Newshour: Iraq Electricity Update

Includes two news segments: "Iraq Electricity Update" and "Alsammarae May Update". Touches upon the ongoing struggles for electricity in Iraq.

0:07Copy video clip URL Title card: “Iraq Electricity Update”

0:27Copy video clip URL Shots of Aiham Alsammarae at work in his office while Elizabeth Brackett explains in voice over that he is home on a break from Iraq.

0:48Copy video clip URL Alsammarae talks about the state of Iraq’s electricity. “I don’t like to say that we are doing very good, but I think that in the condition that we are in, which is the security problem, we are doing very good in relation to that.”

1:10Copy video clip URL Brackett gives information about the US’s allocation of funds to upgrade Iraq’s power system. It is better, but still not quite enough.

1:34Copy video clip URL Shots of the electricity going off in Iraq. Alsammarae talks about the scheduled lengths of time citizens receive electricity. “If I put all of this together… I think we are at 65% electricity.”

2:06Copy video clip URL Segment moves on to the complications and attacks on bringing electricity levels up. Alsammarae talks about transporting new generators, and the complications that go with it. “We put big signs up… ‘This is to help bring electricity to you and your family’. We put too many things around it to make everybody feel very bad if anything happened to this.”

3:30Copy video clip URL Footage of electrical wiring. Alsammarae talks about his “Electricity Police” who protect the generators from attacks.

4:14Copy video clip URL He discusses insurgents placing bombs to knock down vulnerable transmission lines, and the use of tribes to protect those power lines.

5:22Copy video clip URL Alsammarae talks about the men he’s lost, including a close relative and friend that he lost two days prior.

6:02Copy video clip URL Footage of Alsammarae at work. Back in the studio, he describes what his security convoy looks like, and what it feels like to have such heavy security. “I mean, they keep shooting at me. I have to protect myself, right? It’s normal.”

7:16Copy video clip URL He talks about how, now that Saddam Hussein is gone and there is no secret police taking people directly from their homes without warning, he feels it is safer. Brackett points out the continual dangers of car bombs and losing relatives to shootings, and Alsammarae claims that it is all in how you look at it.

8:25Copy video clip URL Brackett closes out the segment.

8:42Copy video clip URL Title card: “Alsammarae May Update”

8:56Copy video clip URL Footage of a fire in the streets of Iraq, followed by footage of workers operating heavy construction machinery. Voice-over from Brackett enumerates the violence breaking out in Iraq after elections, and notes the funds from the US allocated toward reconstruction. Brackett introduces Alsammarae.

9:35Copy video clip URL Alsammarae talks about the situation in Iraq. “I think, since this government took over, the security [is] I can say worse than before by probably ten times.” He continues to talk about the terrible state of Iraq’s electricity.

10:23Copy video clip URL Pictures of new and refurbished power plants in Iraq. Comments on Iraq’s failure to supply the needed funds for fuel, and how generators are now just sitting idle.

11:26Copy video clip URL Problems with protecting transmission lines and the collection of fees for electricity. “There are a lot of things, without law and order in the country, that you cannot do.”

12:43Copy video clip URL Alsammarae shares his opinions of the difficult task faced by his successor at the Electricity Ministry.

13:01Copy video clip URL Brackett shares Alsammarae’s plans to return to Iraq.

13:29Copy video clip URL He talks about his optimism for Iraq despite the bad conditions. He points out that his family is a mix of Sunni and Shiite Muslims, and that many Iraqi cities are similar. More about the diversity of individuals he works with to establish a more secular group.

15:06Copy video clip URL Footage of police cars driving through a street in Iraq. Brackett closes out the clip by sharing Alsammarae’s uncertain future.

15:23Copy video clip URL Clip ends

15:38Copy video clip URL Extra b-roll of power plants and construction.

17:16Copy video clip URL Beginning of a segment from Chicago Tonight covering Alsammarae. Brackett introduces Alsammarae, and tells about a phone call she received from him after he was convicted and put in jail.

18:16Copy video clip URL End