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#1 03-31-2003, 06:29 AM

I think if this makes it to our forces he will become a statistic.

Remember the Baby Milk Plant when all the worker had "Baby Milk Factory" in english on their uniforms?

Reporter Arnett: U.S. War Plan Has Failed

By DAVID BAUDER
The Associated Press
Sunday, March 30, 2003; 9:11 PM

Journalist Peter Arnett, covering the war from Baghdad, told state-run Iraqi TV in an interview aired Sunday that the American-led coalition's first war plan had failed because of Iraq's resistance and said strategists are "trying to write another war plan."

Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, garnered much of his prominence from covering the 1991 Gulf War for CNN. He is reporting from the Iraqi capital now for NBC and its cable stations.

The interview could make Arnett a target of the war's supporters. The first Bush administration was unhappy with Arnett's reporting in 1991 for CNN, suggesting he had become a conveyor of propaganda.

He was denounced for his reporting about an allied bombing of a baby milk factory in Baghdad that the military said was a biological weapons plant. The American military responded vigorously to the suggestion it had targeted a civilian facility, but Arnett stood by his reporting that the plant's sole purpose was to make baby formula.

NBC, in a statement Sunday, praised Arnett's "outstanding" reporting from Iraq and said he was trying nothing more than to give an analytical response to an interviewer's questions.

In the interview, Arnett said his Iraqi friends tell him there is a growing sense of nationalism and resistance to what the United States and Britain are doing.

He said the United States is reappraising the battlefield and delaying the war, maybe for a week, "and rewriting the war plan. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan."

"Clearly, the American war plans misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces," Arnett said during the interview broadcast by Iraq's satellite television station and monitored by The Associated Press in Egypt.

Arnett said it is clear that within the United States there is growing opposition to the war and a growing challenge to President Bush about the war's conduct.

"Our reports about civilian casualties here, about the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States," he said. "It helps those who oppose the war when you challenge the policy to develop their arguments."

The interview was broadcast in English and translated by a green military uniform-wearing Iraqi anchor. NBC said Arnett gave the interview when asked shortly after he attended an Iraqi government briefing.

"His impromptu interview with Iraqi TV was done as a professional courtesy and was similar to other interviews he has done with media outlets from around the world," NBC News spokeswoman Allison Gollust said. "His remarks were analytical in nature and were not intended to be anything more. His outstanding reporting on the war speaks for itself."

Arnett was the on-air reporter of the 1998 CNN report that accused American forces of using sarin gas on a Laotian village in 1970 to kill U.S. defectors. Two CNN employees were sacked and Arnett was reprimanded over the report, which the station later retracted. Arnett ultimately left the network.

He went to Iraq this year not as an NBC News reporter but as an employee of the MSNBC show, "National Geographic Explorer." When other NBC reporters left Baghdad for safety reasons, the network began airing his reports.

#2 03-31-2003, 08:11 AM

I have thought from the beginning that Arnett is exactly where he belongs, in Baghdad. We now need to ensure that he is not allowed back in the USA.

My $0.02,

longston · #3 03-31-2003, 12:58 PM

I'm still looking for the in print version, but on CNN this morning, there was a story that Geraldo Rivera was being "escorted" to the Kuwait border by U.S. Army Airborne after he had divulged their location and battle plans on TV from a location in Iraq...

#4 03-31-2003, 08:05 PM

Normally I would be be happy to see Geraldo sent on his way but he was doing a good job, crediting our troops for an awesome job, wait he was doing an extraordinary job as an American, but he screwed up big time so it’s time to pay the price. To bad I think he was one of the best out there. People without military training and protocol should not be reporting on the front line. Operations Security is something that is learned not implied.

The Associated Press
Monday, March 31, 2003; 2:37 PM

Geraldo Rivera is denying reports that he's been kicked out of Iraq by U.S. military officials for giving out too much information about troop locations.

Meanwhile NBC fired journalist Peter Arnett on Monday, saying it was wrong for him to give an interview with state-run Iraqi TV in which he said the American-led coalition's initial plan for the war had failed because of Iraq's resistance.

Reporting on the Fox News Channel, Rivera said he's actually further inside Iraq than he'd been before.

He was standing alongside U.S. troops in a building he identified as Iraq's ruling party headquarters in a city south of Baghdad.

Rivera said it sounds like the rumors that he'd been kicked out were spread by people he described as "rats" at NBC, where he used to work.

He said his rivals "can't compete fair and square on the battlefield" - so they try to stab him in the back.

But in the end, he insists, "quality journalism wins out."

Rivera said he has a "great relationship" with the troops in the 101st Airborne - and that he plans to "march into Baghdad alongside them."

Sources at U.S. Central Command have said that Rivera was asked to leave because he revealed tactical information.

Arnett, on NBC's "Today" show on Monday, said he was sorry for his statement but added "I said over the weekend what we all know about the war."

"I want to apologize to the American people for clearly making a misjudgment," the New Zealand-born Arnett said. He said he would try to leave Baghdad now, joking "there's a small island in the South Pacific that I've inhabited that I'll try to swim to."

#5 03-31-2003, 09:26 PM

LONDON - A British tabloid newspaper said Tuesday it had hired veteran reporter Peter Arnett, who was fired by American TV network NBC after he said the U.S.-led war effort in Iraq (news - web sites) had failed.

"Fired by America for telling the truth," said the Daily Mirror in a front page headline, adding it had hired the "legendary war reporter" to carry on telling the truth.

"I am still in shock and awe at being fired," Arnett wrote for the newspaper, which is vehemently opposed to the war. "I report the truth of what is happening here in Baghdad and will not apologize for it."

NBC fired Arnett, who won a Pulitzer Prize reporting in Vietnam for The Associated Press, on March 31, angered that he had given an unauthorized interview with state-run Iraqi TV saying the American-led war effort initially failed because of Iraq's resistance.

The network said it got thousands of e-mails and phone calls protesting his remarks.

Piotr · #6 03-31-2003, 11:36 PM

I think Arnett and Genova should be given jobs with the Iraqi TV. A short carier but at least they would be forced to say what they believe in, until being shot for not being useful anymore. I saw that interview. It's not what he said, it's how gleefully he said it. Well, I think he deserves to end up with the Daily Mirror. It's the most socialist rag in Europe. BY comparisone any tabloid in US is simply a bastion of journalistic integrity. Let him spew his hatred of US to his British comrads sponsored by Russia. Who cares?

#7 04-01-2003, 12:09 AM

Well, since Jane Fonda and Ted Turner split up, maybe he can shack up with her.

Peter Arnett and Hanoi Jane. Hmmmm........

Piotr · #8 04-01-2003, 01:13 AM

uuuugh, now you made me sick...

BENZ-LGB · #9 04-01-2003, 11:17 AM

Arnett went on NBC to apologize for his remarks. I think that at that point he was merely trying to save his job. Then, as soon as he is hired by the London tabloid, he allows the tabloid to run a headline stating: "FIRED BY THE AMERICANS FOR TELLING THE TRUTH"

If Arnett was truly sorry for his remarks, he'd not have allowed the headline to run or, in the alternative, he would resign his new post. Either way, Arnett has shown his true colors and has demonstrated how insincere his apology was.

Arnett reminds me of many criminal defendants who on sentencing day make all kinds of apologies to the victim and/or to the victim's family hoping for leniency. They all promise to be good and to behave. Then, as soon as they get a chance, they re-offend.

With Arnett, as with criminal defendants, their past behavior is the best indicator of future behavior.

Piotr · #10 04-01-2003, 11:59 PM

I'm sure there is a teaching tenure for Arnett at the Columbia University. As a perpetual US hater, he would fit with the faculty quite nicely...

jw-260E · #11 04-02-2003, 04:46 AM

I saw a nicely balanced news talking head comment on this: The talking head said that he was appalled that Arnett would say that on Iraqi television. "It wasn't what he said, it's where he said it."

Other reporters have been asking coalition officials, and just plain editorializing on the efficacy of the war plan to date. many of them have made comments as pessimistic as Arnett's, just not for the propaganda purposes of Iraqi television.

Piotr · #12 04-02-2003, 11:39 PM

again, if you saw the interview, you would understand. It's one thing to question the war plan (I do it too, but because I'm ignorant about military strategy) and completely different praising the enemy of your country. This was an equivalent of Jane Fonda show in Viet Nam!

#13 04-07-2003, 09:22 AM

Rivera: I Should Have Been More Careful
Sun Apr 6,11:38 PM ET

NEW YORK - Fox News reporter Geraldo Rivera apologized Sunday for breaking military rules last week when he revealed U.S. troop movements in Iraq (news - web sites).

Military officials denounced Rivera for disclosing unauthorized information after a report in which he squatted in the desert and outlined military movements in the dirt.

In an interview Sunday on Fox, Rivera said he "should have been more careful."

"Last weekend, after my reports from Iraq with the men and women of the 101st Airborne, I was told I violated one of the rules set up by the Pentagon (news - web sites) for reporters embedded with the military," Rivera said in an interview Sunday on Fox. "My network and I decided it would be best to voluntarily withdraw to Kuwait to review the situation."

"The review showed that I did indeed break one of the rules related to embedment. I'm sorry that it happened and I assure you that it was inadvertent. Nobody was hurt by what I said. No mission was compromised."

Rivera wasn't the only media personality to make headlines last week. Journalist Peter Arnett was dismissed by NBC and National Geographic (news - web sites) Explorer for giving an unauthorized interview to Iraqi state television in which he said the U.S.-led war effort initially failed because of Iraq's resistance. He later took a job for the British tabloid The Daily Mirror.