Posted on 03/30/2003 3:16:09 PM PST by Hillary's Lovely Legs
JOHN GIBSON: "Peter Arnett, who is now employed as a correspondant by National Georgraphic Television, was interviewed by one of Iraq's Information Ministers on Iraq State TV.
He began interviewing Arnett about what is going on in Iraq and what is going on in America about the war.
What Peter Arnett said is that it is clear that is going on in the US is clear that there is a growing challange of Bush's conduct of the war and then Arnett seemed to take credit for that, by saying that HIS reports from Iraq are helping opposition grow. "
ARNETT:" It is clear that within the United States that there is growing challenge to President Bush and he conduct about the war. And it is clear that our reports here about the Iraqi civilian casualties in the war, and the resistance of the Iraqi forces, are going back to the United States, and it helps those who oppose the war and challenge the policies to develop their arguments. "
So Arnett did not acknowldege what is a Pentagon claim, that the Iraqi casualties could be from Iraqi missiles which are errant missiles which are falling back down on their own Iraqi population. But Arnett went on to claim credit for growing opposition in the United States, but claimed that the Pentagon's War is a failure.
ARNETT: "Now America is reappraising the battlefield plan and delaying the war, for maybe a week. The first war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan. "
Of course Peter Arnett is now working for the National Georgraphic program, he has a deal with NBC and appears on another cable network. He has been allowed to do whatever he wants. This while other news agencies have been kicked out of Iraq, including Fox News Channel and CNN. And in addition the Newsday Newspapers has two reporters missing and assumed to be held by authorities in Iraq, yet Peter Arnett is allowed to stay. I guess that we can come to our own conclusions, it appears that Peter Arnett is now operating in Iraq and doing Iraq great favors by his own estimation, in organizing opposition to the war, here in this country, in the United States by his reports, and by giving the Iraqis a growing sense of nationalism, because by his accounts, the initial war plan has failed, and the Iraqi opposition has sent the war planners back to the drawing board.
So there you have it, Peter Arnett in Iraq.
That piece was written before they fired him, of course.
Would one of Sen. Lindsey Graham's constituents please drop a letter to the good senator? Let him take the lead in Wash DC on this treason.
By Andrew Grossman
NEW YORK (The Hollywood Reporter) --- NBC News is standing by correspondent Peter Arnett after he gave an interview to Iraqi TV in which he said the Bush administration had misjudged "the determination of the Iraqi armed forces and the government's willingness to fight for their country."
Arnett, who is reporting for NBC and MSNBC through his role as a correspondent for National Geographic (news - web sites) Explorer, also seemed to have nice things to say about Iraqi's Ministry of Information, saying it had "allowed me and many other reporters to cover 12 whole years since the Gulf War (news - web sites) with a degree which we appreciate and this is continuing today," according to reports on Sunday.
He said U.S. military officials are preparing a "new war plan."
Iraqi TV aired the interview Sunday, but it is uncertain when it took place.
Arnett is one of the few American broadcast reporters remaining in Baghdad. The government expelled two CNN reporters on March 20 for unexplained reasons as well as a Fox News Channel correspondent in February.
Other American television reporters left of their own volition when the war began.
NBC said in a statement that "Peter Arnett and his crew have risked their lives to bring the American people up-to-date, straightforward information on what is happening in and around Baghdad. His impromptu interview with Iraqi TV was done as a professional courtesy and was similar to other interviews he has done with media outlets from around the world. His remarks were analytical in nature and were not intended to be anything more."
NBC said Arnett would continue to report for the company.
Fallout from Arnett's remarks are likely to focus as much on the venue -- that he gave an interview to an enemy media outlet -- as his remarks, much of which were similar to what he has told other media outlets in the U.S. and abroad.
Arnett is a Pulitzer Prize-winner who was the only television reporter on the scene -- for CNN -- in 1991 when bombs fell on Baghdad.
In an article in Sunday's New York Times, Arnett is quoted as saying that the Iraqi deputy prime minister had warned him in an interview two weeks ago -- in a report that NBC News did not air -- that his people would resist American and British forces, saying "We're ready to be martyrs."
"It's deja vu all over again, the idea that this would be a walkover, the idea that the people of Basra would throw flowers at the Marines," Arnett told the Times's Frank Rich.
He told Iraqi television "Whenever I gave a report (in 1991) of civilian casualties or civilian installations destroyed and casualties created, the Pentagon (news - web sites) and Bush administration got very angry and called me a traitor."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
No, he isn't. Arnett is working for National Geographic, and on a contract basis for MSNBC.
This shouldn't really surprise anybody. In addition to his aiding and abetting during the last war, you may recall he was actually fired from CNN for peddling a story [that had no foundation] claiming the US military had used nerve gas.
If memory serves, his producer and several related lackeys were fired immediately by CNN after they failed to produce any evidence corroborating the story. Arnett claimed he was just a news reader and had nothing to do with it, but he was eventually dropped as well. So, the little rat didn't even have the stones to stand by his own reporting.
That doesn't work any more.
'Sides - weren't my story.
Eddie01 "We observe Peter ordering eggs Benedict"
Perhaps finally in this case his current outrageous statements will change his own history.
The AMs should contact Rita Cosby and John Gibson and let them know that this is a non-story.
Sorry 'bout that. If I had his e-mail address, I WOULD . . .
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.