[FONT color=#0000ff]If you'd rather read the transcripts of Lara Logan's statements, here they are.[/FONT] [A href="vny!://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/26/rs.01.html" target=_blank][FONT color=#0000cc]vny!://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0603/26/rs.01.html[/FONT][/A]
KURTZ: There is no question that the dangerous conditions for
journalists there are making it much harder to report on some of these
signs of progress, as you point out. But I look at just the last couple
of weeks of your coverage. Besides covering the Saddam trial, you
reported on allegations that U.S. troops had killed a group of
civilians. Then you reported an attack on a police station, the bombing
of a police convoy, you talked about the threat of a civil war. All
legitimate stories. But critics would say, well, no wonder people back
home think things are falling apart because we get this steady drumbeat
of negativity from the correspondents there.
LOGAN: Well, who says things aren't falling apart in Iraq? I mean, what
you didn't see on your screens this week was all the unidentified bodies
that have been turning up, all the allegations here of militias that are
really controlling the security forces.
What about all the American soldiers that died this week that you didn't
see on our screens? I mean, we've reported on reconstruction stories
over and over again, but the order to (ph) general for Iraqi
reconstruction says that only 49 of well over 100 planned electricity
projects happened.
So we can't keep doing the same stories over and over again. When a
police station's attacked, that's something new that happened this week.
If you had any idea of the number of Iraqis that come to us with stories
of abuses of U.S. soldiers and you look at our coverage over the last --
my coverage over the last few weeks, or even over the last three years,
there's been maybe two or three stories that have related to that.
So, I mean, we have to do the stories that when we've tested them and
tested them and checked all our sources, and that they are legitimate
stories on that day, that that is the biggest news coming out of Iraq,
then that's what we have to do.
[...]
LOGAN: You don't think that I haven't been to the U.S. military and the
State Department and the embassy and asked them over and over again,
let's see the good stories, show us some of the good things that are
going on? Oh, sorry, we can't take to you that school project, because
if you put that on TV, they're going to be attacked about, the teachers
are going to be killed, the children might be victims of attack.
Oh, sorry, we can't show this reconstruction project because then that's
going to expose it to sabotage. And the last time we had journalists
down here, the plant was attacked.
I mean, security dominates every single thing that happens in this
country. Reconstruction funds have been diverted to cover away from
reconstruction to -- they've been diverted to security.
Soldiers, their lives are occupied most of the time with security
issues. Iraqi civilians' lives are taken up most of the time with
security issues.
So how it is that security issues should not then dominate the media
coverage coming out of here?
[...] (Responding to Laura "Riefenstahl" Ingraham's widely reported
"balcony" charge)
LOGAN: Well, I think it's outrageous. I mean, Laura Ingraham should come
to Iraq and not be talking about what journalists are doing from the
comfort of her studio in the United States, the comfort and the safety.
I mean, I don't know any journalist that wants to just sit in a hotel
room in Iraq. Does anybody understand that for us we used to be able to
drive to Ramadi, we used to drive to Falluja, we used to drive to Najaf.
We could travel all over this country without having to fly in military
helicopters.
That's the only way we can move around here. So, it's when the military
can accommodate us, if the military can accommodate us, then we can go
out and see.
I have been out with Iraqi security forces over and over again. And you
know what? When bob Woodruff was out with Iraqi security forces and he
was injured, the first thing that people were asking was, oh, was he
being responsible by placing himself in this position with Iraqi forces?
And they started to question his responsibility and integrity as a
journalist.
I mean, we just can't win. I think it's an outrage to point the finger
at journalists and say that this is our fault. I really do. And I think
it shows an abject lack of respect for any journalist that's prepared to
come to this country and risk their lives.
KURTZ: All right. I do...
LOGAN: And that's not just me. That's the crews, that's all the people
that make up our teams here.
KURTZ: I do want to point out that Laura Ingraham was in Iraq last month
for eight days, and that was part of the reason for her appearance....
Lara Logan, stay with us. I want to bring...
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LOGAN (with a mocking smile): For eight days.
