The Airport Road: A Response
After 60 Minutes aired Lara Logan's story about the Baghdad airport road, we heard from Major General Rick Lynch, Deputy Chief of Staff of the Multi-National Force in Iraq.
Here's his letter, dated Nov. 9, 2005, to producer Josh Yager, and below, Yager's response.
Dear Mr. Yager,
Your November 6th segment, "A Dangerous Stretch of Road in Iraq," covering the airport road in Baghdad, portrayed our Soldiers in a fair and accurate light for which we thank you. However, your segment overlooked several salient points and left the wrong impression about progress with the security situation in this area. While the premise that this was once a 'dangerous stretch of road' is certainly true, the reality is now different. This stretch of road is now one of the safest in Iraq.
The progress made over the past several months is remarkable. Last April there were 37 casualties along the route (killed or wounded), followed by May with 19; June with 19; July with 18; August had 7, September had 3, and in October, there were zero deaths and just one person wounded. This clearly represents a sustained reduction in violence along the airport road.
This improved security situation is directly attributed to the 1st Iraqi Mechanized Police Brigade, who are responsible for the road's security, and patrol it 24 hours a day, seven days per week. Their professionalism, bravery, and indigenous intelligence gathering capabilities have made this route one of the safest roads in Iraq.
I request that you provide this letter and the relevant updated information on your next Sunday night segment, to ensure the most accurate and balanced reporting for which CBS - 60 Minutes takes great pride. Your program is well-known for updating information when it as been made available to you in the past and I trust you will do so in this instance. If you have any questions or would like additional clarification on this, please feel free to contact me or my staff.
Sincerely,
Rick Lynch
This is the response by 60 Minutes producer Josh Yager.
Dear Maj. Gen. Lynch:
Thank you for your letter. You will be pleased to know that our segment, which aired under the title "The Airport Road," was well received by viewers.
We appreciated the opportunity to work with and report on the soldiers patrolling the airport road. Their love of country and support for their mission was evident to us and to many in our audience as well.
As you may have noticed, we specifically pointed out in our story how joint American-Iraqi efforts have had a positive impact on Route Irish. We emphasized the extensive measures taken and expressed the army's position that the road is safer than before.
We were not comfortable reporting statistics for several important reasons, chief among them, that numbers provided to us by the U.S. military contained inconsistencies. As it happens, even the numbers in your letter are inconsistent with figures furnished to us by the 3rd Infantry Division as recently as Oct. 18, 2005. And those Oct. 18 numbers did not reflect the deaths of at least four Iraqi security forces killed on the mission during our visit.
Our ability to quantify progress in the mission was also hindered by the fact that Army statistics are limited in scope; excluding incidents on access roads, and entrance and exit ramps along the airport road. The numbers also exclude civilian casualties altogether. While we were in Iraq, there was at least one incident, involving U.S. forces on the road, that resulted in unintended injuries to civilians, but which was not reflected in the military statistics we received.
The numbers we obtained from the army do show that as late as September of this year, two bombs detonated on the airport road. And a published report based on military figures cites nine improvised explosive devices along Route Irish in the last two months. So we believe that we left viewers with an accurate impression of conditions on the road.
We think it would have been unfair to let statistics define our report on the success or failure of your efforts. We hope that you appreciate our effort to present an accurate picture of what goes into securing the airport road – and to tell the stories of the brave men who do so. We believe our story did justice to your men and your mission – and we look forward to working with you in the future.
Best Wishes,
Josh Yager
Producer