War reporter Arnett makes comeback in Baghdad
War reporter Arnett makes comeback in Baghdad
Steve Gorman Reuters Los Angeles
Veteran war correspondent Peter Arnett is back in Baghdad reporting the U.S. bombing of Iraq's capital just as he did 12 years ago -- but this time he's not alone, not being censored and not with CNN.
And his goal is not just the story -- he sees it as a chance at professional redemption.
A Pulitzer Prize winner for his reporting from Vietnam, Arnett was CNN's man in Baghdad during the 1991 Gulf War but left the network under a cloud four years ago in the fallout over the retracted documentary Operation Tailwind.
The documentary alleged that the U.S. military had used the nerve gas sarin against American defectors in the Vietnam War. It was strongly denied by the Pentagon, and Arnett tried to distance himself from the program he narrated by saying he had contributed "not one comma" to the piece. CNN ended up letting him go after 18 years.
While CNN was expelled from Baghdad last week, Arnett has remained one of the few broadcast correspondents still working there for a U.S. network -- in his case two -- reporting for NBC and its cable outlet MSNBC which is linked to his current employer, National Geographic Explorer.
"Of course it is ironic, particularly that CNN is not here," he said in a call with a small group of reporters on Tuesday. "I do get a perverse pleasure out of it because, after all, CNN did dump me four years ago, I thought unfairly."
"I think Tailwind was almost a death blow to my career as a correspondent," Arnett said. "I felt that being hit like that for Tailwind, it was something I had to dig myself out of. And actually, in the four years since, I've been trying to find a way how best to redeem myself."
The 68-year-old New Zealand-born broadcast journalist has more company in Baghdad this time -- competition from scores of other journalists, many of them from the Arab media. And, unlike 12 years ago, he is reporting free of the censorship that led some critics to brand him as a propaganda tool.
Indeed, one could make the argument that Arnett and other Western reporters in Baghdad enjoy greater freedom to tell their stories without prior restraint than their colleagues "embedded" with U.S. troops.
"They're requiring no censorship at all. ... There are no minders around us when we broadcast. I'm sitting here in the hotel and ... we can talk on the phone freely," Arnett said. While he assumes that his calls may be monitored, Arnett said that at no time in the months he's been in Baghdad have Iraqi officials questioned him about his telephone contacts or about the contents of his stories.
Still, Arnett said he and other foreign correspondents in Baghdad do work under certain restrictions. Except for rare circumstances, they are permitted to transmit TV footage only from Iraq's Ministry of Information building and are expected to attend daily briefings by government officials.
"The ministry has made it clear that if you do not attend those press briefings, they don't see why you should be here. If you don't go to those briefings, they get very unhappy."
In addition, no Western reporters are permitted to travel about the city without government escorts, or minders, and journalists are kept away from military areas, he said.
Returning to Baghdad on assignment for National Geographic Explorer afforded him a chance to rejoin the broadcast big leagues when NBC pulled its own news team out of the Iraqi capital just before the bombing started.
Arnett gained international notoriety in 1991 by remaining in Baghdad with his CNN crew after other reporters had left at the outset of the Gulf War. But he also drew fire for submitting to Iraqi censors.
Besides the lack of censorship during the current conflict, the biggest difference between then and now is that bombs are not necessarily the greatest threat to immediate safety.
Having survived the "shock and awe" air assault on Baghdad unscathed -- "it was thunderous, horrendous and frightening, but it was all a half mile away" -- Arnett said his biggest worry now is the ground invasion on its way.
"The battle is coming right to the heart of Baghdad, so as far as I'm concerned the worst is yet to come," he said. "If it turns out to be a vicious battle here and many civilians are hurt, I don't think there will be much happiness about the Americans' arrival."
For that reason, Arnett said he is actually counting on Iraqi authorities to protect journalists from enraged civilians who may be looking to take their anger out on Westerners.
"I want these minders around when the battle starts," he said.
REUTERS
GetRTR 3.00 -- MAR 27, 2003 05:11:17