November 25, 2003	Tuesday	Ramazan 29, 1424

BAGHDAD: US forces are battling a deepening guerrilla insurgency on the ground in Iraq, but they are also waging a major media offensive to try to cast the contested occupation in a more positive light.

The media blitz coincides with a sharp rise in attacks by guerrillas against American interests and comes amid signs that both US troops and the American-led civilian administration are losing the battle for the hearts and minds of Iraqis.

Last week, the military unveiled a new spokesman for US forces in the country, Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt, a higher-ranking officer with more media experience than those who have until now been the public face of the occupation.

That followed a redesigning of the podium from which news conferences are held, with two large flat-screen monitors now installed to carry slick Powerpoint presentations the military is using to show off operations and tout successes.

A large, deep-blue seal representing the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority now hangs prominently behind the podium, right in front of TV cameras, with the words “Justice, Freedom, Liberty, Security” written around its border.

“There’s definitely a feel of the White House about all this,” said a veteran correspondent for a Washington newspaper after Kimmitt held his first news conference with the coalition’s civilian spokesman last week.

Others have pointed to similarities with the military set-up in Qatar during the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein, from where media-savvy Brigadier General Vincent Brooks presented US Central Command’s daily take on events on the ground.

SPIN CITY IN BAGHDAD: In part, the media campaign appears an attempt to convince the public back home and a sceptical press that the occupation is winning results despite evidence of an increasingly sophisticated and well-coordinated guerrilla movement.

Kimmitt himself told reporters at a briefing on Friday, after brazen rocket attacks on the Oil Ministry and two hotels frequented by Westerners, that the situation in Iraq was becoming a “psychological game between enemy and adversary”.

As if to plug more directly into the media in the United States, side-stepping potentially more jaded Baghdad-based correspondents, one news conference last week was beamed by satellite to the press corps at the Pentagon.

Dan Senor, the senior spokesman for the coalition, has on several occasions expressed his frustration that successes achieved in the reconstruction process are not being reported.

The frustration also extends to Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who has repeatedly complained that the Arabic media is biased against the Americans.

In a briefing at the Pentagon last week, Rumsfeld said he hoped new satellite TV programming being developed by US authorities in Iraq would offset what he called the hostility of the main Arabic satellite news channels.

Almost in response to Rumsfeld’s complaint, the US-backed Governing Council in Iraq announced on Monday it was taking legal action against Al Arabiya TV for inciting hatred and sent police around to its Baghdad offices to close them down.

Jalal Talabani, the rotating presidency of the Council, said Arabiya was disseminating violence and needed controlling.

“Al Arabiya broadcast in Saddam’s voice an invitation to kill members of the Governing Council. Saddam in our eyes is a criminal, a torturer, a war criminal, and whoever disseminates for him exposes himself to legal punishment,” he said.

The new programming called for by Rumsfeld is expected to running within a month, but it is likely to face opposition.

Programmes already being broadcast by the US-backed Iraqi Media Network were last week described as “debauchery” by the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, a leading Shia group, which gave IMN two weeks to stop showing it.—Reuters