ICTJ in the News

December 27, 2006

Highlights of US Broadcast News Coverage of the Middle East

Federal News Service (Moscow Branch)

And as Iraqis prepare to close the Saddam era once and for all, the United States turned its own grim page. The military today reported the deaths of seven more Americans, bringing this country's total losses in Iraq to 2,978, surpassing the number of people killed in the attacks of September 11th. 

We have reports from Iraq and the Western White House tonight beginning with NBC's Richard Engel in Baghdad.

RICHARD ENGEL: Good evening, Lester. This execution could be carried out very soon, perhaps even within the next two weeks, according to Iraqi officials, who tell us that it will take place inside an Iraqi prison where now terrorists and criminals are being put to death.

Iraqi television scrambled to carry the announcement live.

Today's decision was both a surprise and rushed. Just three weeks after the nine judges received the appeal, they dismissed it, upholding a death sentence read to a seemingly broken man in November.

Judges today said Saddam must now be executed within 30 days.

AREF SHAHIN (chief judge): The countdown begins tomorrow.

Nobody has the right to lighten the sentence.

ENGEL: But reactions in Baghdad were less emphatic. Most people were too frightened to go out to celebrate or protest. At a local coffee shop one man said, 'We demand his execution early so we can close this chapter.' But another asked, 'Who cares about Saddam? We are still suffering now. This verdict is just a distraction.' And again they suffer today. At least five bombs in Baghdad killed more than 50 Iraqis. 'I saw a 60-year-old woman carrying a child, bleeding from her head, but I couldn't save her,' he said. The U.S. military expects Saddam's execution to trigger even more violence here.

Saddam Hussein was convicted for ordering the execution of 148 men and boys after a failed assassination attempt 24 years ago in a Shiite village. But critics say his trial was motivated more by revenge than justice.

MIRANDA SISSONS (International Center for Transitional Justice): There's been political interference and political pressure.

And this has not fulfilled the international or minimum fair standards.

ENGEL: The Shiite group that tried to kill Saddam two decades ago now leads the Iraqi government, soon to hang him.

To stop this execution, Lester, Iraq's president would have to intervene on moral grounds. There's no indication he has any intention of doing that.

Iraqi officials tell us that Saddam will not receive any special favors, that on the day of his execution he'll be dressed in a green or an orange jumpsuit, that his hands will be bound, his feet chained together with only enough slack on the chain so that he can shuffle up the stairs of the steel gallows. He'll be wearing a hood as will the hangman.

The hangman's, however, will have eye holes cut in it so that he can see the lever, releasing a trapdoor under Saddam's feet, dropping him to his death. Lester?

LESTER HOLT: And, Richard, I know you just returned to Baghdad after a seven-week absence. Share with me your thoughts, what has changed, what hasn't changed in that seven weeks.

RICHARD ENGEL: There is a sense, Lester, that the city is in a sense in a free fall. Just since I've been gone there are now signs up in certain Sunni neighborhoods that say, 'Shiites Out, Sunnis Only.' Sunni militant groups now have their own television station where they're showing viewers how to launch mortars and assemble car bombs.

Two cameramen, Iraqi cameramen I know, have been kidnapped by insurgents. Both managed to escape. One had to jump out of the back of a moving car. And all of this, Lester, just in the last few weeks.

HOLT: All right. Richard Engel in Baghdad tonight.

Richard, thanks.

President Ponders Next Step in Iraq: LESTER HOLT: There is reaction to all this tonight from the Bush White House. The president himself is at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, where he's contemplating the next move for the U.S. in Iraq.

NBC's Kelly O'Donnell joins us from there tonight. Kelly, good evening.

KELLY O'DONNELL: Good evening, Lester. The White House describes itself as an outside observer when it comes to carrying out the death sentence for Saddam Hussein. Politically, they're looking at it this way: They say that Iraq has moved from the rule of a tyrant to the rule of law.

Here in Texas, the president will be sping some time working on retooling his war strategy. And advisers say he's being deliberate; he's asking about options and the consequences, including adding more U.S. troops.

And today a senior military official says that the deployment orders are ready to go, just needing a signature for another brigade. That would be about 3,500 more soldiers from the 82nd Airborne who would go to Kuwait with the possibility of going into Iraq.

And on Thursday, the president will be meeting here with his national security team to talk about all of this. And advisers are downplaying expectations, saying they don't expect any final decisions at that meeting. Lester?

HOLT: Kelly O'Donnell in Crawford. Thanks. Special Care on the Home Front: LESTER HOLT: NBC News in Depth tonight -- special care on the home front. They call themselves the softer side of the Marines.

They're members of a group with one of the most emotionally demanding missions of the service, introducing wounded veterans to their changed lives and reintroducing them to their loved ones back home.

And that means doing all they can to give their Marines the support they need to pull through. Here's NBC's Campbell Brown in Depth.

CAMPBELL BROWN: Their work begins the moment a new casualty arrives at the National Naval Medical Center, Bethesda, Maryland. It's here many of the most seriously wounded Iraq war veterans begin to heal.

UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF THE MARINE LIAISON UNIT (to wounded Marine and his family): You guys need anything, please don't hesitate to give us a call.

BROWN: And he does mean anything. They are the special Marine liaison unit, a team of 22, charged with more than just bringing holiday cheer.

UNIDENTIFIED WOUNDED MAN RECEIVING CHRISTMAS STOCKING: Well, thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MEMBER OF LIAISON UNIT: You're welcome.

BROWN: They describe themselves as a five-star concierge service. It's their mission to take care of almost any need these injured Marines or their families may have.

The shelves in their office are stocked with everything from toiletries to tee shirts.

The unit flew this injured Marine's family of 13 in for Thanksgiving. And planned this wedding in the hospital chapel. But they are also just a shoulder to lean on.

UNIDENTIFIED MARINE NURSE (to injured man in a hospital bed): What's going on today? How are you feeling?

INJURED MAN: I'm feeling all right.

BROWN: Sergeant Daniel Kachmar knows exactly how these Marines are feeling. He was wounded last year in Fallujah by a roadside bomb.

SGT. DANIEL KACHMAR (member of liaison unit): They know I'm not just someone that's been pushing papers. They know that, 'Hey, this guy's been there. He's done it. He knows what I'm going through.' So they open up more with me.

BROWN: The Marines in this unit had been helping injured troops since this hospital first started taking casualties in early 2003. To date they have helped more than 2,000 troops, the vast majority with injuries caused by IEDs.

LANCE CPL. TIMOTHY LANG (injured Marine): I knew I was being thrown from the vehicle. I knew immediately it was an IED.

BROWN: Lance Corporal Timothy Lang's ragged foot had to be reconstructed. He has months of physical therapy ahead before he'll even be able to stand on his own. But thanks to the logistical efforts of the liaison unit, getting airline tickets, housing and transportation, his mother has been at his side since he first arrived.

LYNDA LANG (mother of Timothy Lang): The support has been wonderful to the family, to him. You know, to all the Marines. It's just been wonderful.

BROWN: Marines who say they are just following their tradition of taking care of their own.

Campbell Brown, NBC News, Bethesda, Maryland.