Many ISG Findings Ignored by Media

Sometimes, the big story is that no one's reporting the big story. The Baker-Hamilton commission, also known as the Iraq Study Group, released its findings last week and became front page news immediately. The 160 page report on conditions in Iraq and recommendations for the future has generated a lot of news about the recommendations.

Of course, it should. The report shows that the Bush administration has been wrong in every assessment and every strategy every step of the way.

But what's missing are the findings about conditions in Iraq and the misinformation we've been receiving about it.

Media Matters:

Media Matters for America has identified six findings in the Iraq Study Group's report that major news outlets have largely overlooked. They include: that the Pentagon has significantly underreported the extent of violence in Iraq, that U.S. officials possess little knowledge about the sources of the ongoing attacks, and that the situation in Afghanistan has grown so dire that U.S. troops may need to be diverted there from Iraq.

The other underreported findings are that spending in Iraq has little oversight (inviting corruption and war profiteering), that the US is considering extending the service of National Guard members beyond the terms they'd signed up for, and that the embassy in Iraq has 1,000 employees, but only "33 Arabic speakers, just six of whom are at the level of fluency."

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