U.S. general emerges from the shadows, 60 hours on

Reuters | 3/22/03 | Jeff Franks

[kattracks]

U.S. general emerges from the shadows, 60 hours on

By Jeff Franks

CAMP AS SAYLIYAH, Qatar, March 22 (Reuters) - In the run-up to war, the U.S. military spent $1.5 million to convert a warehouse into a modern press centre, with a Hollywood-designed set for news conferences by U.S. General Tommy Franks, commander of the invasion forces.

On Saturday -- more than 60 hours after the war began -- he finally planned to use it.

So far, Franks has not spoken one word to the media, testing the patience of some 600 reporters desperate for information at the As Sayliyah Camp command headquarter on the bleak outskirts of Qatar's capital, Doha.

It could hardly be more different from Franks' garrulous predecessor, "Stormin"' Norman Schwarzkopf, who became an enduring memory of the 1991 Gulf War.

Analysts say the lack of information is probably deliberate policy to leave Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and his military guessing about the U.S.-led forces' plans.

Answers to questions about the invasion of Iraq have been as hard to come by here as water in the surrounding desert at a press operation that has been roundly criticized by reporters.

"I have no information on that, sir," is the typical response from one of the many public affairs officers on staff in the "Coalition Media Centre."

"You've got 600 hacks locked in a warehouse and you won't tell them anything. It's laughable," said one veteran U.S. television reporter.

"This is the worst public affairs operation I've ever seen."

Even some of the soldiers who work at the centre have begun to joke about it. "Just tell your editors we only have one word - 'can't', as in 'I can't confirm that,"' one told Reuters.

On Friday, some of them met U.S. Navy Captain Frank Thorp, the media centre chief, to express their disgruntlement.

"IT'S PATHETIC"

A reporter at a newspaper in the U.S. southwest complained that he could not get basic information on Friday about a U.S. Marine killed in action in Iraq.

"They wouldn't give me a name, a time, a place -- any detail at all," he said. "We had to go to the British. It's pathetic."

The comparative openness of the British, who have offices in the press centre, appeared on Friday to create some problems.

The Australians and British planned a news conference in the new briefing room, but sources said the U.S. military opposed it because it did not want to be upstaged or lose control of the flow of information.

All sides denied U.S. intervention. But as reporters filed in to the briefing room, the Australians and British announced they would hold separate conferences outside of the centre and allow in only the press from their own countries.

The most prevalent journalist theory of why the U.S. is being so tight-lipped is that the press operation is an extension of White House policy to control information. The journalists point out that Franks' communications director, Jim Wilkinson, is a recent transplant from the White House.

In their defence, U.S. officials say the centre's role is to provide a big picture of the war while the reporters with front-line military units provide the details.

The reporter from the U.S. southwest said he was mystified when a television crew filmed him while he got a cup of coffee. "It turned out they were doing a story on how reporters here don't have anything to do but drink coffee," he said.

[Right_in_Virginia]

"This is the worst public affairs operation I've ever seen."

Oh, shut up you self-centered idiot. The man is leading a WAR!