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The tale of the UN weapons inspectors: MEDIA REVIEW THE coverage of the tussle between America and Iraq over the latter’s alleged possession of nuclear and other weapons of mass destruction has been slanted. This is obviously not revelation but the unfortunate thing is that this bias has inevitably crept in and influenced what Pakistani audiences get to hear on the matter. In fact, it would be fair to say that it seems George W. Bush has an unfinished agenda left over from his father’s days that he wants to complete. It’s clearly evident in the way the Americans have continued their build-up in the Middle East, especially in Kuwait and in Qatar, the new mobile headquarters of the US Central Command that they want to go to war, to ‘teach Saddam a lesson’. The coverage in most of the channels available in Pakistan like the CNN, Fox News and the BBC has shown a West generally sceptical of the 12,000-page report supplied by Baghdad to the United Nations. In many cases, many senior US politicians passed judgment without even glancing through what had been submitted. Democrat senator and Al Gore’s running mate for vice-president in the last election, Joseph Lieberman called the submission “12,000 pages of lies” while others said that the lengthy documentation, some of it in Arabic, was done deliberately by the Iraqis to buy time. Throughout much of this affair, the reporting in most American news channels has been not of whether to attack but when and how. Unfortunately, other than the comment, even the straightforward reporting by these channels of the events surrounding America’s problems with Iraq have been factually distorted. Credit for the following has to go to the invaluable database of the media watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR). FAIR has gone through the coverage of the Iraq crisis and compiled several quotes from news broadcasters and compared what these media sources were saying today with what they had said some four years ago, the last time UN inspectors went to Iraq. The most obvious and incorrectly repeated statement is that Iraq had thrown out UN weapons inspectors four years ago, when in fact it was chief weapons inspector Richard Butler who had withdrawn them, and without the consent of the UN Security Council. Readers will be able to draw their own conclusions. Here goes. “The UN orders its weapons inspectors to leave Iraq after the chief inspector reports Baghdad is not fully cooperating with them,” — Sheila MacVicar, on ABC World News This Morning, on Dec 16, 1998. And on Dec 12, 2002, John McWethy of the same channel said on its World News Tonight programme: “To bolster its claim, Iraq let reporters see one laboratory UN inspectors once visited before they were kicked out four years ago. Katie Couric (a very well-known news anchor in America) of NBC said on Dec 16, 1998: “The Iraq story boiled over last night when the chief UN weapons inspector, Richard Butler, said that Iraq had not fully cooperated with inspectors and —- as they had promised to do. As a result, the UN ordered its inspectors to leave Iraq this morning.” On Aug 3, 2002, Maurice DuBois of the NBC’s Sunday Today said: “As Washington debates when and how to attack Iraq, a surprise offer from Baghdad. It is ready to talk about re-admitting UN weapons inspectors after kicking them out four years ago.” Even Associated Press is not immune from this distortion syndrome. This might be alarming since several Pakistani newspapers subscribe to this wire service. On Dec 17, 1998, The Log Angeles Times wrote: “Immediately after submitting his report on Baghdad’s noncompliance, Butler ordered his inspectors to leave Iraq.” And on Sept 10, 2002, the same newspaper said: “It is not known whether Iraq has rebuilt clandestine nuclear facilities since UN inspectors were forced out in 1998, but the report said the regime lacks nuclear material for a bomb and the capability to make weapons.” The CNN is also not one to be outdone. On Dec 16, 1998, Jane Arraf said: “This is for the second time in a month that UNSCOM has pulled out in the face of a possible US-led attack. But this time there may be no turning back. Weapons inspectors packed up their personal belongings and loaded up equipment at UN headquarters after a predawn evacuation order. In a matter of hours, they were gone, more than 120 of them headed for a flight to Bahrain.” And on Aug 18, 2002, CNN’s John King said: “What Mr Bush is being urged to do by many advisers in focus on the simple fact that Saddam Hussain signed a piece of paper at the end of the Persian Gulf War, promising that the United Nations could have unfettered weapons inspections in Iraq. It has now been several years since those inspectors were kicked out. The more downmarket tabloidy USA Today has been even more blatant. It said on Dec 17, 1998: “Russian Ambassador Sergei Lavrov criticized Butler for evacuating inspectors from Iraq Wednesday morning without seeking permission from the Security Council.” And in Sept of this year it now lay the blame for their departure directly on Baghdad writing: “Saddam expelled UN weapons inspectors in 1998, accusing some of being US spies.” Even the venerable New York Times and Washington Post did these factual about turns, in their editorials! The NYT had written on Dec 18, 1998: “But the most recent irritant was Mr Butler’s quick withdrawal from Iraq on Wednesday of all his inspectors and those of the International Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors Iraqi nuclear programmes, without Security Council permission. Mr Butler acted after a telephone call from Peter Burleigh, the American representative to the United Nations, and a discussion with Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who had also spoken to Mr Burleigh. And in an editorial on Aug 3 of this year, the paper wrote: “America’s goal should be to ensure that Iraq is disarmed of all unconventional weapons... To thwart this goal, Baghdad expelled United Nations arms inspectors four years ago.” The Washington Post pretty much did the same reporting four years ago the correct version of events, that the inspectors were withdrawn without permission from the UN Security Council but four years later it said in an editorial that Baghdad had kicked them out so that it could resume its work on chemical and biological weapons.— OMAR R. QURAISHI (email: omarq@cyber.net.pk) Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)
