Recovering Iraqi Orphans Face Bleak Future
Lara Logan Checks Back In With The 24 Boys Discovered Neglected Last Week
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Play CBS Video Video Soldiers Visit Rescued Orphans U.S. soldiers looked in on the 24 special needs boys they rescued from an Iraqi orphanage. The kids have improved, but few resources are available for their long-term care. Lara Logan reports.
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Video Eye To Eye: Iraqi Orphans Only On The Web: More than 20 mistreated boys were rescued from a Baghdad orphanage by U.S. and Iraqi troops. Lara Logan talked with one soldier about the boys' current condition.
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Video Notebook: Baghdad Orphanage Lara Logan's report on the horrendous conditions inside a Baghdad orphanage shocked many viewers back home. Katie Couric says it's clear the casualties of war are often the most innocent ones.
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U.S. and Iraqi soldiers provide medical care to boys discovered naked and abused in a Baghdad orphanage on June 10, 2007. Soldiers found 24 severely malnourished boys, some tied to their beds, in the orphanage, yet there was a room full of food and clothing nearby, in this photo given to CBS News. (CBS)
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Lt. Jason Smith visits the slowly recovering Iraqi orphans at their new orphanage home, June 20, 2007. (CBS)
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Capt. Benjamin Morales carries one of the special needs boys from a Baghdad orphanage after finding the children suffering in horrific conditions, in this photo given to CBS News. (CBS)
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Photo Essay Baghdad Orphanage Horror U.S., Iraqi soldiers rescue 24 severely malnourished and abused boys.
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Photo Essay Iraq Shrine Hit Again Two minarets of Askariya Shiite Shrine in Samarra bombed; dome was destroyed last year.
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Photo Essay Iraq In Pictures A daily diary with scenes of the latest attacks and snapshots from the effort to rebuild a nation.
Morales was back to check on the 24 boys he and his soldiers rescued just more than a week ago.
The boys were literally starving to death in a government-run orphanage for special needs children. Those in charge left them naked and tied down, while piles of new clothes and food were stored right down the hallway.
Thanks to these soldiers, and the joint Iraqi-U.S. patrol that first found them, the boys' lives were saved.
"Hey guys?" asks Lt. Jason Smith as he walks up to boys in cribs making noises like them.
When we visited them again today in the safety of a different special needs orphanage nearby, the contrast was stunning.
"Look at 'em," Morales said. "They are all smiling; they're all laughing!"
It's obvious how much better off these boys are at this orphanage. The problem is they are still special needs children with no access to specialized care.
Smith and his wife, Kara, in North Carolina are both special education teachers. Logan asked Smith if one of the boys was in the United States, what kind of care would he get.
"He wouldn't be sitting in this, that's for sure," Smith said of the crib the boys are kept in. "He'd be in a wheelchair most of the time."
But in Iraq, they're understaffed, underpaid and the social workers lack specialized training.
"The problem here is what you said earlier: There is no education, so they're gonna do the same thing everyday — until they aren't here any more," Smith said.
One little boy almost did die. When the soldiers found him, he was covered in thousands of flies, unable to move. They never thought he'd recover as much as he has.
The boys are being fed now. They're safe. They've got somewhere to sleep. But what kind of future do they have?
"This is it, right here," Smith said. "This is their future."
The plight of the boys has outraged Iraqis, with excerpts of our report aired constantly on local TV for almost two days. The public pressure forced the Labor and Social Affairs Minister to speak out — but instead of taking responsibility, he lashed out at the U.S., calling America Iraq's enemy.
As CBS News was filming new scenes on Wednesday, the minister was telling the nation these boys are perfectly healthy — and that Logan's report was a lie.Find out how to help the orphans.
See the photos given to CBS News.
Watch extended video of Logan’s interviews with the soldiers who rescued the orphans.
And these are the same soldiers the minister said have no compassion.
"We'll leave here and he'll remember us 'til the day he dies," Smith said. "He'll remember us as the guys that came in here and took him out of the situation he was in and put him in this situation. He'll never be able to tell us thanks. He doesn't need to really."
The fear in Iraq is that there may be other vulnerable children in similar or worse conditions who haven't yet been found.
If you’d like information on helping out the orphans, click here.
© MMVII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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The secrets of tennis legend 
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See all 117 Commentsstill there is warfare on the planet.
strife, revenge, hatred, rascism, no peace,
no justice, know god, know peace, no agreement,
no consensus, racing continues for no apparent
purpose than adornment. angela davis's dire
predictions have come to bear. patti hearst
lies kidnapped again by the king of spain.
the tract houses are not being built. ms. goodman of the democracy network tries and
cries so hard. the dove of peace of ewtn
still flies into the universe as rosaries
are said for universal peace with all their
might of mind. yet still there is no end
to conflict. babies still lie untended.
people don't say what they intended. people
misinterpret what was intended. our wives
are all at sea, like penelope, and the men
are just like ulysses, waiting patiently
at home for the women who have a husband
in every port to return home. like paulie
of studs lonigan i await eileen's return.
was she killed at the bank shootout today?
will peach surprise stay alive today?
will operation peachy keen stop drug addiction
and money laundering, laundry detergent as
impostor dope to make all addicts squeaky clean?
lord knows the flour children tried and they
are still trying in other ways. a memorial
will be erected one day to the flower children
who wilted and died in 1967 when so many
went to heaven.
Thank you CBS. Maybe you can track the boys' progress?
God Bless our troops.
These children were made orphan from the day George Bush said "today on my orders our troops started operation Iraqi freedom"
He should have said : today on my orders thousans of children will be made orphans and and hundreds of thousands will be killed and hundreds of thousands will lose an arm or a leg and millions will go under the poverty line and millions will lose their home and rivers of tears will run in the streets of Baghdad.
All of that to save the nation from WMD and if we don't find WMD , then don't worry will use "getting rid of Saddam" as an excuse
By the way, as much as I detest Bush, his policies, and this war, I refuse to let that blind me to seeing the goodness in our individual soldiers.
Instead of buying the 80 million dollar yacht, help these "least of our brother."
Posted by j-whitman at 09:56 PM : Jun 20, 2007
If this were the case, why were there cloths & food provided for them? It was not us that destroyed every bit of help given to them, it was their caretakers! The food was there, but the workers were just looking out for themselves. They are the ones we should be pointing the finger at! They chose to make those boys suffer and should be punished severly!! How dare they harm poor, innocent children!
Ah yes and these are the people our men are dying for?????????
This goes beyond outrage, beyond anger. It is the very betrayal of all we are suppose to stand for.
D.a.m.n. you forever Bush, Cheney and all your pals for putting our soldiers in such situation. These are people that do not understand democracy or human rights. They live by different rules than America and WE WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND THEM.
US secretary of state, Madeline Allbright was asked was it a price worth paying, she replied;
"Yes".
BTW its the politicians I can't stand who do things in our name, not the good soldiers who found these kids.
"The public pressure forced the Labor and Social Affairs Minister to speak out %u2014 but instead of taking responsibility, he lashed out at the U.S., calling America Iraq's enemy. "
Government-run orphanage?
Is the government America is backing?
Those people sound like trash-let them stay over there.
They don't know how to feed a child?
This story sounds more like a bad joke.
So stop you spin it won't work you did what you did for power. Now we the American people must clean up your mess. Once again I say you kind should have to pay for this war tax the day lights out of you ilk that way the next time when someone screams we need to fight them there or will be fighting them here they might think twice because they will have to pay for the mess they start.
Yours must be a miserable existence, so filled with hate. Without knowing your background, I can't know whether to fear, hate or pity you.
I do know this: You are sorely misguided.
Posted by Hedonist3
He'll soon start singing his tune on Dafur. I believe the guy is a muslim sympathizer. It's a good thing our Troops found these little guys. But of course, that's Bush's fault too. Seems to me that if the Minister himself is screaming that our Troops are lying, then there is more of these instances spread throughout Iraq. Thatlashing out sort of expresses to me that the lack of concern for children of special needs just got exposed. Sort of reminds me if you look at those old movie reels of the day Eisenhower walked into a Nazi concentration camp dismayed at the sight of living skeletons roaming about those camps. Interesting that Lt. Smith is a special ed teacher, after all we only send the ignorant overseas, right?
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