Robert Fisk, speaking in London yesterday about reporting in Iraq:
"It has got to the stage where, for example, when I went to have a look at the scene of a huge bomb in a bus station, I jumped out of the car and took two pictures before I was surrounded by a crowd of enraged Iraqis.
"I jumped back in the car and fled. I call that ‘mouse journalism' — and that's all we can do now.
"If I go to see someone in any particular location, I give myself 12 minutes, because that is how long I reckon it takes a man with a mobile phone to summon gunmen to the scene in a car.
"So, after 10 minutes I am out. Don't be greedy. That's what reporting is like in Iraq."
"This country is now hell - a disaster. You cannot imagine how bad it is. Nothing of the reporting I see generally, except The Guardian and Patrick Cockburn in The Independent, really conveys the absolute agony and distress of Iraq.
"The Ministry of Health, which is partly run by Americans, will not give out any figures for civilian casualties; staff are just not allowed to give us these figures."
This weekend's referendum will save Iraq. War is peace. Saddam's (possible) trial will crush the insurgency. The "Coalition" troops will only remain as long as the "independent" Iraqi government asks.
Fisk sets the record straight: "This is a war the like of which I have never reported before."
"It has got to the stage where, for example, when I went to have a look at the scene of a huge bomb in a bus station, I jumped out of the car and took two pictures before I was surrounded by a crowd of enraged Iraqis.
"I jumped back in the car and fled. I call that ‘mouse journalism' — and that's all we can do now.
"If I go to see someone in any particular location, I give myself 12 minutes, because that is how long I reckon it takes a man with a mobile phone to summon gunmen to the scene in a car.
"So, after 10 minutes I am out. Don't be greedy. That's what reporting is like in Iraq."
"This country is now hell - a disaster. You cannot imagine how bad it is. Nothing of the reporting I see generally, except The Guardian and Patrick Cockburn in The Independent, really conveys the absolute agony and distress of Iraq.
"The Ministry of Health, which is partly run by Americans, will not give out any figures for civilian casualties; staff are just not allowed to give us these figures."
This weekend's referendum will save Iraq. War is peace. Saddam's (possible) trial will crush the insurgency. The "Coalition" troops will only remain as long as the "independent" Iraqi government asks.
Fisk sets the record straight: "This is a war the like of which I have never reported before."
1 Comments:
All of this dangerous, accurate and truthful reporting unfortunately comes to nought.
Its the American public, based on US casualties, who will decide whether the US coalition withdraws - leaving Iraq in a worse state (than pre Saddam) with civil war.
The advantages for the US/Bush are meanwhile too great - in terms of: stimulating the US economy, controlling large oil reserves and production, taking oil pricing from OPECs control and ensuring Bush has a secure post Presidential job in the Texas oil industry.
It all makes one weep - but just wait till Iran gets riled.
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