PENTAGON THREATENS TO KILL INDEPENDENT REPORTERS IN IRAQ

10th March, 2003 by Fintan Dunne, Editor
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.

Listen K. Adie Realplayer 3 mins Listen full Gulf media freedom segmentAudio 26
minutes[ Realplayer] Links valid until 16 March DOWNLOAD ENTIRE SHOW HERE 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."

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