Tom Odom
04-16-2007, 02:09 PM
Frontline is generally quite good. This one promises to be worth the time.
Best
Tom
FRONTLINE
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/ (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/)
- This Week: "Gangs of Iraq" (60 minutes),
Tuesday, April 10 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings)
Inside FRONTLINE: Old fashion journalism
- Live Discussion: Chat with producer Marcela Gaviria Wed., April 18, at 11 am ET
The Bush Administration's exit strategy in Iraq has long counted on "standing up" Iraqi security forces. To do so, much emphasis has been placed on the training of Iraqis, an effort that has cost $15 billion to date. Yet despite the recruitment of more than 300,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, the violence in Iraq remains horrific.
In "Gangs of Iraq" this Tuesday, veteran producer Marcela Gaviria and correpondent Martin Smith travel to Iraq to take a hard look at how the training effort is faring. This FRONTLINE is a joint production with "America at a Crossroads," a special series of programs on terrorism being broadcast by PBS over one week beginning this Sunday.
Smith and Gaviria, who are no strangers to Iraq, provide an amazingly insightful report that can only be described as good old fashion journalism. Smith asks tough questions, and he and Gaviria observe and capture the gap between the reality on the ground and the hopes expressed by politicians in Washington and Baghdad. The team uncovers the inherent complication Americans face in training Iraqi forces - no one seems to know who can be trusted. So you will see cell phones taken away from our Iraqi allies because the U.S. military can't be sure they won't be used to warn the insurgents of a pending raid.
In another example, the film team's cameras caught an Iraqi unit having a discussion in Arabic after the discovery of a weapons cache. We didn't know what they were saying until we translated the scene after the team returned to the U.S. It was then we discovered that the Iraqis were talking about the location of a much larger cache of weapons that was "with the sheikh" -- information they didn't share at the time with the Americans who were with them.
I hope you will be able to join us Tuesday night for "Gangs of Iraq," but if you miss the broadcast, it will be online for viewing the next day on our Web site. There you will also find the extended interviews, background pieces by correspondent Smith and producer Gaviria and a chance to join in the discussion.
Louis Wiley, Jr.
Executive Editor
Best
Tom
FRONTLINE
http://www.pbs.org/frontline/ (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/)
- This Week: "Gangs of Iraq" (60 minutes),
Tuesday, April 10 at 9pm on PBS (check local listings)
Inside FRONTLINE: Old fashion journalism
- Live Discussion: Chat with producer Marcela Gaviria Wed., April 18, at 11 am ET
The Bush Administration's exit strategy in Iraq has long counted on "standing up" Iraqi security forces. To do so, much emphasis has been placed on the training of Iraqis, an effort that has cost $15 billion to date. Yet despite the recruitment of more than 300,000 Iraqi police and soldiers, the violence in Iraq remains horrific.
In "Gangs of Iraq" this Tuesday, veteran producer Marcela Gaviria and correpondent Martin Smith travel to Iraq to take a hard look at how the training effort is faring. This FRONTLINE is a joint production with "America at a Crossroads," a special series of programs on terrorism being broadcast by PBS over one week beginning this Sunday.
Smith and Gaviria, who are no strangers to Iraq, provide an amazingly insightful report that can only be described as good old fashion journalism. Smith asks tough questions, and he and Gaviria observe and capture the gap between the reality on the ground and the hopes expressed by politicians in Washington and Baghdad. The team uncovers the inherent complication Americans face in training Iraqi forces - no one seems to know who can be trusted. So you will see cell phones taken away from our Iraqi allies because the U.S. military can't be sure they won't be used to warn the insurgents of a pending raid.
In another example, the film team's cameras caught an Iraqi unit having a discussion in Arabic after the discovery of a weapons cache. We didn't know what they were saying until we translated the scene after the team returned to the U.S. It was then we discovered that the Iraqis were talking about the location of a much larger cache of weapons that was "with the sheikh" -- information they didn't share at the time with the Americans who were with them.
I hope you will be able to join us Tuesday night for "Gangs of Iraq," but if you miss the broadcast, it will be online for viewing the next day on our Web site. There you will also find the extended interviews, background pieces by correspondent Smith and producer Gaviria and a chance to join in the discussion.
Louis Wiley, Jr.
Executive Editor