Interview with Saddam Hussein->propaganda and lies

[PeacefulWarrior]

Starting tonight a number of interviews (at least one or two for sure) will be aired on t.v. across the world.  Of course a million new stories and summaries, etc. will be offered regarding what Sadaam says.  The bottom line is that he is going to mix some truth in with a lot of lie.  

I have compiled some news articles below regarding the interviews.  I am interested to hear what you all think, especially after the interview(s) air.
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Rather's Saddam interview draws skeptics
By Jennifer Harper
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

    CBS newsman Dan Rather landed a three-hour interview with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein on Monday, revealing "Saddam's feelings on his own people, the American public, Osama bin Laden and what his own fate might be," according to CBS, which quickly went into showbiz mode.
    "There are just two men in the world now who can prevent a new U.S.-led war in Iraq, and CBS news anchor Dan Rather sat down with one of them," CBS said yesterday.
    But did the interview become a vehicle for Iraq's agenda in the process?
    "We're aware of the CBS tape. We'll watch the tape, and we believe in freedom of the press," a State Department official said yesterday. "Will it be factual? We have to wait and see. Saddam has a track record of not being upfront."
    Shortly after September 11, the White House and State Department became alarmed that Western journalists could be manipulated by media-savvy terrorists. At the time, White House adviser Condoleezza Rice suggested that broadcasters use careful judgment when airing material released by bin Laden.
    Grumbling about First Amendment rights all the way, broadcasters complied for a time. But the climate has changed.
    Since Monday, Mr. Rather's interview has been teased on CBS radio and television, with substantial portions to air tonight on "60 Minutes II." The interview was heralded as "one of the news coups of the year" by the Hollywood Reporter trade publication.
    The newsman said it was all because of "hard work and luck," though an Associated Press report said Mr. Rather had the help of former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, now an anti-war activist who met with Saddam on Sunday.
    Mr. Clark has his own agenda. In January, he drafted articles of impeachment against President Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney and other officials, who he says he believes must "answer to the people."
    Meanwhile, Mr. Rather's interview is not as rare as it may seem: ABC's Peter Jennings and NBC's Tom Brokaw also tried to reach Saddam. All three were outfoxed by former British Labor leader and peace activist Tony Benn, who interviewed Saddam for Arab Television three weeks ago.
    Mr. Benn described Saddam as "courteous and forthcoming."
    Mr. Rather also used personal observations, calling Saddam "a tall man."
    "He walked a little stiffly. I think that may be because of these reports he has a bad back. But he was very calm."
    The Media Research Center took Mr. Rather to task yesterday for saying he had a startling scoop: Saddam had "challenged" President Bush to a televised debate. No such scoop, the center pointed out. Saddam had proposed the same thing in a 1990 interview with Mr. Rather.
    The CBS "appetite for promotion is plugging up its nose for news," noted Tim Graham of the research center.
    The interview may be a bona fide scoop for Mr. Rather and a legitimate promotional tool for CBS [yeah right!], said Robert Steele, a media ethics analyst for the Florida-based Poynter Institute, a journalism research group.
    "What shouldn't happen, however, is to hold back meaningful news to benefit promotional strategies," Mr. Steele said yesterday.
    And when short on meaningful news, some extrapolate.
    ABC News issued a report yesterday on Saddam's troubled psychological background. Saddam's "difficult childhood leads to 'wounded self,' — a fragile personality who is very sensitive to perceived slights," ABC said.
    MSNBC, in the meantime, is crafting a new wartime footing. The network fired prime-time host Phil Donahue yesterday because of poor ratings, replacing him with an expanded version of "Countdown: Iraq," with Lester Holt.
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White House wants to reply to Saddam interview
2/26/2003 2:42 PM
By: Associated Press

(WHITE HOUSE) -- The White House is asking CBS News for a chance to reply to the Saddam Hussein interview that's airing Wednesday night.

Press Secretary Ari Fleischer says the administration views what the Iraqi dictator says in the interview as "propaganda and lies."

Fleischer says CBS anchor Dan Rather deserves congratulations for landing the interview (appearing on "60 Minutes Two"). But he says it's appropriate for the White House to have a response.

Fleischer says talks with CBS are continuing as to when a response might air, and who would give it.

The spokesman adds that journalists are likely to face "interesting and difficult" decisions as the Iraqi regime puts forward officials to tell its side of the story.
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Saddam Hussein, Reporter
After Exclusive CBS Interview, Iraqi Leader Quizzed Dan Rather
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_____OnPolitics_____

By Howard Kurtz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 26, 2003; 8:17 AM


We'll get to our other news in a moment, but first, our top story (we've always liked the way that sounds):

When the cameras were turned off after more than an hour and a half, it was Saddam Hussein's turn to interview Dan Rather.

The Iraqi leader led the CBS anchor to the overstuffed leather chairs in his high-ceilinged Baghdad office and "had questions about American public opinion and President Bush," Rather recalled yesterday from the Jordanian desert. "I said, 'Mr. President, you asked me and I will try to answer you. A lot of these answers I don't think you're going to like.'

"There's always some discomfort in that kind of situation. I wasn't going to trim the answers to suit what I thought he wanted to hear. I told him American public opinion was behind President Bush.

"I think he said, 'Not as much as it was.'" Rather responded that "Americans like to debate and discuss things and vent" but were still backing Bush.

Hussein's first interview with an American journalist in 13 years – a coup for the 71-year-old Rather – could hardly have come under more dramatic circumstances, with the two nations poised on the brink of war. Not since Walter Cronkite brokered Anwar Sadat's 1977 visit to Jerusalem to begin Egyptian-Israeli peace talks has a television reporter played such a high-profile role in the Middle East.

Part of the Monday interview with Hussein aired on last night's "CBS Evening News," and "60 Minutes II" will carry substantial portions tonight.

Even before the tape could be edited and translated, Rather's summary of Hussein's responses – challenging Bush to a debate and refusing to destroy missiles that U.N. inspectors say must be scrapped – made global headlines.

Rather was mindful of the stakes. When he arrived in Baghdad, he said, "I went to my hotel room and started preparing lists of questions and tried to memorize an outline of the questions. I had 31 or 32 questions. I put them in three different orders. I practiced them. I sat in front of the mirror and pretended he was on the other side and tried out the questions."

As for how he got the interview, which was sought by a slew of other network anchors, Rather said: "I'm a reporter who got lucky. . . . You work hard, work your sources, make your contacts, not get discouraged, just keep coming."

It probably helped that Rather, along with Peter Jennings and Diane Sawyer, had interviewed Hussein in 1990. "At least I was a known quantity to them. . . . I thought in 1990 they wanted someone who had a reputation of being independent and had credibility. I came out of the 1990 interview feeling I had done what I said I would do."

Rather is apparently the first American to meet with Hussein since then-Rep. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.) visited the Iraqi leader in 1995 to win the release of two Americans imprisoned there.

After arriving in Baghdad – following a 10-hour drive from Amman – Rather and his executive producer, Jim Murphy, met with Deputy Prime Minister Tariq Aziz in his office Sunday night. Rather, who has known Aziz since the 1980s, called him "the last gatekeeper," although he says Aziz cautioned him: "There may be no interview with anyone. I don't make the decision. The president makes the decision."

Why did Hussein agree? "I simply don't know," said Rather. "Among the ingredients, in no particular order: He knows the time draws nigh for an attack. He takes President Bush very seriously in saying that time is up. Secondly, he reads the papers and knows what his standing is with the American people. He probably felt – and I'm going pretty far afield here – he had something to lose, but under the present circumstances he might have had something to gain in getting to the American people who he is, what he is, what his position is."

Although Iraq could face a military assault by the United States and Britain within weeks, the atmosphere, Rather observed, was not particularly tense.

Hussein "was to all outward appearances calm. He was unhurried. He comes across as confident. He has what military people call command presence. Some may argue this was studied; I can only report what I saw, heard and felt in that room."

Unfortunately for Rather, the interview "got off to a slow start." He had to wait for one interpreter to translate his questions and a second interpreter to provide Hussein's answers.

"It's hard – I'm not complaining about it – to build a rhythm to the interview. I was saying to myself, 'Boy, I'm in trouble here. This is not going very well.'

"After 11 or 12 minutes, the dynamic started to change. He was getting engaged and was 'there.'," Hussein sometimes leaned forward or rapped his finger on a table as he described the fate of past invaders in the Middle East. "He smiled some, not a lot."

Rather was surprised when Hussein challenged Bush to a debate, a gambit that was quickly dismissed by the White House. "I wasn't sure he was serious," the anchor explained. "I said to him, 'Mr. President, are you joking about this?' He said no, war is too serious to joke about."

Pressed further, Hussein dismissed the United Nations as a forum for the debate he wants. He said he would be in Baghdad and Bush in Washington, and suggested that Rather could moderate the televised face-off.

"I paused and said – I'm not proud of this – 'Mr. President, I have enough troubles already.' He chuckled at that."

The session was scheduled to last 35 to 40 minutes, but Hussein went on nearly three times as long. In one exchange at the round white table with microphones mounted in front of an Iraqi flag, Rather asked: "So you do not intend to destroy these missiles?"

"Which missiles? What do you mean?" said Hussein, who appeared animated and composed. "We have no missiles outside the specifications of the United Nations." He also said he is "ready to dialogue" with Bush out of "my respect for the American public opinion."

Afterward, Hussein spent more than an hour in his office with Rather, Murphy and two culture ministers.

When Hussein asked about American opinions of the war, Rather protested that he was just a reporter, "not a politician or academic or diplomat or soldier."

"Yes, yes," he recalled Hussein replying, "but you are also a citizen, and an experienced journalist."

Even in the satellite age, CBS faced some logistical obstacles. The Iraqis, as is their practice, handled the taping. They were to make a copy for the network after dubbing the translation of Hussein's remarks.

But the Iraqis did not turn over the duplicate tape in time for planned excerpts on CBS's "Early Show" yesterday. Once the videotape was provided, the satellite transmission to New York took nine hours. Then CBS had its own interpreter check the translation and, if necessary, record a new English translation for tonight's broadcast. Rather and Murphy also reviewed the tape to make sure that nothing was deleted.

As he drove toward Amman yesterday to catch a flight to Paris and the Concorde to New York, Rather said his close encounter with Hussein had done nothing to change his view that war appears near.

"It's fair to say he expects an attack unless something dramatic changes," Rather said.

The cover of the New York Daily News has Hussein's face in the cross hairs:

"U.S. forces have the green light to kill Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein if there is a war and they catch him in the cross hairs, the White House said yesterday."

More frustrating stop-and-go on the diplomatic front, as USA Today reports:

"The United States and its allies stepped up diplomacy yesterday in an uphill, two-week blitz aimed at winning the United Nations Security Council's endorsement for war against Iraq.

"But their prospects were clouded by a suggestion from Hans Blix, the chief U.N. weapons inspector, that Iraq is showing new signs of cooperation with teams that are searching for chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.

"'There are some elements which are positive which need to be explored further,' Blix said. Those elements, he said, include Iraqi disclosure of documents dealing with the destruction of weapons in 1991, and word that two bombs had been discovered at a disposal site, one containing a liquid that appears to be a germ agent. 'This is cooperation on substance,' Blix said.

"If confirmed, the biological weapon would be the first revealed to the inspectors. Iraq has said it destroyed all such weapons."

In other words, Iraq was not exactly being truthful. What a shock.