Sawyer Supposes Insurgents Fired Mortars From Inside Green Zone

Photo of Mark Finkelstein.
By Mark Finkelstein | March 27, 2008 - 08:15 ET

"How much of a surprise is it that they can actually get inside the embassy? How fortified is that?" -- Diane Sawyer, 3-27-08, commenting on reports mortars and rockets had fallen inside Green Zone.

Someone get Diane Sawyer a crash course in indirect fire. Discussing this morning the recent flurry of rocket and mortar attacks landing inside the Green Zone in Baghdad, Sawyer supposed that the insurgents had somehow breached the perimeter themselves and fired from inside the US embassy compound!

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Sawyer spoke with Jonathan Karl during the opening minutes of today’s Good Morning America.

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DIANE SAWYER: Let’s begin right now as we said with this breaking news coming in from Iraq, reports that mortars have landed inside the US Embassy compound in Baghdad. ABC national security correspondent Jonathan Karl has been working this story. Jonathan, good morning to you. What’s up?
JONATHAN KARL: Well good morning, Diane. This is the fourth day in a row of attacks inside the Green Zone and as you mentioned this one appears to have landed actually inside the US Embassy compound. Life has been especially nerve-wracking inside the Green Zone. Yesterday alone there were 16 rocket and mortar attacks that landed inside the Green Zone, and in each case the US military suspects these were special groups, militia groups associated with Muqtada al-Sadr, renegade extremist factions of his Mahdi Army. And also Diane they are telling us that the markings on these rockets show they are in fact made in Iran. And they believe they are fired by groups that are supported, trained and funded by the Iranians.

SAWYER: Alright, I want to come back to that in a second, but how much of a surprise is it that they can actually get inside the embassy? How fortified is that?
Perhaps Karl should be working inside the embassy, because he was very, shall we say, diplomatic in explaining the basics of indirect fire to Diane.
KARL: Well, it is heavily fortified but it’s also got a big target right on the top of it. And you know you can fortify the walls all you want but these rockets get fired usually from the Sadr City neighborhood or somewhere near there over the walls and they can land anywhere. The rockets are notoriously inaccurate, which makes it especially nerve-wracking. You don’t know where they’re going to land, and you also have almost no warning. So it does happen: they do get inside the embassy compound, but they can land anywhere.
A presidential candidate making a comparable gaffe would sustain serious damage to his national security credentials. Will anyone care about Sawyer's surprising unfamiliarity with military basics?

—Mark Finkelstein is a NewsBusters contributing editor and host of Right Angle. Contact him at mark@gunhill.net.

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Sawyer is a twit and everyone knows it

March 27, 2008 - 08:32 ET by c5then

Apparently all the correspondents are on the alert for twit-like remarks from Diane and on orders to minimize the fallout if at all possible.

 

The day that "politician" became a career choice is the day we started losing the Republic. Let's get it back! Alan Keyes '08.

Diane Sawyer, Gravitas and my conundrum

March 27, 2008 - 10:01 ET by allanf

Who can forget Diane's fabulous Dictator ‘07 tour where she said:

But a number of people have already said is there anything surprising, personal about President Ahmadinejad that we didn't know? Well, it turns out, someone told me he cries a lot. That he is dramatically sentimental and sympathetic if someone comes up and expresses a personal plight. So I just asked him, are you often in tears?"

Then there was this gem after interviewing the Syrian President

"Again, I can't stress enough how they kept saying, 'We, we look at your culture and you don't, you can't keep the family together just geographically.’ And it makes such a difference that everyone lives at home. Men and women into their 20's, until they get married. So the family stays intact. And, again, you've got to answer to the whole family, I say, for whatever you do out on the town."

But this is perhaps most indicitive of the woman.

You know, I wanted to sit on a jury once and I was taken off the jury. And the judge said to me, 'Can, you know, can you tell the truth and be fair?' And I said, 'That's what journalists do.' And everybody in the courtroom laughed. It was the most hurtful moment I think I've ever had."

Right now, I'm wrestling with this conundrum : who is a deeper thinker, Ann Curry or Diane Sawyer?  Any thoughts? 

Was Diane Hoping That the Barbarians Had Breached the Gate?

March 27, 2008 - 08:35 ET by on-the-rocks

You might think that she had seen enough war movies/news footage to have seen a mortar used before (being a newshound means being observant).  And you might think that she would have noticed the high angle of the mortar tube, resulting in a high arc.

But then maybe I expect too much of her.

wow, a news story from

March 27, 2008 - 08:44 ET by Free Thinker

wow, a news story from Iraq.  Oh, I see it is about the enemy launching attacks on us. 

Let's take it easy on Diane

March 27, 2008 - 08:48 ET by FastEd

she is, after all, a blonde (our resident flaxen hair is the exception), and she can now be considered the poster child of what passes as "journalism" in today's media. Their lack of any kind of knowledge is not surprising, and for us here, expected.

There is no sense in being stupid, if you can't prove it! - my dad V

Maybe Wellesley College graduates are militarily clueless?

March 27, 2008 - 08:49 ET by PopularTech

Maybe it has something to do with Wellesley College graduates? Maybe Hillary was not lying and is really just that dumb about anything relating to the military?

The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource

But Were They...

March 27, 2008 - 08:51 ET by Tinian

But were they automatic mortars?

Yes, completely automatic,

March 27, 2008 - 08:53 ET by Mark Finkelstein

Yes, completely automatic, and even assault-style! ;-)

"Automatic" Mortar

March 27, 2008 - 09:00 ET by PopularTech

"Automatic" Mortar

Jihad Style! 

The Anti 'Man-Made' Global Warming Resource

Mortar Tube -

March 27, 2008 - 10:43 ET by Dan The Man 2

Mortar Tube - $100

4 shells - $400

One idiot terroist blown up - Priceless

Nuke em til they glow then shoot em in the dark.

Diane wins today's contest

March 27, 2008 - 09:22 ET by SouthJersey1953

Every day there is a contest on GMA between Diane and Robin to see which of them says the most ignorant. ill-informed thing.

Today, Diane wins. This week's score: Diane 3, Robin 1. Tune in tomorrow for the daily idiot contest.

What we have here...

March 27, 2008 - 10:03 ET by zachlind

What we have here is a new Helen Thomas in the works. Remember, this woman is well into her sixties.

Well, She Ain't Half as Ugly as Helen Thomas,

March 27, 2008 - 10:19 ET by on-the-rocks

yet.

 Bad commentor, bad, bad.

 And I don't think she can be as dour as Helen.

ABC reports it is going to

March 27, 2008 - 10:19 ET by ConservativeRex

ABC reports it is going to have a study on why their news division is continually losing viewers. They report that they will work tirelessly on getting to the bottom of this predicament. ABC does report that there seems to be an interest in alternative news sources, but this story is unsubstantiated and according to inside sources remains an "urban myth". 

In a related story also reported on ABC, the NYT is conducting a poll on why people are not reading newspapers as much in the last 20 years, early indicators according to the NYT own study, is that people are not being taught to read, so they find no need for newspapers, and in fact are getting their news from "alternate news" sources. An anonymous source from within the NYT reports that "this newspaper is so damn leftist that even Lenin would say, "they (the NYT) can't get away with that crap".

New Motto for times "Left of Lenin"?

March 27, 2008 - 10:31 ET by allanf

Conservative Rex -- I like it. I think you have come up with a new gem of a motto for the once respected New York Times. The Times can drop  its worn "All the news that's fit to print" slogan in favor of the pithier "Left of Lenin"

And when things were going

March 27, 2008 - 10:35 ET by marpel

And when things were going well in Iraq, we didn't hear a peep out of the media.

But, whoa!!! The "freedom fighters" have now "invaded" the Green Zone. (The media whispering under there breath: "Go Terrorists, Go Terrorists...")

That's just wrong on so many levels...

There's that constipated

March 27, 2008 - 11:21 ET by suzycreamcheese

There's that constipated look again on Sawyer's face. You'd think after 30+ years as a talking head she'd think to buy a bottle of Dulcolax.

in her defense

March 27, 2008 - 11:51 ET by seaniep

most military folks don't know how to properly describe mortar fire . . . mortar ROUNDS impact

a mortar is a weapons system

she is an idiot though

Inside the Embassy

March 27, 2008 - 13:10 ET by CobraMan

"How much of a surprise is it that they can actually get inside the embassy? How fortified is that?"

Hay Diane, this isn't the Führer's Berlin bunker. It's just another embassy.

I think that Diane Sawyer believes that the embassy compound is some huge, heavily fortified fortress similar to a military bunker. She doesn't realize that an embassy compound is actually a collection of separate, above ground buildings surrounded by a wall. She needs to travel to Iraq and visit the embassy. Maybe she'll learn something.

I think Diane's bigger

March 27, 2008 - 13:29 ET by Mark Finkelstein

I think Diane's bigger problem was that she imagined that the insurgents had gotten anywhere inside the Green Zone, let alone the embassy compound. Of course they never were inside the Green Zone -- they were lobbing mortars from outside the walls, from the Sadr City area.

What WAS she thinking?

March 27, 2008 - 13:54 ET by CobraMan

If that's true, then she's dumber than I thought. She must think that mortars and rockets fly straight up and then straight down. The green zone is only about 4 miles large in area. It's smaller in area than Baghdad Airport. The embassy compound is a lot smaller, just a one or two acres in area. Does she really think that the terrorists were firing on their own positions? They would be if they were launching missile attacks from with-in the green zone, let alone the embassy compound.