Posted by Andreas from dtm2-t9-1.mcbone.net (62.104.210.98) on Tuesday, June 03, 2003 at 4:23AM :
Dear all,
Please, find below the transcript of the BBC documentary : War Spin
Best
Andreas
(Still really! Still honestly! No end in sight.)
--------------------------
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/correspondent/transcripts/18.5.031.txt
Correspondent: War Spin
Tx Date: 18th May 2003
This script was made from audio tape – any inaccuracies are due to voices being
unclear or inaudible
00.00.00
Correspondent Theme Music
00.00.12
Music
00.00.13
John Kampfner
Jessica Lynch – an all American icon of the war.
Captured by the Iraqis. Saved for the nation in a
daring helicopter rescue.
00.00.22
Music
00.00.24
John Kampfner
This was a script made for Hollywood. Made by the
Pentagon.
00.00.29
Music
00.00.31
General Vincent Brooks
Some brave souls put their lives on the line to make this
happen. Loyal to a creed that they know; that they’ll
never leave a fallen comrade.
00.00.39
Music
00.00.40
John Kampfner
But the Jessica Lynch story was not all it seemed.
00.00.46
Dr Anmar Uday
When they enter they say go, go, go! Wait, wait, wait,
wait! Just like Hollywood movies. Just like Hollywood
films.
00.00.52
John Kampfner
Tonight we look at how the allies used the media to
spread their message – that the war in Iraq was worth
fighting and was fought well.
00.01.00
NBC Reporter
We got rockets coming in on us. Tom, we’re under attack
right now!
00.01.04
John Kampfner
How much of that message stood up to scrutiny?
00.01.07
Michael Wolff
At the end of your stay in Doha you would know
absolutely nothing.
00.01.12
General Tommy Franks
This platform is not a platform for propaganda. This is a
platform for truth.
00.01.16
Title Page
WAR SPIN
00.01.19
Music
00.01.23
ASTON
Jim Wilkinson
Us Military Spokesman, Centcom
I stayed up all night. I got a call that this was happening, I
knew it was going to happen in advance and we had a
situation where there was a lot of hot news, the President
had been briefed, as had the Secretary of Defence.
00.01.32
Aston
PAUL HUNTER
Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation
I first heard about Jessica Lynch when my phone rang at
three in the morning.
00.01.37
Jim Wilkinson
We alerted the press to get here for an announcement.
They didn’t know what was coming.
00.01.40
Paul Hunter
We thought they’d caught Saddam Hussein or something
like that.
00.01.43
General Vincent Brooks
Coalition forces have conducted a successful rescue
mission of a US Army prisoner of war held captive in Iraq.
00.01.50
Music
00.01.52
John Kampfner
Jessica is a nineteen year old clerk taken prisoner
when her maintenance team took a wrong turning
and was ambushed. Nine of her comrades were
killed.
00.02.00
Music
00.02.02
Aston
US Dept of Defence pictures
00.02.05
John Kampfner
With Jessica’s life in peril a snatch squad was sent in
to take her from her hospital bed in Nasariyah.
00.02.11
Music
00.02.16
John Kampfner
They took fire on their way in and out of the building,
a military video team capturing every step in the
action.
00.02.22
Music
00.02.25
John Kampfner
These pictures were rushed out for breakfast shows
in America just when the news was bad and the talk
was of a long hard campaign.
00.02.32
Music
00.02.34
News reader
Saving Private Lynch. The dramatic rescue of a POW.
00.02.38
Aston
General VINCENT BROOKS
US Army
It was a classic joint operation, done by some of our
nation’s finest warriors who are dedicated to never
leaving a comrade behind. At this point she is safe.
She’s been retrieved. I asked her who was holding her –
the regime was holding her.
00.02.56
Music
00.02.58
John Kampfner
The story was a gift to a grateful media. There was
barely a mention of Jessica’s fallen comrades whose
bodies had been retrieved from shallow graves
during the same mission. A bad story had become a
good one.
00.03.10
Music
00.03.13
Bill Whitaker
There are reports in the Washington Post today that
Private Lynch fought valiantly, that she shot until she ran
out of ammunition, shot several Iraqi soldiers even though
she herself had been wounded.
00.03.26
Mitchell Catlin
Yes Natalie, Private Ryan will be treated in Germany after
being in the hands of the Iraqi regime for ten days.
00.03.32
John Kampfner
Did he say Private Ryan?
00.03.36
Private Lynch’s brother
Oh Ma'am, I never, never questioned that she was never
alive. I knew she was alive and well the whole time.
00.03.42
Private Lynch’s mother
Oh it’s just unbelievable what I really, really want to say to
her. She’s been missed and loved.
00.03.49
John Kampfner
Now we’re told she had stab and bullet wounds. An
Iraqi witness had told the Americans he had seen
Jessica slapped in the hospital.
00.03.56
Aston
DONALD RUMSFELD
US Defence Secretary
Good afternoon. We are certainly grateful for the brilliant
and courageous rescue of Sergeant, correction PFC
Jessica Lynch who was being held by Iraqi forces in, in
what they called a hospital.
00.04.15
Music
00.04.18
John Kampfner
That’s the story as seen through American eyes.
00.04.20
Music
00.04.23
John Kampfner
Two weeks ago we visited the scene of Jessica’s
rescue. Although Iraqi forces had occupied part of it,
this was a hospital like any other.
00.04.30
Aston
Dr HARITH AL-HOUSSONA
Iraqi doctor
At the beginning I received her in the casualty department
from the Iraqi security department, which referred from
the military hospital.
00.04.40
John Kampfner
This is one of the doctors who treated Jessica when
she was brought here, still unconscious by Iraqi
soldiers. They put her in the only specialist bed they
had.
00.04.50
Dr Harith Al-Houssona
Subtitles
I examine her, I see she
has a broken arm…
and broken thigh,
with a dislocated ankle.
Then we do another examination.
There is no shooting,
no bullet inside her body…
no stab wound, no other thing,
merely RTA.
Only road traffic accident.
00.05.15
John Kampfner
One story, two versions of the truth. The doctors say
they operated on her to reset her plaster. The best
treatment they could provide in the midst of war.
00.05.25
Dr Harith Al-Houssona
Subtitles
We give her three bottles of blood…
two of them from medical staff…
because there is no blood at this time.
00.05.34
Aston
Dr ANMAR UDAY
Iraqi doctor
Subtitles
We consider Jessica as one
of our injured patients…
one of our Iraqi women
injured in the war.
00.05.43
John Kampfner
She was assigned one of only two nurses on the
floor.
00.05.49
Nurse
Voice over
She herself was asked about her treatment. I was like a
mother to her and she my daughter. We treated her well.
00.06.02
John Kampfner
The doctors told us that the day before the Special
Forces swooped on the hospital the Iraqi military had
fled. Did the Americans know this?
00.06.13
John Kampfner
We found a man who saw an advance party land in
the town. He says he was questioned by the team’s
translator.
00.06.21
Aston
HASSAM HAMOUD
Voice over
He said; ‘where is Saddam Hospital?’ I said, ‘in that
direction’. He said; ‘are there any Fedayeen over there?’
I said; ‘no, there aren’t any, there is no forces in there or
anything.’
00.06.37
John Kampfner
All the same America’s finest warriors descended on
the building.
00.06.41
Dr Anmar Uday
Subtitles
We heard the noise of the helicopter,
the sound of the helicopter…
and I think the helicopter
landed here on the grass.
00.06.49
Dr Harith Al-Houssona
Subtitles
Like a film of Hollywood,
they cry, ‘Go, go, go!’...
and shout, ‘Go, go, go!’, with guns
and blanks, without bullets.
Blanks and the sound of explosions,
and break the door.
We are very scared.
00.07.03
Dr Anmar Uday
Subtitles
We are surprised at this time.
Why do this?
There is no military, no soldiers
in the hospital.
00.07.11
John Kampfner
But the Americans took no chances, restraining
doctors and a patient who was handcuffed to this bed
frame.
00.07.19
Dr Harith Al-Houssona
Subtitles
I don’t know why they tie him.
Why tie him? He cannot move.
Why the American army tied him?
00.07.25
Music
00.07.27
John Kampfner
There was one more twist. Two days before the
snatch squad arrived the doctor had arranged to
deliver Jessica to the Americans in an ambulance.
00.07.36
Dr Harith Al-Houssona
Subtitles
Every time, ‘I want to go home,
I want to go home.’
We told her, I secretly between us,
I and she, I told her…
I will try to escape you to
the American Army…
but I will do this very secretly
because I lose my life.
We put her in the ambulance
with the driver…
and walk out of the hospital.
We told him go to
the American checkpoint.
When he was near the
American checkpoint…
he was shot by the Americans.
00.08.08
Music
00.08.10
John Kampfner
So a tense encounter but no Iraqi troops. The
Americans almost killing their prize catch by mistake.
But the story had already passed into folklore.
00.08.20
Dr Harith Al-Houssona
Subtitles
They make a show for the American
attack for the hospital.
Action moves like Sylvester Stallone
or Jackie Chan…
with jumping and shouting,
breaking the door…
with the photos, with the photos..
00.08.34
Music
00.08.37
John Kampfner
We asked the Pentagon to release the full videotape
of the rescue rather than its five-minute edited
version to clear up any discrepancies. It declined.
00.08.46
John Kampfner
Was there any resistance as the forces were going in?
00.08.51
Bryan Whitman
I think that I will leave that story to be told in great detail
when the time is right.
00.09.01
John Kampfner
What injuries did she sustain?
00.09.03
Aston
BRYAN WHITMAN
US Dep Assistant Secretary of
Defence
Well I’m not going to get into the specific injuries that she
received. That’s up to her and her doctors to discuss at
the appropriate time.
00.09.14
John Kampfner
Doctors now say she has no memory of the whole
episode and probably never will.
00.09.19
Bryan Whitman
I understand that there’s some conflicting information out
there and in due time the full story will be told, I’m sure.
00.09.28
Music
00.09.30
John Kampfner
There are facts and there is a message. George Bush
and Tony Blair knew how vital it was to get the
message right, to present the war and the case for
war. This is how it worked – talk up the dangers.
00.09.41
President George Bush
The United States of America will not permit the world’s
most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world’s
most destructive weapons.
00.09.43
Aston
29th January
00.09.51
John Kampfner
Dismiss the doubters. Appeal to the hearts and
minds. Trust us.
00.09.55
Tony Blair
I do not seek unpopularity as a badge of honour. But
sometimes it is the price of leadership.
00.09.57
Aston
15th March
00.10.05
Music
00.10.07
John Kampfner
Months of preparation over, the war media strategy
was ready. The most important part of the plan was
to embed six hundred journalists with the military. It
was a huge gamble. The idea was that star
correspondents would live every minute with the
troops as they advanced across the desert. New
technology would allow the TV crews to beam the
pictures and their observations back home live.
00.10.30
Music
00.10.32
Reporter Koppel
Wreak havoc and unleash the dogs of war. And there
they start moving into Iraq.
00.10.37
Walt Rogers
John, I don’t think any of us have ever seen anything like
this, live, real time pictures of an army moving forward in
a, in a, in a battle zone.
00.10.47
Juliet Bremner
The battle for Basra is still raging along this road.
00.10.51
Walt Rogers
We got rockets coming in on us. Tom, we’re under attack
right now.
00.10.55
Gavin Hewitt
There are substantial American forces close to the Iraqi
capital.
00.11.00
Bryan Whitman
Well I think pictures do a lot to help tell the story and we
embedded nearly one hundred cameras across the
battlefield and, because I think images are important. I
think they’re even more important in certain parts of the
world where language can be a barrier.
00.11.22
John Kampfner
Bryan Whitman was in charge of the Pentagon’s
media planning. His strategy paper puts shaping
world opinion as priority number one.
00.11.31
Voice over
‘This holds true for
the US public…
and publics in
countries where
we conduct operations,
whose perceptions
of us can affect
the cost and duration
of our involvement.’
00.11.41
John Kampfner
Present the words and pictures properly, use
journalists effectively and victory will come more
quickly.
00.11.47
Bryan Whitman
To the extent that the media are being, are able to inform
the world about what’s going on. To the extent that
having an accurate representation of the facts that exist
on the battlefield, if that causes an enemy to capitulate
sooner then that’s good.
00.12.09
John Kampfner
He provides hints for getting the best pictures.
00.12.12
Voice over
‘Use of lipstick and
helmet-mounted cameras
on combat sorties is approved
and encouraged to the greatest
extent possible.’
00.12.19
Soldier
We gotta get this cargo up front. The sooner we get it to
the grunts, the sooner they can kill some of these people
that need killing and the sooner we can go home.
00.12.25
Aston
WALT ROGERS
CNN
I was assigned to be the television embed with the US
Army’s Third Squadron Seventh cavalry.
00.12.31
Walt Rogers
Everything hints to a change in focus coming in the
coming days and weeks on Baghdad. Baghdad will be
the end game.
00.12.39
Walt Rogers
That was fun, it was, it was a good assignment travelling
with a unit which was the tip of the, tip of the spear.
There was a real sense of awe watching this military
sweep unfold before you and you knew that there was
nothing that the other side could put in your path which
would stop you.
00.12.56
Clive Myrie
It seems the gunfire has been coming from the police
station down here and there are reports of gunmen
positioned on some of the roof tops.
00.13.04
Aston
CLIVE MYRIE
BBC News
We happened to be with the unit Forty Commando who
actually had something to do. And it meant we had some
very, very productive periods with a lot of great action
footage because he put us right at the front and the work
that, the work that we produced is some of the stuff that
some people say is the best of the war.
00.13.29
John Kampfner
The picture on the left is the war against Iraq, the real
war. The picture on the right is 'Black Hawk Down'; a
patriotic action movie about US soldiers in Somalia
rescuing their own and emerging victorious.
00.13.31
Aston
Columbia Tristar
Home Entertainment
00.13.43
John Kampfner
Hollywood and the Pentagon working in perfect
symmetry. In 2001 the man behind 'Black Hawk
Down', Jerry Bruckheimer, visited the Pentagon to
pitch an idea with his co-producer.
00.13.56
Soldier 1
You all right? You okay?
00.13.59
Soldier 2
Yeah, I can hear the bells ringing.
00.14.02
Aston
BERTRAM VAN MUNSTER
Jerry Bruckheimer’s partner
He just did 'Black Hawk Down', so he's very interested in
the subject. He's also a patriot. Of course Jerry does all
the big movies and I do reality television and I've done
this for many many many years, long before even
anybody knew what reality was.
00.14.19
John Kampfner
The pair came up with 'Profiles from the Frontline'; a
primetime series following US forces in Afghanistan,
made with the support of Donald Rumsfeld.
00.14.28
John Kampfner
They were after human stories told through the eyes
of the soldiers. Great reality TV. The Pentagon
approved.
00.14.35
Aston
BRYAN WHITMAN
US Dep Assistant Secretary of
Defence
What 'Profiles' does is again it provides a very human
look at the challenges that are presented when you're,
when you’re dealing in these very difficult situations.
00.14.46
Gunfire
00.14.49
Soldier
Good morning republican guard from the United States
marines. Hoorah!
00.14.53
John Kampfner
'Profiles from the Frontline' was aired in the US on
the eve of war in Iraq. Its popularity with viewers
suggested to the Pentagon that a similar approach
would go down well once the real fighting began, as
long as the embedded reporters played their part.
00.15.07
Reporter
A call came in from an artillery battery about six hundred
metres that way that they were under attack from Iraqi
soldiers on foot. These marines have moved into position
and these Cobra helicopters are firing Gatling guns and
rockets at the Iraqi soldiers.
00.15.09
Aston
ABC News Australia
00.15.21
Bertram Van Munster
You can only get accepted by chemistry. You know if you
get a good bond with somebody, only then will they let
you in. What these guys are doing out there, men and
women, is just absolutely extraordinary.
00.15.32
Aston
BERTRAM VAN MUNSTER
Creator, ‘Profiles From the Front
Line’
If you are a cheerleader of our perspective that we
should, that we deserve peace and that we deserve
human dignity, these guys are really going out on a limb
and risk their own lives.
00.15.43
Clive Myrie
You've obviously got to be constantly aware of the fact
that they, the unit that you are with, is going to be giving
you the line that makes them look the best, look good in
the eyes of the public.
00.15.59
Clive Myrie
As long as you are aware of that then you can begin to try
and tell whatever story you're trying to tell in as objective
way as you can, bearing in mind the fact that the unit that
you are with is feeding you, clothing you, protecting you,
whatever.
00.16.19
Clive Myrie
When I would approach someone high up in the unit for
information on casualties, or whether it was friendly fire or
not, they would volunteer the information. But they never
handed anything to me like that on a plate.
00.16.31
Walt Rogers
Do I think we got too close to them? No. I have seen
reporters who cover the White House over the years
sleep with women in this President's White House and
that President's White House. That's incestuous, that's
too close. That didn't happen with the army.
00.16.49
Aston
ITV News
00.16.49
Bill Neely
On board the helicopter an electric atmosphere. These
men pumped up by Iraq's Scud attacks in the desert and
by news of intense fighting. They were ready to hit back
hard.
00.17.04
Bill Neely
We have just this second crossed over the border into
Iraq. We'll be landing at our target in about ten minute's
time.
00.17.11
Bill Neely
Into Iraq and the smell…
00.17.13
John Kampfner
Some wore uniforms. Some didn't.
00.17.16
Walt Rogers
It's a very symbolic little statement I was making, but it did
say, I'm not a soldier. Some of my colleagues didn't do
that and I think they crossed a line there.
00.17.26
Bryan Whitman
I think it's difficult not to be enthusiastic about what you're
doing if you're out there with our soldiers.
00.17.35
Soldier
We bomb 'em. You know it's cool to me that like
explosions and stuff like that but like I don't get to see the
actual explosion and that's what I want to see, but I guess
when we get closer to Baghdad we'll get to see more of
that stuff, so…
00.17.49
John Kampfner
Embeds and their protectors agreed a set of rules.
Not giving away battle positions or unit strengths in
return for access. Sometimes when things got rough
journalists came under pressure to help out.
00.18.01
Clive Myrie
I was pretty scared at this stage and we get to the bridge
and there are bullets flying all over the place, and I can
see the tension in the face of the troops, the, the marines
we are with, I can see the tension in the face as we get to
the bridge. A rocket-propelled grenade just misses us.
00.18.16
Aston
BBC News
00.18.17
Gunfire
00.18.20
Clive Myrie
There was bullets flying everywhere. We get out of the,
out of the Land Rover and we hide in a ditch. One of the
marines said; why don't you make yourself useful? And
he's throwing these flares at me. And he's throwing the
flares at me and I'm throwing them at the guy who's got to
light them and send them off into the sky, and I'm
thinking, why, what am I doing here?
00.18.39
John Kampfner
Tension was particularly high on the eve of war.
Some journalists assembling with the British forces
in Kuwait were ordered not to report what they saw.
00.18.47
Aston
CRAIG COPETAS
Bloomberg
We were not allowed to take any pictures or describe
British soldiers carrying guns. I was told that there was a,
a decision made by Downing Street that the military
minders of the journalists down there were to go to any
lengths to, to not portray British, the British fighting man
and women as fighters.
00.19.12
Craig Copetas
They wanted them there to have them there as nation-
builders, that they weren't going to be killing people. The
media minders would get very very upset with you very
fast and threats were levelled you that you would be
disembedded.
00.19.30
Aston
ABC News Australia
00.19.30
John Kampfner
Sometimes embedded reporters did send dispatches
that put their military hosts in a bad light. This
Australian report is of a jumpy US patrol killing three
civilians after mistakenly thinking they'd come under
military fire.
00.19.43
Gunfire
00.19.57
John Kampfner
When they needed to send out more positive images
they shot footage themselves and handed it to the
networks.
00.19.58
Aston
Ministry of Defence pictures
00.20.04
John Kampfner
Iraqi soldiers surrendering. Message - the regime is
crumbling.
00.20.10
John Kampfner
A friendly football match with the troops in Basra -
ordinary Iraqis are warming to us.
00.20.18
John Kampfner
A parachute drop in the North, militarily insignificant
but good TV. Message - the advance is not bogged
down.
00.20.28
John Kampfner
So stage one of the media campaign was to get up
close and personal. Maximum imagery, minimum
insight.
00.20.38
Music
00.20.44
John Kampfner
Stage two, Centcom, a shed in the desert. This was
where the big picture was to be provided.
00.20.50
Presenter
Oh I hear them arguing. It’s said both ways, Harry…
00.21.03
Music
00.21.06
John Kampfner
This was supposed to be the stage for the context,
the explanation, the sifting of facts.
00.21.11
Presenter
The President says today is the moment of truth for the
UN, his strongest indication yet that war may be just a
few days away.
00.21.20
John Kampfner
More than seven hundred journalists arrive at Central
Command, a series of pre-fabricated huts just past an
industrial estate in Doha, capital of the Gulf state of
Qatar.
00.21.32
Michael Wolff
It had this moon feeling to it. In effect everybody spent
twelve or fourteen or sixteen hours a day in a warehouse.
00.21.43
John Kampfner
Their job is to report every word of the US and UK
military, even though they're hundreds of miles away
from the action. They're here to be drip-fed
information. They're supposed to get the inside
track, to help make sense of the reports the embeds
send in from the frontline. In reality they spend their
long days catching the news off TV like viewers back
home.
00.22.04
Aston
MICHAEL WOLFF
New York magazine
The only window that you had into actually what was
going on in the war were that, were that there were a set
of television monitors in front of the coffee bar, and you
could lean against the coffee bar and look up at the
monitors and, and see at least what Fox was telling you
was gong on in the war.
00.22.24
John Kampfner
The main event is the two p.m. press conference,
officially the Freedom Briefing, time for breakfast
shows back in the US. Each day begins with a film
and slide show presented by General Vincent Brooks,
a man destined to become a household face.
00.22.40
General Vincent Brooks
…videos of recent engagements.
00.22.42
John Kampfner
Every day the war is on track, successes are dwelt
on, setbacks glossed over.
00.22.47
General Vincent Brooks
The coalition is up to the challenge and more than ever
the outcome is not in doubt. I’m ready for your
questions?
00.22.55
John Kampfner
This is mainly an American show. The favoured US
networks receive the best seats, allies next, then the
rest. The spin-doctors watch from the sidelines.
00.23.06
John Kampfner
On the left, Jim Wilkinson, the man from the White
House. Next to him in civvies Simon Wren on a
mission from Downing Street. Brits and Americans
fighting the real battle and the media battle shoulder
to shoulder. At least that's the plan.
00.23.23
General Vincent Brooks
I don't have anything else that I can give you in detail on
that and I appreciate the question…
00.23.27
Aston
JIM WILKINSON
US Military Spokesman, Centcom
There's a daily conference call that has Torie Clarke, at
the office of the Secretary of Defence. You have the
State Department, Number Ten, the Foreign Office, the
UN, the White House, Qatar and others on there, and the
United Kingdom is on that call, and so there's any number
of mechanisms, and we found that you know if you're
talking often you never let the press come between you,
which is important.
00.23.51
John Kampfner
The machine must be fed. Rolling news channels are
hungry all the time. The idea is to co-ordinate the
message across all time zones.
00.23.58
Music
00.24.02
Jim Wilkinson
It's a twenty-four hour news cycle, so you start with the
strategy of if you're on the air they're not.
00.24.10
John Kampfner
The genial frontman for the British journalists is Al
Lockwood.
00.24.15
John Kampfner
He begins his day at the early morning briefing where
raw intelligence and overnight news are discussed.
His job is to select what is useful. He's already had
his fingers burnt.
00.24.25
Woman
First day…
00.24.27
Al Lockwood
First day…
00.24.58
Woman
First day he learnt very quickly, the first day, the first
American interview he was asked…
00.24.32
Aston
Group Captain AL LOCKWOOD
UK Military Spokesman
He said to me off camera, afterwards, how long do you
reckon it's going to last? I said, well I'm not a betting
man, and I made a glib remark, about three or four days,
being, I was being flippant about, and bang, by the time I
got back to the office, UK spokesman says, war will not
last longer than three to four days, and I went, oh dear.
00.24.53
Group Captain Al Lockwood
Anyway I went down to the Headquarters, confessed to
Air-Marshall Burridge, said I've just made a stupid
mistake, I thought something was being, you know,
should have been, which was meant to be jest was taken
as otherwise. So, he said, you've learnt on day one.
00.25.19
John Kampfner
Journalists and briefers together.
00.25.23
John Kampfner
Rule number one of spin: Keep off certain issues.
00.25.29
John Kampfner
In the British back office a list of troublesome
subjects; what they quaintly call 'poo traps'.
00.25.36
John Kampfner
Beware questions on faulty kit. Beware DU, depleted
uranium.
00.25.43
Music
00.25.49
John Kampfner
Rule number two: Hone the message and stick to it.
00.25.54
Group Captain Al Lockwood
We are not interested in Saddam Hussain per se. People
are making a little too much of Saddam Hussein.
00.26.03
Group Captain Al Lockwood
Saddam Hussein is just one member of the regime.
00.26.07
Aston
PAUL HUNTER
Canadian Broadcasting
Corporation
At the end of the day, when you try to make a news story
out of whatever happens here, you still have to use their
message track. The one thing they're gonna to answer to
every single question, and it has gone on every single
day.
00.26.17
Group Captain Al Lockwood
It's not Saddam Hussain who is the, the key target to end
the war in Iraq.
00.26.22
Music
00.26.29
Group Captain Al Lockwood
You've got an upstart woman there who wants to make a
bloody name for herself within the television community
by grilling an easy victim, which is a military officer. I
refuse to be an easy victim.
00.26.38
Music
00.26.42
John Kampfner
It takes little over a week for reporters to realise
Centcom is not the plum posting that was promised.
Facts and context are in short supply. Questions are
rationed, follow-ups are frowned on, full answers are
not forthcoming.
00.26.55
Music
00.27.00
American Spokesman
No, I can’t confirm that and won't confirm that. I think it
would be unfair to speculate anything more than that.
00.27.06
General Vincent Brooks
No one can ever predict exactly how a battle will unfold.
00.27.09
General Vincent Brooks
It's too early to be able to say exactly what happened at
that site.
00.27.12
General Vincent Brooks
We've seen a number of things that tell us that what we
saw….
00.27.17
Aston
GEORGE CURRY
Journalist
What's going on is you're not even getting basic
information that you need. And that is, I've said, you
know, they're not talking to us, they're talking to audience
beyond us and we're just conduits. Audience is in TV
Land, and we're in Never Never Land.
00.27.33
Michael Wolf
Every day, every hour, whatever you knew had begun to
degrade and so you knew less and less and at
somewhere at the end of your stay in Doha you would
know absolutely nothing.
00.27.46
John Kampfner
Real information, what there is of it, is usually given
away from the podium and away from the cameras.
Behind this pack of British reporters Number Ten's
Simon Wren is briefing a line. Other non-attributable
lines during the war found their way into newspapers
as fact.
00.28.05
John Kampfner
Saddam Hussein is dead. Tariq Aziz has defected.
Military successes were briefed, even before they
happened.
00.28.15
Fiona Bruce
Coalition troops push deeper into Iraq. They say they're
now half way to Baghdad. Iraq's second city Basra is
reported secured, but after fierce fighting…
00.28.20
Aston
22nd March
00.28.25
John Kampfner
In fact Basra fell seventeen days later. As for Um
Quasa that seemed to fall every day.
00.28.31
Huw Edwards
In the past half-hour we've heard British and American
troops have captured the Iraqi border town of Um Quasa.
00.28.33
Aston
20th March
00.28.38
Ben Brown
Cobra helicopter gunships hovered menacingly in the air,
but their advance was slower than they had been hoping
for.
00.28.45
Donald Rumsfeld
Coalition forces did capture it, and do control the port of
Um Quasa.
00.28.47
Aston
21st March
00.28.56
Ben Brown
The Americans claim to have taken this town on Friday,
yet three days later they were still facing fierce resistance
here.
00.28.57
Aston
BBC News
23rd March
00.29.05
American Spokesman
I want to make note of the UK forces today for their rapid
progress in establishing security in the town of Um
Quasa.
00.29.07
Aston
25th March
00.29.13
John Kampfner
After five days Um Quasa was finally taken. Were
stories like these wishful thinking? Overeager
commanders? Overeager journalists? Or more than
that? When Basra refused to fall the British told the
world of an uprising.
00.29.28
John Kampfner
There's a cycle. It starts as raw information on the
ground.
00.29.31
Aston
RICHARD GAISFORD
With the British forces, Basra
My reports have been coming from the Royal Scots
Dragoon Guards battle group headquarters and there
they have reported this uprising. They reported an
uprising amongst public there that was being put down by
Iraqi troops actually in the city centre.
00.29.47
John Kampfner
This is then given credence by spokesmen at
Centcom.
00.29.50
British Spokesman
And of course this is just the sort of encouraging
indication that we have been looking for.
00.29.56
John Kampfner
By the evening news the story has hardened further.
00.30.01
Aston
BBC News
00.30.01
Ben Brown
Gunners from the Royal Horse Artillery have been firing in
support of a popular uprising here.
00.30.08
John Kampfner
The story dovetailed with a propaganda leaflet
campaign on the ground, and this appeal to the Iraqis
from the Prime Minister.
00.30.15
Aston
25th March
00.30.14
Tony Blair
And my message to them today is that this time we will
not let you down. Saddam and his regime will be
removed.
00.30.23
John Kampfner
Two objectives for the price of one. Back home
public opinion is rallied. In Iraq a domino effect is
created.
00.30.31
Paul Hunter
So if word comes out of Centcom that there is an uprising
against Saddam's regime will certainly they can be
thinking, planning, hoping that that information will be
then picked up on and it will be, then the local people will
build on that and, and, and the idea will become reality,
even if it never existed in the first place.
00.30.53
Aston
RICHARD SAMBROOK
Head of BBC News
I think actually most people will have known that Um
Quasa didn't fall when it was first suggested it had and
would have known that there wasn't an uprising in Basra.
So I think actually over, over a course of time the way that
people watch and listen and gather their information they
will have discovered what was true and what wasn't.
00.31.07
Aston
Group Captain AL LOCKWOOD
UK Military Spokesman
Basra uprising I believe still at this stage that something
happened there, but it was seen as an uprising. We
briefed it that there had been civil disturbance, it could
have been an uprising, and were very hesitant about it.
00.31.22
Aston
ITV News
00.31.22
Terry Lloyd
We passed burnt out cars and the clothes left behind by
Iraqi soldiers who had either fled the battlefield or
surrendered.
00.31.29
John Kampfner
With embedded journalists seeing the battle in
microcosm, with reliable information hard to come by
at Centcom, the truth was proving elusive. There
were a few journalists trying to find out for
themselves what was really going on, but theirs was
a dangerous game.
00.31.44
Aston
TERRY LLOYD
ITV News
This was until a few hours ago was an Iraqi frontline
stronghold. Nothing much to see just a couple of
portacabins where the Iraqi flag still flies.
00.31.53
Daniel Demoustier
We were a roving team. That means a team that is not
embedded but works independently. Our task was to go
for the human interest story, you know, try to find Iraqi
people, talk to them, try to find out from them what is
going on.
00.32.09
Aston
DANIEL DEMOUSTIER
ITV News cameraman
There was a team decision, based on the information we
had that we would go, try to go direction Basra.
00.32.17
John Kampfner
They were only on that road because they'd heard the
reports that their original destination Um Quasa had
fallen, reports that turned out to be false.
00.32.26
Daniel Demoustier
Firing started from exactly that position, coming from the
American tanks. The front window went straight away,
and that same moment, I, I don’t know, I don't know how I
did it, but I went with my head under the steering wheel. I
can't even do it now, but I went in there, it's probably why
I got the blue eye.
00.32.44
Daniel Demoustier
So I protected myself and I kept on driving, and I looked
to the right and Terry's gone.
00.32.53
John Kampfner
Terry Lloyd was one of ten journalists killed in action;
two of his colleagues are still missing.
00.32.58
Richard Sambrook
Editorially and objectively I would much sooner have
been able to operate independently to a greater extent
than we did but on safety grounds it simply wasn't
possible.
00.33.06
John Kampfner
What was the role then of the unilaterals?
00.33.09
Jim Wilkinson
Er, they were a pain in our rear a lot of times. Many of
them were wounded, some killed. They would show up
on the battle space despite our warnings.
00.33.19
John Kampfner
Coping with bad news stories is the toughest test of
all. A street market in the Sha’ab district of Baghdad,
unexplained explosions kill fourteen. People blamed
the Americans, not the sort of image Downing Street
and the Pentagon had in mind.
00.33.33
John Kampfner
Journalists here had Iraqi minders and were outside
the control of Coalition media managers.
00.33.39
Rageh Omaar
What's impossible to say now is what could possibly have
been a military target in such a populated area?
00.33.41
Aston
BBC News
00.33.46
John Kampfner
The story emerging on the ground points to a stray
American missile attack on a day when sandstorms
could have interfered with targeting. Many of the
dead were working on cars in workshops. Survivors
told us how they saw a plane and two impacts on
either side of the road consistent with an allied
attack.
00.33.05
Aston
MOHAMMAD AL ZUBEDDY
Garage owner
Voiceover
When the two rockets fell near here someone who was
working under his car was crushed and burned. And then
there were four others they died as well when their cars
caught fire.
00.34.17
Aston
ROBERT FISK
The Independent
Several people talked of hearing the aircraft. I'd heard a
plane shortly before this and there was no doubt in my
mind that the piece of shrapnel, the equidistant craters, it
was clearly an American or British aircraft, which fired
missiles into what is in effect a marketplace.
00.34.32
John Kampfner
An awkward moment for Centcom. It's on the
defensive. It reacts slowly at first.
00.34.37
Reporter 1
Iraq is reporting today that there was a missile attack on a
residential section of Baghdad that killed fourteen
civilians. Can you confirm that, and tell us what went
wrong?
00.34.46
General Vincent Brooks
Well first I'm not aware, I've heard this report that you're
saying. It's in the media right now. We don't have a
report that corroborates that and so I can't confirm it.
00.34.55
John Kampfner
Then a blanket denial. The allies are not killing
civilians.
00.35.00
John Kampfner
Another look at that British list of traps shows
bombing accuracy and the market bombings at
numbers five and seven.
00.35.07
Reporter 2
Many hundred of civilians, Iraqi, have been killed by
coalition bombs. Do you think it will help Iraqi people to
believe you and to trust you, to believe that you are
coming to emancipate them?
00.35.26
Aston
General VINCENT BROOKS
US Army
Well thank you for the question. Firstly I don't accept the
premise of the question, which says that the civilians
have been killed by coalition bombs. I just don't accept
that.
00.35.36
John Kampfner
Some reporters at Centcom don’t buy this line.
00.35.39
Reporter 3
When will you show us pictures of what happens when
precision bombs don't go where they're supposed to,
when they fail to hit their designated targets, or if they fail
to go off at all. And if you don’t doesn't that expose you to
the charge that this is more propaganda than truth?
00.35.53
John Kampfner
Next day Brooks goes on the offensive. He co-
ordinates a new message with London and
Washington. It was the Iraqis who did it.
00.36.00
General Vincent Brooks
They're also using very old stocks, we've discovered and
those stocks are not reliable and missiles are going up
and coming down. So we think it's entirely possible that
this may have been in fact an Iraqi missile that either
went up and came down or given the behaviour of the
regime lately it may have been inside of town.
00.36.18
John Kampfner
The allies still deny causing the deaths but awkward
questions about this and a second market bombing
two days later from where US missile parts were
recovered are left unanswered.
00.36.33
John Kampfner
The British government casts doubt on the reliability
of the journalists. It says any information that isn't
official should be treated with suspicion.
00.36.41
Aston
3rd April
00.36.41
Aston
GEOFF HOON MP
Defence Secretary
What is important about this is all of us should look very
sceptically at these kinds of reports, relying only on
known and agreed facts.
00.36.50
John Kampfner
End of story. The lack of hard facts prompts some
journalists to leave Centcom, and one to rebel.
00.37.00
Aston
MICHAEL WOLFF
New York magazine
My final question, after which I was not allowed to ask
any more questions, was the question that every reporter
was asking, not just every day, but literally every minute,
which was…
00.37.11
Michael Wolf
Why should we stay? What's the value to us for what we
learn at this million-dollar press centre?
00.37.19
Applause
00.37.21
General Vincent Brooks
Well sir. I've gotten applause already. That's wonderful.
I appreciate that. First I would say it's your choice. We
want to provide information that's truthful from the
operational headquarters that's running this war.
00.37.33
Michael Wolff
I was approached by this guy, Wilkinson. He was sort of
the uber-civilian. Also he was wearing a uniform. I said,
you know, which was odd, and I said, aren't you a civilian,
and he said, yes, but I'm in the reserves. I said, but
you're not here in the reserves. Right, he said, right,
right. So I said, actually I said, so you're a kind of a
paramilitary. So we got immediately off to the wrong the
wrong foot. If we were, if we had not already been on
completely on the wrong foot now we were.
00.37.07
Jim Wilkinson
I'm a big boy. As they say in Texas this ain't my first
rodeo. And when reporters start signing my cheques
then great. But you know what General Franks signs my
cheque and I make news based on his terms.
00.38.18
Michael Wolff
He said, this is war, (bleep) hole. He said, don't (bleep)
around with things you don't understand. And then finally
it was; no more questions for you, why don't you just go
home?
00.38.31
Music
00.38.32
John Kampfner
Snapshots from the frontline. Media management at
Central Command. This twin track was especially
important to the coalition in its search for weapons of
mass destruction. Any evidence would do, especially
for Tony Blair, who time and again cited Saddam's
arsenal as the main reason for going to war.
00.38.51
Tony Blair
The history of Saddam and weapons of mass destruction
is not American or British propaganda. The history and
the present threat are real.
00.38.52
Aston
2nd September 2002
00.39.01
John Kampfner
Journalists at Centcom are given vague lines about
chemical weapons on an almost daily basis without
any sign of a smoking gun.
00.39.10
General Vincent Brooks
While it hasn't been found, we're reminded that because
we haven't found it it's still there.
00.39.15
Reporter 1
Wouldn't it have happened by now? And since it hasn't
happened, wouldn't it be reasonable for some people to
conclude that they didn't have them or weren't willing to
use them.
00.39.24
General Vincent Brooks
Well some might come to that conclusion. We don't.
00.39.27
Aston
ROBIN COOK MP
Former Foreign Secretary
Well they were desperate to find something that they
could hail as evidence of Saddam's intention to hit us with
weapons of mass destruction. After all without that the
whole justification of the war started to fall apart.
00.39.37
ABC reporter
A paramilitary training facility…
00.39.39
Aston
ABC News
00.39.39
John Kampfner
Embedded journalists meanwhile are led to any and
every site that might contain suspicious substances.
The allegation is instantly reported and beamed
around the world.
00.39.50
John Kampfner
What did it suggest to you that the coalition forces were
trying to do in getting those stories out?
00.39.57
Aston
Dr HANS BLIX
Chief UN Weapons Inspector
Well you know it could have been the journalists. They
were embedded, as the term was, and they were eager to
write a story, I suppose, and they were close to the
events, so they would say well here maybe is something
that's appetising. And when they looked at it more closely
it turned out perhaps to be zero.
00.40.14
Robin Cook
Several weeks after the hostilities finished, after they had
actually arrested the key players in Saddam's military
apparatus they still have not provided a credible weapon
of mass destruction, and it becomes increasingly hard to
believe that they are going to be able to find such a
capacity.
00.40.32
John Kampfner
Does it matter any more? Opinion polls in the US
show the war was a success even if weapons of mass
destruction aren't found. Tony Blair is benefiting
from the so-called 'Baghdad bounce'. Those
responsible for the media campaign are reflecting on
a battle well fought.
00.40.51
Aston
JIM WILKINSON
US Military Spokesman, Centcom
If some people didn't like the way we handled it I think it
was one part of just a plain case of too bad, and a second
part of probably a little envy by some that they didn't get
embedded because the real superstars of this war were
those media journalists who were embeds.
00.41.08
John Kampfner
The Brits at least tried to get on with the journalists.
They might be satisfied with the overall presentation
of the war, but they're furious about the Doha
operation.
00.41.18
John Kampfner
So much so that Simon Wren, Number Ten's man in
Doha, has written a confidential note to Alistair
Campbell complaining that the American briefers
weren't up to the job.
00.41.28
John Kampfner
He described the Jessica Lynch presentation as
embarrassing. He complained that for the first three
days of the war the Americans locked themselves in
their offices.
00.41.37
Aston
Group Captain AL LOCKWOOD
UK Military Spokesman
Having lost the first skirmish they pretty much lost the war
when it came to me
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-- Andreas
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