I saw the "photo op" and the two young women. They were emphatically not "well dressed," incongruously or otherwise.

They were interviewed live by CNN not long after. I saw them. They were clearly locals and were unrehearsed. They were the same women.

"Staged ruins" ???? Why bother ? Real ruins are everywhere ! Your source, Azizi, sounds like it's simply not to be trusted.

I personally think a photo op under these circumstances is a waste of time. However...if Bush didn't show up to be seen embracing disaster victims (even for one minute), he'd be pilloried even further for being an uncaring, distant, racist drip. His advisers know this, he knows it, and so does every other journalist and politician. Clinton, Reagan, gimme a name - they all do it. It's part of their job description.

Real journalists are taught to get at least two, preferably three, independent sources for things they haven't experienced themselves. A lot of posters and bloggers, and disaster victims too, just say whatever pops into their heads like it was proven fact, no matter how inflammatory it is. Some of them are doing it deliberately, I have no doubt. They loooooooove to watch chaos on TV !

Let's remember Carl Sagan's advice that "extraordinary claims" (like FEMA out to kill people)"require extraordinary evidence."