PENTAGON THREATENS TO KILL INDEPENDENT REPORTERS IN IRAQ

[Richard Weisgerber]

PENTAGON THREATENS
TO KILL INDEPENDENT
REPORTERS IN IRAQ

10th March, 2003
by Fintan Dunne, Editor
http://www.GuluFuture.com

 The Pentagon has threatened to fire on the satellite uplink positions of
independent journalists in Iraq, according to veteran BBC war correspondent,
Kate Adie. In an interview with Irish radio, Ms. Adie said that questioned
about the consequences of such potentially fatal actions, a senior Pentagon
officer had said: "Who cares.. ..They've been warned."

  According to Ms. Adie, who twelve years ago covered the last Gulf War, the
Pentagon attitude is: "entirely hostile to the the free spread of
information."

  "I am enormously pessimistic of the chance of decent on-the-spot
reporting, as the war occurs," she told Irish national broadcaster, Tom
McGurk on the RTE1 Radio "Sunday Show."

  Ms. Adie made the startling revelations during a discussion of media
freedom issues in the likely upcoming war in Iraq. She also warned that the
Pentagon is vetting journalists according to their stance on the war, and
intends to take control of US journalists' satellite equipment --in order to
control access to the airwaves.

Another guest on the show, war author Phillip Knightley, reported that the
Pentagon has also threatened they: "may find it necessary to bomb areas in
which war correspondents are attempting to report from the Iraqi side."

  Transcript follows below.

Audio of this very frank discussion of the problems facing reporters in
Iraq.
Guests: Kate Adie, BBC; Phillip Knightley, author of The First Casualty, a
history of war correspondents and propaganda; Chris Hedges, award winning
human rights journalist, and former Irish Times Editor Connor Brady on the
Sunday Show, RTE Radio1 9th March, 2003.

Tom McGurk:
  " Now, Kate Adie, you join us from the BBC in London. Thank you very much
for going to all this trouble on a Sunday morning to come and join us. I
suppose you are watching with a mixture of emotions this war beginning to
happen, because you are not going to be covering it."

Kate Adie:
  " Oh I will be. And what actually appalls me is the difference between
twelve years ago and now. I've seen a complete erosion of any kind of
acknowledgment that reporters should be able to report as they witness."

" The Americans... and I've been talking to the Pentagon... take the
attitude which is entirely hostile to the free spread of information."

" I was told by a senior officer in the Pentagon, that if uplinks --that is
the television signals out of... Bhagdad, for example-- were detected by any
planes ...electronic media... mediums of the military above Bhagdad...
they'd be fired down on. Even if they were journalists ..' Who cares! '
said.. [inaudible] .."

Tom McGurk: "...Kate ...sorry Kate ..just to underline that. Sorry to
interrupt you. Just to explain for our listeners. Uplinks is where you have
your own satellite telephone method of distributing information."

Kate Adie: " The telephones and the television signals."

Tom McGurk: " And they would be fired on? "

Kate Adie: " Yes. They would be 'targeted down,' said the officer."

Tom McGurk: " Extraordinary ! "

Kate Adie:
  " Shameless."

" He said.. ' Well... they know this ...they've been warned.' "

" This is threatening freedom of information, before you even get to a war."

"The second thing is there was a massive news blackout imposed."

"In the last Gulf war, where I was one of the pool correspondents with the
British Army. We effectively had very, very light touch when it came to any
kind of censorship."

" We were told that anything which was going to endanger troops lives which
we understood we shouldn't broadcast. But other than that, we were
relatively free."

" Unlike our American colleagues, who immediately left their pool, after
about 48 hours, having just had enough of it."

" And this time the Americans are: a) Asking journalists who go with them,
whether they are... have feelings against the war. And therefore if you have
views that are skeptical, then you are not to be acceptable."

" Secondly, they are intending to take control of the Americans technical
equipment ...those uplinks and satellite phones I was talking about. And
control access to the airwaves."

" And then on top of everything else, there is now a blackout (which was
imposed, during the last war, at the beginning of the war), ...ordered by
one Mr. Dick Cheney, who is in charge of this."

" I am enormously pessimistic of the chance of decent on-the-spot reporting,
as the war occurs. You will get it later."



http://www.gulufuture.com/news/kate_adie030310.htm
For original and audio version of above...

It gets thicker and thicker and sicker and sicker. . .

So much for your HDTV play-by-play action there, sport.