is taking the fight to them instead of waiting for the next attack.

 

[Chanman]

Thanx for posting TG.

 

[StevieD]

Saddam was responsible for 9-11?????

 

[IntenseOperator]

Just got done talking to my friends wife. She told me the Japanese have sent a pretty sizeable amount of money to the gulf for the people of Iraq. If someone could find an article on this with the actual numbers that be great.

She said the infused 1.2 billion for work on 4 hospitals and 10 medical clinics. I haven't heard anything about this elsewhere.

He's medical (captain I believe) and is directly involved in this situation, that's how she knows here.

 

[KMA]

Japan sending money to Iraq

 

[KMA]

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-07-28-bush-applauds-japan_x.htm

 

[KMA]

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0725/p09s01-woap.html

 

[IntenseOperator]

Thanks KMA

 

[Snake Plissken]

November 15, 2003 -- Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein gave terror lord Osama bin Laden's thugs financial and logistical support, offering al Qaeda money, training and haven for more than a decade, it was reported yesterday.
Their deadly collaboration - which may have included the bombing of the USS Cole and the 9/11 attacks - is revealed in a 16-page memo to the Senate Intelligence Committee that cites reports from a variety of domestic and foreign spy agencies compiled by multiple sources, The Weekly Standard reports.

Saddam's willingness to help bin Laden plot against Americans began in 1990, shortly before the first Gulf War, and continued through last March, the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, says the Oct. 27 memo sent by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith.

Two men were involved with the collaboration almost from its start.

Mamdouh Mahmud Salim - who's described as the terror lord's "best friend" - was involved in planning the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.

Another terrorist, Hassan al-Turabi, was said by an Iraqi defector to be "instrumental" in the relationship.

Iraq "sought al Qaeda influence through its connections with Afghanistan, to facilitate the transshipment of proscribed weapons and equipment to Iraq. In return, Iraq provided al Qaeda with training and instructors,"
a top-level Iraqi defector has told U.S. intelligence.

The bombshell report says bin Laden visited Baghdad in January 1998 and met with Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz.

"The goal of the visit was to arrange for coordination between Iraq and bin Laden and establish camps in an-Nasiriyah and Iraqi Kurdistan," the memo says.

Though the bombing of the USS Cole on Oct. 12, 2000 was an al Qaeda job, the secret memo says the CIA believes "fragmentary evidence points to possible Iraqi involvement."

The relationship between Saddam and bin Laden continued to grow in the aftermath of the Cole attack when two al Qaeda terrorists were deployed to Iraq to be trained in weapons of mass destruction and to obtain information on "poisons and gases."

CIA reporting shows the Saudi National Guard went on a "kingdom-wide state of alert in late December 2000 after learning Saddam agreed to assist al Qaeda in attacking U.S./U.K. interests in Saudi Arabia," the memo says.

And the report contains new information about alleged meetings between 9/11 mastermind Mohamed Atta and former Iraqi intelligence chief Ahmed Khalil Ibrahim Samir al Ani in the Czech Republic.

Even some Bush administration officials have been skeptical about a purported meeting in April 2001.

But the secret memo says Atta met two other times in Prague with al Ani, in December 1994 and June 2000. It was during one of these meetings that al Ani "ordered the [Iraqi Intelligence Service] finance officer to issue Atta funds from IIS financial holdings in the Prague office," the memo says.

The memo says the relationship between Saddam and bin Laden went forward even after 9/11.

Both sides allegedly reached a "secret deal" last year in which Iraq would provide "money and weapons" and obtain 90 Iraqi and Syrian passports for al Qaeda members.

Al Qaeda associate Abu Maseb al Zarqwari also helped set up "sleeper cells" in Baghdad starting in October 2002.

The memo was sent to Sens. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) and Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

 

[AR182]

i always thought that there was a connection between saddam & bin laden. not necessarily involving 9/11 but definately a connection. and as a matter of fact the ex-cia boss(name escapes me) testified in a nyc court & provided info about the connection between these two thugs.

 

[StevieD]

If that is true it certainly would be a bombshell.