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CAMP SAYLIYAH, QATAR
Central Command grilled by media
By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff, 4/1/2003
In their first week of public briefings, officials at US Central Command have been dogged by journalists who want more information and verbally pummeled with skepticism when they declare the war is "on plan." But sometimes the queries from non-American journalists have said as much about the questioners' views of the United States as they have about the progress of the war. The standard-bearer of scorn has been Ahmed Samir, a correspondent for Abu Dhabi Television. At Franks's first briefing, less than three days into the ground war, Samir said: "We can't see any using of weapons of mass destruction by Iraq. Was it a big lie or just a cover to justify your invasion of Iraq?" The next day, while questioning US Lieutenant General John P. Abizaid, Samir was the first to utter the V-word: "Are you facing a new Vietnam in Iraq, or are you victims of over-self-confidence?" At a later briefing, he pointed out -- correctly, as it happens -- that cities the "so-called coalition forces" had claimed to control turned out to be nests of resistance. "Are you practicing a strategy of lies and deception," Samir asked, "or have you just have been trapped by the Iraqi Army?" Meanwhile, a Polish journalist demanded information on Polish units in southern Iraq, "the fact which was hidden to the Polish society by the Polish government!" Finally, though, as the briefings began to melt one into the other, the coalition brass found a more receptive tone. A young man shouted from the crowd: "Channel 9, Australia has a relatively small contingent here taking part in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Have you been impressed by their capability?" Beaming, US Air Force Major General Gene Renuart paused long enough to let laughter ripple around the room. Then he said: "Absolutely!"
This story ran on page A19 of the Boston Globe on 4/1/2003.
he foreign reporter wanted General Tommy Franks's evaluation of the US campaign of attacking ''so-called regime targets.'' He asked Franks, the commander of allied forces, to respond to ''those who say the people most likely to be shocked and awestruck . . . are the Iraqi civilians you claim to be liberating.'' The questioner wasn't from Iraqi state television, or the outspoken Arabic news channel Al-Jazeera. It was Sky News correspondent Geoff Meade of Britain.
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