[NUJ Bristol] Weasel words - and 'news blackout?'

by way of Tony Gosling <bristol@nuj.org.uk> tony@gaia.org
Tue, 18 Mar 2003 18:44:22 +0000


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The War of Misinformation has Begun
http://www.zmag.org/content/print_article.cfm?itemID=3D3241&sectionID=3D15

by Robert Fisk; UK Independent; March 16, 2003

All across the Middle East, they are deploying by the thousand. In
the deserts of Kuwait, in Amman, in northern Iraq, in Turkey, in
Israel and in Baghdad itself. There must be 7,000 journalists and
crews "in theatre", as the more jingoistic of them like to say. In
Qatar, a massive press centre has been erected for journalists who
will not see the war. How many times General Tommy Franks will spin
his story to the press at the nine o'clock follies, no one knows. He
doesn't even like talking to journalists.

But the journalistic resources being laid down in the region are
enormous. The BBC alone has 35 reporters in the Middle East, 17 of
them "embedded" - along with hundreds of reporters from the American
networks and other channels - in military units. Once the invasion
starts, they will lose their freedom to write what they want. There
will be censorship. And, I'll hazard a guess right now, we shall see
many of the British and American journalists back to their old trick
of playing toy soldiers, dressing themselves up in military costumes
for their nightly theatrical performances on television. Incredibly,
several of the American networks have set up shop in the Kurdish
north of Iraq with orders not to file a single story until war begins
- in case this provokes the Iraqis to expel their network reporters
from Baghdad.

The orchestration will be everything, the pictures often posed, the
angles chosen by "minders", much as the Iraqis will try to do the
same thing in Baghdad. Take yesterday's front-page pictures of massed
British troops in Kuwait, complete with arranged tanks and perfectly
formatted helicopters. This was the perfectly planned photo-op. Of
course, it won't last.

Here's a few guesses about our coverage of the war to come. American
and British forces use thousands of depleted uranium (DU) shells -
widely regarded by 1991 veterans as the cause of Gulf War syndrome as
well as thousands of child cancers in present day Iraq - to batter
their way across the Kuwaiti-Iraqi frontier. Within hours, they will
enter the city of Basra, to be greeted by its Shia Muslim inhabitants
as liberators. US and British troops will be given roses and pelted
with rice - a traditional Arab greeting - as they drive
"victoriously" through the streets. The first news pictures of the
war will warm the hearts of Messrs Bush and Blair. There will be
virtually no mention by reporters of the use of DU munitions.

But in Baghdad, reporters will be covering the bombing raids that are
killing civilians by the score and then by the hundred. These
journalists, as usual, will be accused of giving "comfort to the
enemy while British troops are fighting for their lives". By now, in
Basra and other "liberated" cities south of the capital, Iraqis are
taking their fearful revenge on Saddam Hussein's Baath party
officials. Men are hanged from lamp-posts. Much television footage of
these scenes will have to be cut to sanitise the extent of the
violence.

Far better for the US and British governments will be the macabre
discovery of torture chambers and "rape-rooms" and prisoners with
personal accounts of the most terrible suffering at the hands of
Saddam's secret police. This will "prove" how right "we" are to
liberate these poor people. Then the US will have to find the
"weapons of mass destruction" that supposedly provoked this bloody
war. In the journalistic hunt for these weapons, any old rocket will
do for the moment.

Bunkers allegedly containing chemical weapons will be cordoned off -
too dangerous for any journalist to approach, of course. Perhaps they
actually do contain VX or anthrax. But for the moment, the
all-important thing for Washington and London is to convince the
world that the casus belli was true - and reporters, in or out of
military costume, will be on hand to say just that.

Baghdad is surrounded and its defenders ordered to surrender. There
will be fighting between Shias and Sunnis around the slums of the
city, the beginning of a ferocious civil conflict for which the
invading armies are totally unprepared. US forces will sweep past
Baghdad to his home city of Tikrit in their hunt for Saddam Hussein.
Bush and Blair will appear on television to speak of their great
"victories". But as they are boasting, the real story will begin to
be told: the break-up of Iraqi society, the return of thousands of
Basra refugees from Iran, many of them with guns, all refusing to
live under western occupation.

In the north, Kurdish guerrillas will try to enter Kirkuk, where they
will kill or "ethnically cleanse" many of the city's Arab
inhabitants. Across Iraq, the invading armies will witness terrible
scenes of revenge which can no longer be kept off television screens.
The collapse of the Iraqi nation is now under way ...

Of course, the Americans and British just might get into Baghdad in
three days for their roses and rice water. That's what the British
did in 1917. And from there, it was all downhill.

Weasel words to watch for

'Inevitable revenge' - for the executions of Saddam's Baath party
officials which no one actually said were inevitable.

'Stubborn' or 'suicidal' - to be used when Iraqi forces fight rather
than retreat.

'Allegedly' - for all carnage caused by Western forces.

'At last, the damning evidence' - used when reporters enter old
torture chambers.

'Officials here are not giving us much access' - a clear sign that
reporters in Baghdad are confined to their hotels.

'Life goes on' - for any pictures of Iraq's poor making tea.

'Remnants' - allegedly 'diehard' Iraqi troops still shooting at the
Americans but actually the first signs of a resistance movement
dedicated to the 'liberation' of Iraq from its new western occupiers.

'Newly liberated' - for territory and cities newly occupied by the
Americans or British.

'What went wrong?' - to accompany pictures illustrating the growing
anarchy in Iraq as if it were not predicted.




Journalists 'won't be allowed to report during first wave of Iraq
raids'


By ROBERT SMITH

JOURNALISTS face a total news blackout for up to 24 hours, with the
launch of any attack on Iraq.

The aim is to stop the Iraqi regime being alerted to the first wave
of attacks before they happen, by international news agencies,
particularly television.

It means the public may only learn the war has started when the
blackout has been lifted.

This may last from anywhere from two to 24 hours, depending on the
situation at the time.

Print, television and radio journalists, who are referred to as
embeds, are already being periodically restricted from contacting
their newsrooms while onboard ships.

This is to ensure that newsrooms will not be alerted to the start of
war when they can't contact their reporter.

"If you are on the ship at sea, preparations for a significant
military action become relatively apparent to any good reporter out
there on an aircraft carrier," US Navy chief of information Rear
Admiral Stephen Pietropaoli recently told bureau chiefs in a meeting
at the Pentagon.

"The pace picks up, the adrenaline starts to flow, more ordinance on
deck.

"What happens is the commanders invariably shut down the reporting
window in order to maintain some level of tactical surprise."

Dozens of journalists have been flown out from Bahrain to a variety
of ships in the Gulf. They will cover any potential conflict from a
variety of vessels, including aircraft carriers, destroyers,
amphibious ships and even a hospital ship.

Between them these ships would be able to launch an offensive from
the sea - including air strikes and missile attacks. However, they
will all be subject to the news blackout if and when war eventually
starts.

"We are going to just roll the dice and you will be able to hear from
your reporter and then you won't for two hours, 24 hours or 12 hours
- whatever it is," Rear Admiral Pietropaoli told the Press.

"That way you won't read anything in particular into not being able
to contact your woman or man for eight hours.

"It is clearly an artifice and we are not crazy about it, but quite
frankly the alternative is to send them out there at some point and
just shut down reporting until some military action kicks off."

Once the blackout is lifted all reporters will file stories at the
same time, regardless of which ship they are on.

The blackouts are also routine defensive measures for warships which
do not want to give away their position, said Lieutenant Commander
Dave Werner.

"It is routine on a navy ship to enforce emission control," said Lt
Cmdr Werner, of the coalition Press information centre in Bahrain.

"It is part of the defensive posture the ship assumes and media
emitting signals are asked to respect that posture."

Copyright =A9 2002, Gulf Daily News

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