July 2007 - Posts
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
I've been fortunate to get to know British Prime Minister Gordon Brown over the past few years -- we shared a trip to Africa as part of Bono's work to eradicate poverty and disease, and have remained in touch since. The Prime Minister generously granted us his first American television sit-down interview early this morning (the 6 a.m. start time owing to his schedule at the U.N. immediately following our chat). It is always interesting to read the take of the wire services following such a conversation, as it was today. As proof that leaders come and go while our physical landmarks and institutions are left to absorb the history, a plaque on the wall of the suite we'd rented at the Waldorf-Astoria interview indicated our conversation took place on the very spot where President Lyndon Johnson first met Pope Paul VI in 1965. CONTINUED >>
By Chris Colvin, News Writer, Nightly News
Hi. Starting out with the economy and the stock market today with a focus on the folks who are making the case that the credit squeeze is nowhere near abating. Also, some musings on a high-profile Iraq op-ed, some back and forth over AG Gonzales and perjury, a "culture of corruption" update, and a musical tribute to a guy who loved music.. and was loved much more than he knew.
Lots of soothing talk today about how the credit problems have roiled the stock market are "contained" and "easing." Uhhh. Calculated Risk posts a statement from huge Real Estate Investment Trust American Home Mortgage (some estimates say AHM underwrote 1 in every 20 mortgages in this country last year.) They are having some rather extreme financial difficulties at the moment, and it's important to note they have NO subprime exposure in their portfolio. All their lending is to Alt-A and prime borrowers. Trader/blogger Genesis finds this quite alarming. And the big investment banks are feeling the pain as well. The Boston Globe's Robert kuttner looks at some historical analogies. And good Lord, check out CNBC's king of the booya Jim Cramer advising people to walk away from their overpriced, over-mortgaged homes! CONTINUED >>
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| Photo by M.L. Flynn |
| Brian Williams with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. They sat down today for his first US television interview. |
Brian sat down with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown early this morning here in New York. This is the second time he's had the opportunity to hear from the new PM. Last year, when Brown was still Chancellor, they met in Nigeria to talk about economic and education initiatives in Africa. Here, Brian talks about the interview, which will air tonight on "Nightly News." A transcript of the interview will be available on our Web site after the broadcast.
Click here to watch. CONTINUED >>
ARTHUR J. JACKSON
Private First Class, U.S. Marine Corps 3rd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division
Arthur Jackson graduated from high school in 1942, then got a job as a laborer at the Naval Air Station in Sitka, Alaska. That December, he traveled down to Portland, Oregon, to enroll in the Navy’s flight training program, but was turned down because of poor vision in one eye. The Navy recruiter suggested that he consider the Marine Corps. He signed up in January 1943. CONTINUED >>
By Albert Oetgen, Senior Producer, NBC News WashingtonIt seems appropriate that a great filmmaker, a great broadcaster and a great sportsman died today. Because Eric Wishnie loved film, television and sports... and he loved the mystery and mysticism of coincidence. He also was a first-rate practitioner of the jagged and self-protective humor that journalists engage in when our front-row seats to life's harrowing events become too close and overwhelming.
You can read Eric's words and you can watch the pieces he produced, but they don't really capture him. There was a remoteness to Eric, for all of the love and affection he showered on his friends here at NBC. And it was that remoteness, that vulnerability, that endeared him to us. He was a perfectionist, and when he wasn't perfect he was embarrassed. He stayed embarrassed most of the time, but he disguised those feelings with a personality that was disporportionately large for his small and delicate frame. (He could eat a big steak at the drop of a hat. Often, he did. If you slapped him on the back, however, he winced in pain.)
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Tonight our viewers will see a still photo taken in the courtyard of a group home our NBC News team once shared in Bagdhad (during safer times -- you will note none of us is wearing body armor). It shows yours truly, NBC Nightly News producer Eric Wishnie and retired General Wayne Downing bending down to pet a dog we adopted (or rather: he adopted us) in Iraq.
Both other men in the photo are now gone from our lives.
Eric Wishnie was found critically injured on a Street in Greenwich Village before dawn this morning, and was pronounced dead on arrival at the hospital. He was 44.
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Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, but correspondent Don Teague previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast.
Click here to watch.
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DANIEL K. INOUYE
Second Lieutenant, U.S. Army Company E, 442nd Regimental Combat Team
Daniel K. Inouye was a senior in high school in Honolulu when Pearl Harbor was bombed. He remembered standing outside his house with his father as Japanese planes swooped down on the U.S. fleet, both of them, as Japanese Americans, sharing a special sense of horror at this event. Inouye, who had been teaching first aid to local community groups, spent the first day of the war working at a Red Cross station.
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by Lester Holt
Hello from New York, where it has turned into a dark and stormy afternoon. In fact it's so dark outside I keep checking my watch thinking we're about to go on the air.
We'll begin the broadcast tonight (at the correct time) with an amazing demonstration of true national unity in Iraq. One not carved on the battlefield, but on a soccer field in far away Indonesia. Our Jane Arraf is covering the joyous celebrations in Baghdad following Iraq's amazing victory in the Asian Cup. The team, The Lions of the Two Rivers, defeated Saudi Arabia 1-0. The shots heard in Baghdad tonight are being fired in celebration, not in anger. Associated Press writer Steve Hurst probably summed it up for many of us at the end of his dispatch from Baghdad today with the question, "Will a first postwar home game for the Lions of the Two rivers signal things are truly better?"
On the subject of Iraq, will Great Britain's new prime minister speed-up the withdrawal of his country's 5,500 troops currently on duty in southern Iraq? There is certainly pressure at home for such a move, but Brown's spokesman played down such considerations as the PM made his way to the U.S. for talks at Camp David with President Bush. Brown's agenda does include dealing with the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region and trade issues. John Yang will report on this new era in US-British relations.
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by Lester Holt
Good day from New York. For a second Saturday in a row a "routine" medical procedure involving one of this nation's leaders is making news. A week after president Bush's colonoscopy, vice-president Dick Cheney went briefly under the knife today to have a battery replaced in his implanted heart monitoring device. The device is designed to deliver a potentially life-saving shock to the heart if it ever went out of rhythm. The VP has suffered four heart attacks. On the broadcast tonight we'll be talking to a distinguished cardiologist, who will explain how the procedure is done, how the device works, and what risks are involved.
Our white House correspondent John Yang will tell us about a Bush administration plan to sell arms to Saudia Arabia and several other moderate Arab governments. The sale is considered a way to contain Iran, but it is not expected to sail through Congress. As John will explain, there is some uneasiness on Capitol Hill over Saudi Arabia's role in the war in Iraq.
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
There are dog people and there are cat people. There are also people who love both animals, and folks who don't like animals at all. After last night's feature story [video link] on the nursing-home cat in Rhode Island, we received a ton of e-mails -- including several accusing me of a distinct pro-dog bias. I am sorting through the stack right now and hope to read some of these on the air tonight.
Top of mind is the markets: I just made the mistake of having CNBC on for the past 30 minutes -- I say that because I heard the always-measured Art Cashin, among others, hinting at a possible downward "spiral" to come. That, along with fears of hedge fund failures (that sound you hear is financial columnists and editorial writers saying "I told you so"), is enough to scare anyone. Erin Burnett will be with us from CNBC tonight to talk us through this.
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By John Rutherford, NBC News Washington
VIDEO: In this raw video shot by NBC News at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Spc. Jason Pinney, 24, of Decatur, Ind., receives a Purple Heart for a wound he suffered in Afghanistan.
Do Americans appreciate the sacrifices being made by U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? I suspect most people would say, "Yes, of course I do," but some soldiers disagree.
"I think some of you would probably agree that there's some people out in our country that may not realize that we are at war, and you see it sometimes every day," Brig. Gen. Michael Tucker said at a ceremony today for 14 soldiers receiving Purple Hearts at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"The military is at war, but the country is not," University of Maryland sociologist David Segal told the Washington Post Magazine. "And the military resents that."
Does it? Not according to the soldiers receiving Purple Hearts today.
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by NBC Correspondent Mark Potter
In reporting for Nightly News recently on bank robberies in America, we found the separation of myth and reality. We've all heard of the famous bank robbers who were celebrated in movies, song and print -- John Dillinger, Bonnie and Clyde, Willie Sutton, Alvin Karpis, Frank and Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and "Pretty Boy" Floyd.
And surely we've all laughed, or least shaken our heads, at some of the nicknames given by police and the media to current robbers -- Mad Hatter, Ponytail Bandit, Barbie Bandits, Leprechaun Bandit, Bossy Bandit, Cell Phone Bandit, and Band-Aid Bandit, just to name a few.
While bank robbery has always enjoyed an odd bit of folk appreciation -- think Robin Hood -- the truth is that it's usually a dangerous crime committed by desperate people. Many are strung out on drugs or alcohol, or are at their wit's end in terms of economic survival.
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Brian anchors the broadcast tonight, but correspondent Mike Taibbi delivers the vlog.
Click here to watch.
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Editor's note: Washington producer John Rutherford writes a weekly post on the funerals of soldiers and Marines at Arlington National Cemetery. There were no public funerals this week, so he's written a tribute to four soldiers who died in an ambush last week in Iraq.
by John Rutherford, NBC News Washington
The Pentagon issued a short news release on July 21 announcing the deaths of four soldiers in Iraq. The men and their Iraqi interpreter were killed July 18 in Adhamiyah when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb and small arms fire. The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 26th Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 1st Infantry Division based in Schweinfurt, Germany. What follows is a brief tribute to each of the men, four of at least 3,639 Americans to die so far in Iraq.
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Sgt. 1st Class Luis E. Gutierrez-Rosales, 38, of Bakersfield, Calif, was born in Mexico and loved motorcycles, sipping tequila, and the movie "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective." He also loved his mother, sisters, fiancé, and 8-year-old daughter, Amber. He was the man in a house of seven women. "Bendito tu eres entre las mujeres," his sisters would quote from the Hail Mary to him. "You're blessed among all the women." He'd tell them, in turn, not to worry about him. "God doesn't want the good-looking guys in heaven," he'd say, according to the Bakersfield Californian. But when his mother got home from work on July 18, she heard a knock on the door. "I just opened the door and the two men were there, and I knew," she told the newspaper. "But I will try to be strong, because that's what he always wanted."
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In 1963, Robert Ingram enlisted in the Navy to
learn aviation electronics. But after he came down with pneumonia and was sent to the dispensary, he witnessed a meningitis outbreak and was touched by the selfless dedication of the corpsmen. He decided to attend Hospital Corps school. Upon graduating, he was assigned to the 7th Marines. He volunteered for C Company, known as “Suicide Charley,” because it was always in the middle of things. His unit was ordered to Vietnam in the summer of 1965. CONTINUED >>
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
There was an in-house meeting here today about better managing my day -- how to more efficiently schedule all the various jobs I have to do -- television, the Web, our NBC affiliates, etc. I had to leave the meeting at 3:45 because I had to do a special report on the network on the stock market, then I needed to eat lunch and write a blog posting. That may indicate a time-management issue. But our people are on it. I feel better already... or at least I will later, when I have time. CONTINUED >>
Hi. Some interesting back at forth on Iraq today, most of it based right here at home. Congressional Democrats raise the stakes big-time in their fight with the Bush Administration and the Attorney General in particular. Is the dreaded credit crunch here? And a little politics to round things out.
Kicking off today's look at Iraq with Digby posting at Salon and linking to a piece by NBC's Richard Engel about the Iraqis' real issues and motives. Read it. Or at least read Engel's piece.
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Growing up on a farm in Wisconsin, Einar Ingman was always fascinated with heavy machines. When a military recruiter told him he could learn a trade involving this equipment in the Army, Ingman signed up, but after the Korean War broke out, his unit, the 17th Infantry, was rushed into battle, and he found himself carrying a rifle instead of driving a truck.
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Air travel was top of mind late last night, flying back to New York from Detroit. After our Northwest Airlink Canadair LegCramp 4000 aircraft had arrived home, I got in the car and turned on the radio in time to hear the lead story on WINS-AM in New York: the same story we had broken hours earlier on Nightly News: the advisory to air security personnel about recent items found in passenger bags.
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THOMAS J. HUDNER, Jr.
Lieutenant junior grade, U.S. Navy Fighter Squadron 32, USS Leyte
Thomas Hudner had no particular interest in airplanes when he graduated from the Naval Academy in 1946. He wanted only to serve aboard a ship. But in 1948, after he had been at sea for several months and had worked as a communications officer at Pearl Harbor for a year, he was ready for a new challenge and volunteered for flight training. He was briefly stationed in Lebanon before being assigned to the carrier USS Leyte as an F4U Corsair pilot. CONTINUED >>
NBC's Robert Bazell previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click to watch
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Tonight the broadcast will originate from Detroit. I love visiting this city -- and not just because of the friends I have here, but because of the great loyalty toward our broadcast in this town. Thanks to our powerhouse NBC affiliate, WDIV-TV, Nightly News has always been a popular choice among network evening newscasts here, and we enjoy our return visits. Tonight we will talk about the auto industry (how it's dealing with its latest challenge), and the 40th anniversary this week of the riots that changed Detroit forever. From our vantage point looking east toward the Renaissance Center (remember, in downtown Detroit, you look SOUTH to Canada -- just don't ask me to explain it), there are still vacant stretches of the city that date back to the destruction of the riots. There is also great heart in this city, expressed best in the marketing slogan of years ago, "Detroit Works." It still does.
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By Chris Colvin, News Writer, Nightly News
An earlier version of this post obliquely confused and conflated regular "must-read" National Review writer Rich Lowry with former RNC Chairman Rich Bond. D'oh! Requesting a thousand pardons... or at least a commutation. The copy has been corrected below.
Hi. Lots going on today, sorry this is a bit late. Today we're whipping through the very well-received YouTube debate on CNN last night, then it's on to President Bush's latest speech on al Qaida and Iraq, and the news today that the plan for American troops there extends well into 2009, and how many bloggers have had it with the mainstream media's obsession with John Edwards' haircuts.. after one mainstream blogger makes a candid admission.
The Washington Post's Tom Shales has two salient critiques of the YouTube debate: Anderson Cooper was too quick to cut the candidates off, and CNN made it very difficult to see the YouTube questions by placing them in a small box inside a big screen (and cutting away for reaction shots during the questions). And the Chicago Tribune's Steve Johnson says among the losers are America's news anchors and Washington Bureau Chiefs. National Review's Rich Lowry liked it too, and fires an amusing shot at the guys who were at either end of the lineup.
President Bush lashed out today over al-Qaida versus al-Qaida in Iraq, the threat to the U.S. and reasons to stay the course. Kudos to the Washington Post's Dan Froomkin who effectively critiqued the President speech today in his column LAST THURSDAY. Click on the numerous links of supporting material. John Aravosis at Americablog is furious.
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ROBERT L. HOWARD
Sergeant first Class, U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne), 1st Special Forces
Robert Howard was seventeen years old when he joined the Army in 1956. His father and four uncles had been paratroopers in World War II, and he followed in their footsteps, joining the 101st Airborne. In 1965, during the first of his five tours of duty in Vietnam, he was wounded when a ricocheting bullet hit him in the face. While recuperating in a field hospital, he met a patient who was in the Special Forces. When the man’s commanding officer visited, he sized Howard up, then talked him into transferring to the Special Forces.
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NBC's Kevin Tibbles previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click to watch
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
They were all older men, prosperous-looking, well-dressed, with craggy, experienced hands clasped behind their backs during prayer. There were twenty of them, lined up in front of the dozen of us who had made the trip from NBC News in New York, to attend the Memorial Mass for our friend, Retired General Wayne Downing.
The front row was full of stars -- four-star generals, three-star generals and so on. Current and retired. Generals with so many stars and so much responsibility that they came to the funeral in menacing-looking Chevy Suburbans with strobe lights in the grille and military aides with serious-looking briefcases who kept close to the "principal" at all times. There were a bunch of guys with big necks, dressed in plain clothes, who might as well have been wearing the uniforms they once wore. They were Wayne's old "guys" -- men who have committed (truly) all kinds of unspeakable acts, with painted faces and in foreign lands, all in the name of the home team.
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NBC's Robert Bazell previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click to watch
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SILVESTRE S. HERRERA
Private First Class, U.S. Army Company E, 142nd Infantry, 36th Infantry Division
Silvestre Herrera was twenty-seven years old, married with three children, and working in his hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, when he was drafted into the Army early in 1944. Men with families were no longer exempt from the service—in basic training, he met another draftee who said he was the father of eight.
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by Lester Holt
Good day from New York. Among the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast is a follow-up to this morning's appearance by National Intelligence Director Michael McConnell on Meet the Press. It was McConnell's first TV interview, and in it he addressed some of the findings in the newly released National Intelligence Estimate concerning the growing capabilities of al Qaeda. He acknowledged to Tim Russert the terror organization has found safe haven inside Pakistan, a government the U.S. considers an ally. The positive news in McConnell's view is that al Qaeda "does not have operatives inside the United States." NBC's John Yang will report on the growing partisan divide over how the administration is conducting the war on terror.
We've asked CNBC's Erin Burnett to come on the program tonight to talk about that pull back on Wall street late last week on the heels of the Dow's record-setting performance. She'll tell us about some key reports and numbers to watch in the coming week that may tell us where the economy is heading.
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by Lester Holt
Good afternoon.
Any medical procedure that leads the president of the United States to transfer power, even briefly, could hardly be considered routine. Tonight on Nightly News we will tell you about President Bush's colonoscopy -- something millions of middle-aged and older Americans undergo each year. In the President's case, his physician discovered five small polyps. They say none are worrisome. We've asked our chief science correspondent Bob Bazell to explain exactly what they found, and what it means. It's a good chance for all of us to learn a little more about a procedure that can detect signs of colorectal cancer at a very early stage when it is highly treatable.
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
An array of meetings, and sad preparations for a final goodbye to The General have dominated this day. As I'm not quite back into our normal posting pattern, I'd ask only that those who haven't read "The General" a few posts below this one and linked to here -- please do. And while you're at it, read the letters from viewers and military personnel. I find them inspiring and I hope you will, too.
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By Lee Cowan, NBC News Correspondent
A truly remarkable experience happened to me the other day while doing a story about Harry Potter. And if you think they’ve all been done – hold on. This was different. I spent virtually an entire day with the blind – a day that opened my eyes.
The newest Potter book is to coincide with the book’s release in Braille too. I always assumed publishers offer their books in Braille to anyone who needs them. Not so. Turns out the National Braille Press – a nonprofit group based in Boston, is responsible for nearly every Braille publication in this country. They produce everything, from textbooks to novels.
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Some families seem to bear the brunt of the fighting and dying when America goes to war.
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| Courtesy of U.S. Army |
| Steve Davis |
Two soldiers buried this week at Arlington National Cemetery, Spc. Steven Davis, 23, of Woodbridge, Va., and Sgt. Gene Lamie, 25, of Homerville, Ga., have had other family members serving in Iraq.
Davis' mother, Tess, is a medic in Iraq; his grandfather, Rick Lara, is a mechanic there, and his younger brother, Christopher, is a soldier in Baghdad. Lamie's only brother, John, served with the Georgia National Guard in Iraq.
Davis' father, Buck, a veteran himself, initially advised his son not to join the Army."I told him, 'Flip burgers and go to school,'" Buck Davis told the Washington Post.
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NBC's Tom Costello previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click to watch
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by Mark Potter, NBC News Correspondent
In Jackson, Miss., recently we saw the latest trend in the national abortion fight playing itself out on one street corner.
Outside the Jackson Women's Health Organization, the only abortion clinic still operating in Mississippi, dozens of young women coming in for abortions or doctor consultations were greeted by anti-abortion activists trying to convince them not to have the procedure.
Clinic officials say it's a daily ritual here that, while sometimes loud, is typically non-violent. For those of us who remember the many violent confrontations and even murders at abortion clinics in years past it's a dramatic change. It's also an indication that a more effective method has been found by abortion opponents.
The latest tactic in anti-abortion activism involves legislation, and there standing with the protesters was Mississippi state senator Richard White, who has been promoting laws to severely restrict abortion providers. His ultimate goal is to end abortion altogether, and to overturn its Roe V. Wade Supreme Court protections. The Mississippi legislature and many others around the country are the new battlegrounds.
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Rodolfo “Rudy” Hernandez’s platoon, part of the 187th Airborne, was holding a hill near the Korean town of Wontong-ni on May 31, 1951, when it heard the weird symphony of bugles, whistles, and human shrieks that typically preceded a North Korean attack. It was 2:00 a.m., pitch black and raining.
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By Justin Balding
I often used to remark to colleagues covering warzones that if the world was blowing up around you, one man who could get you out safely is General Downing.
The first time I saw him was in Kuwait City, 2003, on the eve of Operation Iraqi Freedom -- upright, intent, purposeful, inspecting the rag-tag ranks of NBC personnel and broadcast facilities being set up. With cables, monitors and camera gear strewn everywhere General Downing must have wondered what kind of chaotic fly-by-night unit he was joining as an NBC on-air military analyst -- partnering Brian Williams. It took him just a couple of days to decipher the weird and wonderful world of broadcast TV and the retired four-star General quickly became five-star TV talent.
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Editor's note: Because of Wednesday night's late-breaking news about the Manhattan steam-pipe explosion, Brian's Nightly News video essay about General Downing was not seen in New York. To watch it, click here. To read others' remembrances, click here.
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
There's a long list of people who say they are alive today thanks to retired U.S. Army four-star General Wayne A. Downing, and my name's on it.
When his mighty heart stopped beating early Wednesday morning, America lost a warrior, a patriot and a public servant. I lost a traveling companion, teacher, protector and friend.
Word of his death unleashed a torrent of emotion from the ranks of the normally stoic community of warriors. Within minutes, postings to our blog started coming in, from members of the military and civilians alike, from men who had served with him and people who had never met him. To read them is to be inspired, truly, by the power and sway one individual can have over American life. Hour after hour, our electronic gathering place has become the guest book for those who feel the need to talk about a man of so many facets: a diminutive giant, gregarious yet discreet, a soldier who taught us so much about humanity. It’s not so much a testament to the power of the Internet as it is to the power of a life in service to this country.
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Shizuya Hayashi was serving in the 65th Engineers in Hawaii when Pearl Harbor was bombed. After the attack, there was uncertainty about what to do with the Japanese Americans in this unit, and for a time they were ordered to work on plantations and to clean trash off the roads.
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By Chris Colvin, News Writer, Nightly News
Hi. Starting off with Iraq in the wake of the Democrats' all-nighter and General Petreaus' "Is the caller there?" moment. Also, dueling forecasts on the economy, Fred Thompson's non-campaign gets caught fibbing (but conservative bloggers don't care.) And a new demonstration of literary Pride & Prejudice.
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NBC's Ron Allen previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click to watch
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Today our travelling team got caught up in one of those travel delay stories that we so often report. Our United red-eye from Los Angeles fell victim to weather, a crippled aviation system and an over-stressed JFK Airport. We arrived close to seven hours late. As a result, I am just now getting to the newsroom, and it's already mid-afternoon.
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John Hawk, drafted right out of high school in 1943, was a private first class when he landed at Normandy in a C-47 transport plane a few weeks after the Allied invasion. As his infantry company fought its way to the town of Chambois, he received what his buddies called a “bang promotion” when he was chosen to replace his wounded sergeant.
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NBC's Robert Bazell previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast. Click to watch
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We received word today that Gen. Wayne A. Downing has died. Downing was a brilliant warrior, a true patriot and a great friend. He was also a trusted adviser to NBC News. We will have more here on General Downing's life and career, but in the meantime we wanted to share these photos with you.
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
There's much talk in the media today of the Dow's flirtation with 14,000. For history's sake it's fun to remember that the Dow crossed the 1,000 mark in November of 1972 -- when crossing the Rubicon into a 4-digit Dow was as revolutionary as some of the new polyester blends just then coming on the market. And it was 20 years ago today that the Dow passed 2,500. Tonight we'll bring it to the present day and talk about what a 14,000 Dow might mean to the "average" American (even though I've yet to meet someone I'd describe as "average"). CONTINUED >>
Hi. It's a short offering today, focused on the new NIE, the war in Iraq, the alleged connection to al Qaida and Iran.. and, a dash of Senator Vitter.
Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters reads the NIE and surmises that the biggest Al Qaida threat to the U.S. comes from Iraq. Michael Ledeen, whose greatest hits include Iran-Contra and the war in Iraq, posts his take on the NIE and points an accusing finger at Iran. (Ledeen wanted to take on Iran before Iraq -- score one for consistency.)
And the unified field theory of both of the above comes from Eli Lake at the new York Sun who says Iran is now an al Qaida headquarters. And heck, let's just take this to it's logical conclusion, courtesy of The (London) Guardian: Cheney ain't leaving without "going to Tehran." But ah well, Spencer Ackerman finds one connection the NIE seems to have missed.
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Barney Hajiro was born in 1916, the second of nine children, two of whom died in infancy. His parents had emigrated from Hiroshima to the Hawaiian island of Maui during World War I. As the eldest son, Barney had to forgo high school and went to work instead at ten cents an hour on a sugarcane plantation to help support the family. Money was scarce. Barney and his brothers and sisters looked forward to New Year’s Day because it was the only time they got a bottle of soda.
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
I was walking up the aisle to leave after Saturday's memorial service for Lady Bird Johnson. My colleague Michael Beschloss and I were pointing out the familiar faces in the crowd that day, when the granddaughter of one of President Johnson's oldest and closest friends approached me to say she had read my posting last week on Lady Bird. She thanked me for it. The response to that post, written hastilly on my laptop the night Mrs. Johnson died, has been overwhelming.
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Uncertain about his future and bored with academics, Charles Hagemeister left college after a year and a half and was working as a warehouseman when he was drafted in 1966. After finishing basic training, he was chosen to become a medical corpsman; he went to Vietnam in November 1966, assigned to the 1st Cavalry (Airmobile). He flew into Pleiku on a transport plane that had no windows. Coming down the back ramp of the plane he was hit by a tidal wave of heat unlike anything he had ever experienced in his native Nebraska. It was then that he realized that he was truly in a foreign place.
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By David Gregory
Since I've been covering the Bush White House, I've always been struck by how eventful the summer months are concerning the major debate in Washington. This Sunday is no exception. The debate over how the war in Iraq should end has the white house and congress at an impasse. Tonight, we'll report on reaction to a new republican defection from the White House. This time it's two of the most respected and influential voices in the Republican party who are calling on the president to announce a change in strategy including the withdrawal of us troops by the middle of October. Is there any room for compromise?
From Washington to Iraq tonight where the question for U.S. commanders is what happens when U.S. troops pull back. Can Iraqis fill the void?
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The family of President and Mrs. Lyndon Johnson has invited Brian Williams to attend tomorrow's funeral service. Brian is traveling to Texas, and Lester Holt will anchor the broadcast tonight. Brian will be back on Monday.
by Lester Holt
Good afternoon. I'll be sitting-in for Brian today while he is taking some time off.
Tonight we will look at a growing problem facing American troops in Iraq: determining who is the enemy. We'll report on an intense shootout today between American special operations troops and Iraqi police officers, who were apparently allied with violent militia groups. The battle was so fierce an Air Force AC-130 gunship was brought in to suppress the Iraqi fire. The U.S. is of course working hard to train Iraqi security forces, but this fire fight that left six policemen dead is showing just how deeply security forces have been infiltrated. We'll have the latest in a report from the Pentagon.
New Hampshire is the campaign crossroads today for two presidential candidates who were their party's presumptive front-runners right out of the gate, Senator's Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Their fortunes, however have taken very different turns of late. Correspondent's Chip Reid and Andrea Mitchell are working that for us tonight.
Also, we will break down those new numbers that show fewer teenagers are engaging in sex, and more are using contraceptives. On a somewhat related note, we'll also report on the growing popularity of the Plan B, morning-after pill, and the growing controversy surrounding its accessibility.
Thanks for checking in. I'll see you later on TV.
David Gregory previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast -- including the situation in Iraq, the Clintons campaigning in New Hampshire, and Mike Ditka's new advocacy. (WATCH VIDEO)
Nathan Gordon had practiced law for two years when he decided to enlist in the Navy in 1941.
He had always wanted to fly, and he figured that it would be more interesting to see the war he was sure the United States would become involved in from the air than on the ground.
At the end of training, young aviators had some say in the kinds of aircraft they wanted to fly. Many of Gordon’s buddies chose the glamorous fighter planes, but he preferred the ungainly PBY patrol planes. He joined a squadron in Norfolk, Virginia, and later went
to the Caribbean, where he flew a Catalina PBY on night missions searching for the German U-boats preying on Allied convoys. Then he was sent to Hawaii, Midway, and Perth, Australia, before being ordered to Samarai, a small island off the southeastern tip of New Guinea, from which he flew bombing and torpedo missions against Japanese merchant shipping in the Bismarck Sea.
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by John Rutherford, Washington producer
Army Capt. Darrell Lewis made it out of the mean streets of Washington, DC, only to die in the desert of southern Afghanistan.
Lewis, 31, was killed June 23 by insurgents in Helmand Province. He was one of two Army officers buried this week at Arlington National Cemetery. The other officer, 1st Lt. Mark Dooley, was killed in 2005 by a roadside bomb in Iraq.
Darrell Cornelius Lewis grew up in an area of Southeast DC known for drugs and violence.
Darrell Lewis | U.S. Army photo
"He knew there was more to life," his aunt, Trina Lewis, told the Washington Post.
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
It happened in the midst of our final hour before airtime—the noise and flurry of deadline pressure. We were talking about a Jim Maceda story from Iraq. Our Senior Producer of Foreign News, M.L. Flynn, a proud Texan, was looking at her computer screen when she blurted out, “Oh my, Lady Bird Johnson died.” My heart sank, and I found myself genuinely and profoundly sad.
A friend of mine who is close to the Johnson family had given me an indication earlier in the day that death was near for the former First Lady. At 94, she had been without her husband for 34 years. They had been married for 39. She became a widow at the age of 60. Her husband, who never believed he got enough credit for his life’s accomplishments, was even deprived of the nation’s full mourning attention in death: he died just two days after Nixon’s second inaugural, and just 26 days after the death of Harry Truman. Having given up the habit while President, he resumed smoking on the flight home to Texas...he never stopped, and never looked back. He was fond of saying that during his years in the White House, he “belonged to the country.” His retirement years, he said, belonged to him. He drank more heavily, his physical condition worsened, and his already-troubled heart grew weak. He lived for only four years after leaving the Presidency. After the death of her husband, Mrs. Johnson assembled her life around her children, her passions and her plans. She lived well, defined herself as an “activist” and insisted on being surrounded by the love of family and friends. It was that way at the end...her condition turned grave this past weekend, but she fought on... until life slipped away while she was surrounded by those she loved. (Photo: Lady Bird Johnson at the LBJ Ranch, 1991 | Courtesy LBJ Library)
After writing her husband the President when I was a young boy, I developed a keen interest in Lyndon Johnson. While Presidential history has always been a hobby, I paid special attention to the study of this endlessly interesting man and all those around him.
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by Dawn Fratangelo, correspondent
Each and every time I meet a family connected to this war-- and there have been so many who've graciously shared their homes and life stories-- I am in awe. The young woman you will meet tonight on Nightly News shares the strength and commitment of countless others. But there is one aspect of her story that is unlike any other we've encountered in our coverage of this conflict in Iraq: After her husband, Eddy Garvin, was killed in Anbar Province nine months ago, this widow decided to join the Army and hopes to be deployed to Iraq to work as a medic.
I shook my head in disbelief when I first learned of Melissa Garvin and her decision. So, too, did producer, Sam Singal, and our camera crew. I'll be honest-- we all walked into the interview assuming that grief and loss were clouding her judgment. What other explanation could there be? Well, it turns out, we all walked away impressed by her reasoning and motivation.
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by Chris Colvin
Hi. Still battling it out over Iraq in Washington.. with the new twist that Bin Laden seems determined to attack inside the U.S... again. Also, nervous knots over the state of the subprime mortgage debt situation, Fred Thompson runs a reverse, and a history lesson on the claims of the Swift Boat veterans.
With everyone reporting on Iraq's benchmark progress getting an Incomplete, Bob Woodward weighs in with a nice little nugget about how the CIA knew the Maliki government was hopeless eight months ago. DevilsTower at DailyKos doesn't think much of that interim progress report. But Kimberly Kagan says the surge is working. (should the Wall Street Journal have pointed out she's married to surge architect Fred Kagan?, Just askin')
Joe Sudbay at Americablog bemoans the defeat of the Webb troop readiness Amendment. But Ed Morrissey at Captain's Quarters explains why the defeat of the Webb Amendment is good.
The newly-minted Pentagon spokesman in Iraq, Gen. Kevin Bergner, insists that al-Qaida (not even al Qaida in Iraq--now it's bin Laden's al Qaida) is enemy number one now. And Moon of Alabama notes that Bergner's last job... was on the White House staff.
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by Jack Hawkins, Burbank bureau
During my travels with NBC News chasing news throughout the world, I have met literally thousands of heroes -- heroes that rise to help their fellow man caught up in hurricanes, tornados, fires, floods, war and so many other countless tragedies.
I have seen more dead bodies than a thousand people see in a lifetime. Sometimes the experience working these tragic news stories can be overwhelming, but at the same time it can be inspiring as well. I see people who have lost everything -- including their families, their homes and their way of life -- stand up and do the hard work of burying their dead, rebuilding their lives, and taking care of those who can't take care of themselves. The heroes I've seen come from every nationality, every race, every culture on the planet. The obstacles before them seem at the time insurmountable, but inspite of the destruction around them, they prevail.
They are the firemen, the teachers, the cops, the doctors, the nurses, the fine people of the Red Cross, the soldiers, and mostly the average citizens caught up in the tragedy surrounding them. I also see the heroes I work with-- people who risk their lives, safety, and health bringing the news to the public. They work long hard hours in situations that can stagger the mind by their sheer destruction and danger.
All that I have seen over the years have given me better appreciation for what I have -- my family, my friends, my life. I am thankful to just wake up each morning alive and well. There isn't a day that passes that I don't thank God I made it this far.
I have seen a lot of history being made, things both good and bad, during my career here at NBC News. But I wouldn't be where I am today had it not been for a hero of long ago. He inspired me to seek out the dream I had to be a part of the best news organization in the world.
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Harold Fritz was working toward a career in veterinary medicine when he got his draft notice in 1966. After advanced armor training, he was accepted for Officer Candidate School. Graduating as a second lieutenant early in 1967, he was assigned to the 6th Armored Cavalry Regiment. The following year, he was sent to Vietnam and assigned to the 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment.
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by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
For two years, I sat over the shallow end of FDR's swimming pool. Richard Nixon (a bowler, not a swimmer) put down flooring in 1970 and covered FDR's pool with the press briefing room in the West Wing. And when I entered that room every day as White House correspondent, and took my seat in the blue chair on the far left in the front row (with the brass "NBC" plaque on the front), I always thought of the room's prior use. FDR, who pronounced the pool "splendid," took his first dip at 6:30pm on June 3, 1933. CONTINUED >>
NBC's George Lewis previews some of the stories we're working on for tonight's broadcast.
Click here to watch
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By the time the Korean War broke out, Ed Freeman was a master sergeant in the Army Engineers, but he fought in Korea as an infantryman.
He took part in the bloody battle of Pork Chop Hill and was given a battlefield commission, which had the added advantage of making him eligible to fly, a dream of his since childhood. But flight school turned him down because of his height: At six foot four, he was “too tall” (a nickname that followed him throughout his military career). CONTINUED >>
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We should be up and running shortly.
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
A few random notes today: First, we were horrified to learn during our afternoon meeting that editorial cartoonist Doug Marlette has died. Doug was just 57, a Pulitzer winner and a veteran of many newspaper editorial pages. I didn't know him well, but was a huge admirer. Click to visit Marlette's site.
I first met Doug during a workshop he held for children -- my daughter was among those he instructed that day in the art of cartooning. In later years, I found myself in the unlikely role of one of his subjects from time to time. His depictions of me were always kind and always funny, and not all of Doug's victims could say that. In each case, he mailed me the original, signed and inscribed with kind remarks, and in each case, he took the time to write a note. He was smart, talented, controversial and every bit as much a journalist as any of us in any branch of the profession. We have lost a treasure of the printed image.
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by Chris Colvin
Hi. Back from a 4th of July holiday and jumping right into the big churn on Iraq. Is it "panic?" A "tipping point?" Or really "stay-the-course-lite?" Also, a Justice Dept. veteran is disgusted, McCain's campaign falls apart, a conservative Senator caught in the DC madam net ... and kitties with an unusual characteristic.
The New York Times leads today with an interview with U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker who warns of all kinds of catastrophes that will befall Iraq if American troops leave, (many of which -- civil war? civilians slaughtered? seem to be happening already.) But blogger/author Glenn Greenwald sees the Times making the same mistakes it made, and apologized for, in the run-up to the war. This as the Times editorial page and its news coverage are growing apart. Howard LaFranchi of the Christian Science Monitor thinks he has the future of Iraq policy figured out though- - "We're there to fight al-Qaida." But retired General William Odom says the surge and on-going war represent the opposite of supporting the troops.. who he says are combat exhausted. And ThinkProgress reminds us that we should just listen to what the White House is actually saying on the surge ... we've only just begun.
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by Richard Engel, correspondent
The girls circle the stage in a nightclub outside of Damascus, holding hands in protective pairs as they march, always counterclockwise, at the same slow pace, one unenthusiastic step per second.
It’s 3 a.m., but bright as a hospital ward in here. The club owners leave on the fluorescent lights so customers can get a good look at what’s for sale. The girls’ faces are painted in slashes of pink blush. Their lipstick is drab browns and beiges. They want it that way, so it doesn’t distract from their eyes, accented with glittering splashes of emerald green and sapphire blue. Many girls connect their thin, shaped eyebrows with a black pencil, and have orange and yellow plastic flowers in their long hair, blackened with henna.
One girl, gawky and about 13, has eyeglasses tucked into the top of her tight, lilac sequined dress. Her sister, who says she’s 14, chews bubble gum and keeps borrowing the glasses. She can’t see when she puts them on and waves her hands in front of her, pretending to be blind. It makes the sisters laugh. They are bored circling all night. I guess they also want to forget where they are. Maybe it helps if you can’t see. The 14-year-old also has a mobile phone stuffed into her bra. She pulls it out when men, mostly from Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, call her over to their tables to exchange ‘missed calls.’ The men call the next day and negotiate a price and a meeting place.
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by Jay Blackman, Washington Producer
Boeing's unveiling of its new 787 was a huge media event -- part news event but also a big party of sorts with music, giant screens and 10,000 people watching and smiling.
What is interesting to me is yesterday and continuing into today, Boeing's own employees have been walking up to the plane not to work on it, but just to marvel at it. Even reach out to touch it.
It's funny, these people see planes come and go every single day, but somehow this one is different.
From our perch two floors above the factory floor, you can see these employees are clearly proud of their accomplishment.
Tonight, correspondent Tom Costello will bring you more about the revolutionary technology used to build this plane and what new comforts are in store for airline passengers worldwide.
by Brian Williams, Anchor and Managing Editor
Three work days off, plus the weekend—a five-day break from 30 Rock and now back in the saddle again. Allow me to thank Lester Holt for so ably filling in. What I didn’t see live I watched on DVR last night. There is no test of character quite like loading up the family car and driving to Maine and back over the July 4th holiday. To those of you who were with us in the bumper-to-bumper traffic yesterday on Routes 495, 90, 84 and 91 -- I felt your pain, and am still feeling my own. I am just now able to fully extend my legs and flatten out my hands from the death grip I had on the steering wheel.
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by Anne Thompson, correspondent
Excuse me for thinking that working on tonight's story makes me one of the luckiest people in the world. I got to see first-hand the spectacular Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Australia. With a snorkel, mask and great guide, a world you cannot see even from a boat opened up before me: giant clams, staghorn coral, clown fish. I even got to swim with sharks... the ones with fins rather than the two-footed kind. Producer Mario Garcia, photographer Nelson Tharp and I couldn't stop smiling at each other and high-fiving over this assignment. Between the three of us, we've seen enough wars and murders and man-made disasters to merit years of therapy. To see and report on one of the natural wonders of the world is a privilege and a delight.
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By Jane Arraf, Correspondent
It was a moment Lisa Ramaci thought might never happen –- the doors at JFK airport swinging open and a young woman in a headscarf and high heels walking into a new life of freedom –- and safety.
It was a very long journey for both of them. Nour al-Khal is the Iraqi interpreter who was with Lisa’s husband, Steven Vincent, when he was abducted and murdered in Basra in 2005. Nour was wounded in the attack and Lisa had spent 18 months fighting U.S. authorities to bring her to the United States.
I first met Lisa more than a year ago at a dinner for the Committee to Protect Journalists. She introduced herself as the widow of Steven Vincent. His murder then was recent enough that you could tell she found it strange to be defining herself that way. Over the next year, this extraordinary woman started a foundation in Steven’s name to help the families of local journalists killed in war zones and successfully battled to get Nour to the United States –- all while being treated for breast cancer.
“I was filling out paperwork, making phone calls, e-mails, pledging to stand financial security for her, promising that I would let her live with me,” Lisa said. Many times it seemed she would never get her here.
(Photo: Lisa and Nour in Bryant Park)
But now, here we were with her at JFK, waiting for Nour to arrive, to meet the woman who would be sharing her home. I’d met Nour in the Jordanian capital, Amman, while she was waiting for her visa. Like many Iraqi refugees, she lived in fear that she would be deported back to Iraq. And she wasn’t sure what to expect from her new life.
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Every weekday for 110 straight days we will feature a different living recipient of the Medal of Honor. These are the men who have received their nation's highest military honor. Brian is a board member of the Congressional Medal of Honor Foundation. The words and photos are courtesy of Artisan Books, publishers of "Medal of Honor: Portraits of Valor Beyond the Call of Duty by Peter Collier with photographs by Nick Del Calzo.
Medal of Honor: Robert F. Foley
Captain, U.S. Army Company A, 2nd Battalion, 27th Infantry, 25th Infantry Division
Robert Foley was a basketball star in high school. At six foot seven, he had received fifteen college scholarship offers by the end of his senior year. He was still considering his options when the hockey coach from West Point happened to pass through Massachusetts on a weekend Foley scored forty-four points in a game. He told the West Point basketball coach about Foley. The coach invited him for a visit and asked him to play Army basketball. Foley knew that going to West Point would eliminate the possibility of his playing professional basketball, but he was impressed with the history and sense of purpose he saw at the academy and decided to enroll.
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