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Arnett says US does not want credible reporting from Iraq

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: Peter Arnett, the celebrated foreign correspondent who was fired by National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) for appearing on Iraqi television, has said that the US government is very sensitive to reports coming out of Iraq. “They don’t want credible news organisations reporting from here because it presents them with enormous problems.”

Mr Arnett, recently hired by the Daily Mirror, one of London’s leading tabloids, wrote in an article published on Tuesday by newspapers and various Internet sites that “Overnight my successful NBC reporting career was turned to ashes. And why? Because I stated the obvious to Iraqi television; that the US war timetable has fallen by the wayside.” He added that he had made the same comments to television stations around the world. “The right-wing media and politicians are looking for any opportunity to be critical of the reporters who are here, whatever their nationality. I made the misjudgment, which gave them the opportunity to do so. I gave an impromptu interview to Iraqi television feeling that after four months of interviewing hundreds of Iraqis, it was only a professional courtesy to give them a few comments. That was my Waterloo. Bang,” he wrote.

Mr Arnett is known for expressing his opinion, regardless of the consequences. He recalled that when he was in this region in 1991 during the first Gulf War, the bombing was similar but the “reality is very different” this time around. He said, “The US and British want to come here, take over the city, upturn the government and take us through to a new era. The troops are in the country and fighting there way up here. It creates a very different atmosphere.”

He said that Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz, told him that the Baath Party had been in power for 34 years and the United States would have to brainwash 25 million Iraqis because they think exactly the same as Saddam Hussain does. For months, Iraqis have said officially and privately, “We will fight the Americans, we will use guerrilla tactics, we will surprise them.” But the Iraqi opposition has said, “This will be a pushover, everyone wants to rebel against Saddam.” Now the reality is being played out on the battlefield, writes Mr Arnett.

Joins Daily Mirror

LONDON: Award-winning news correspondent Peter Arnett, who was earlier sacked by the American television network National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) after commenting on Iraqi television that the US war plan had failed, has been hired by the Daily Mirror, a British newspaper.

“Fired by America for telling the truth... Hired by Daily Mirror to carry on telling it,” read the headline on the tabloid’s front page on Tuesday. “I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologise for it,” Mr Arnett told the newspaper. —AFP

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