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The News We (CNN) Kept To Ourselves [must read]
The New York Times ^ | 04/11/03 | EASON JORDAN

Posted on 04/10/2003 9:16:06 PM PDT by Pokey78

ATLANTA — Over the last dozen years I made 13 trips to Baghdad to lobby the government to keep CNN's Baghdad bureau open and to arrange interviews with Iraqi leaders. Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff.

For example, in the mid-1990's one of our Iraqi cameramen was abducted. For weeks he was beaten and subjected to electroshock torture in the basement of a secret police headquarters because he refused to confirm the government's ludicrous suspicion that I was the Central Intelligence Agency's Iraq station chief. CNN had been in Baghdad long enough to know that telling the world about the torture of one of its employees would almost certainly have gotten him killed and put his family and co-workers at grave risk.

Working for a foreign news organization provided Iraqi citizens no protection. The secret police terrorized Iraqis working for international press services who were courageous enough to try to provide accurate reporting. Some vanished, never to be heard from again. Others disappeared and then surfaced later with whispered tales of being hauled off and tortured in unimaginable ways. Obviously, other news organizations were in the same bind we were when it came to reporting on their own workers.

We also had to worry that our reporting might endanger Iraqis not on our payroll. I knew that CNN could not report that Saddam Hussein's eldest son, Uday, told me in 1995 that he intended to assassinate two of his brothers-in-law who had defected and also the man giving them asylum, King Hussein of Jordan. If we had gone with the story, I was sure he would have responded by killing the Iraqi translator who was the only other participant in the meeting. After all, secret police thugs brutalized even senior officials of the Information Ministry, just to keep them in line (one such official has long been missing all his fingernails).

Still, I felt I had a moral obligation to warn Jordan's monarch, and I did so the next day. King Hussein dismissed the threat as a madman's rant. A few months later Uday lured the brothers-in-law back to Baghdad; they were soon killed.

I came to know several Iraqi officials well enough that they confided in me that Saddam Hussein was a maniac who had to be removed. One Foreign Ministry officer told me of a colleague who, finding out his brother had been executed by the regime, was forced, as a test of loyalty, to write a letter of congratulations on the act to Saddam Hussein. An aide to Uday once told me why he had no front teeth: henchmen had ripped them out with pliers and told him never to wear dentures, so he would always remember the price to be paid for upsetting his boss. Again, we could not broadcast anything these men said to us.

Last December, when I told Information Minister Muhammad Said al-Sahhaf that we intended to send reporters to Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, he warned me they would "suffer the severest possible consequences." CNN went ahead, and in March, Kurdish officials presented us with evidence that they had thwarted an armed attack on our quarters in Erbil. This included videotaped confessions of two men identifying themselves as Iraqi intelligence agents who said their bosses in Baghdad told them the hotel actually housed C.I.A. and Israeli agents. The Kurds offered to let us interview the suspects on camera, but we refused, for fear of endangering our staff in Baghdad.

Then there were the events that were not unreported but that nonetheless still haunt me. A 31-year-old Kuwaiti woman, Asrar Qabandi, was captured by Iraqi secret police occupying her country in 1990 for "crimes," one of which included speaking with CNN on the phone. They beat her daily for two months, forcing her father to watch. In January 1991, on the eve of the American-led offensive, they smashed her skull and tore her body apart limb by limb. A plastic bag containing her body parts was left on the doorstep of her family's home.

I felt awful having these stories bottled up inside me. Now that Saddam Hussein's regime is gone, I suspect we will hear many, many more gut-wrenching tales from Iraqis about the decades of torment. At last, these stories can be told freely.

Eason Jordan is chief news executive at CNN.


TOPICS: Breaking News; Culture/Society; Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 4thestate5thcolumn; biasmeanslayoffs; blameamericafirst; cablenewsnetwork; ccrm; censorship; chickennoodlenews; clintonnewsnetwork; cnn; cnnajoke; cnnbloodonhands; cnncoconspirator; cnndeception; cnndictators; cnnkeptquiet; cnnknew; cnnlied; cnnlies; coverup; deathsquads; easonjordan; enemedia; genevaconvention; hateamericafirst; iraq; iraqhistory; iraqifreedom; lamestreammedia; leakbeforediscovery; liars; liberalbias; liberalmedia; mediabias; neverforget; reportersuberotrture; rush; saddam; secretpolice; selfcensorship; torture; trysellingthetruth; uday; war; warcrime; warcrimes; wedontreportthat
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To: Toskrin
Mr. Jordan met with these butchers more than a dozen times, even after knowing what they had done to that poor Kuwaiti woman and her family.

I'm surprised CNN would let this be published. This is essentially a confession that they have zero journalistic integrity.

341 posted on 04/10/2003 11:52:44 PM PDT by EaglesUpForever (Scott Ritter's breath smells like crow)
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To: diamond6
Um...it isn't CNN's job to "protect the citizens of Iraq",
(that used to be Saddam's job, and he failed miserably.)
CNN, as a news network, ALSO failed them miserably.
342 posted on 04/10/2003 11:53:46 PM PDT by MamaLucci (CNN ALLOWED SADDAM TO CENSOR THEM FOR YEARS!!!!!)
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To: MamaLucci
This should be in breaking news...
343 posted on 04/10/2003 11:55:15 PM PDT by Lucas1
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To: Howlin
OK, you're absolutely right. He was trying to protect Uday. What a brilliant observation! I'm proud of you!
344 posted on 04/10/2003 11:55:21 PM PDT by diamond6 ("Everyone who is for abortion HAS been born." Ronald Reagan)
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To: diamond6
He was protecting his own butt...
345 posted on 04/10/2003 11:56:12 PM PDT by marajade
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To: diamond6
Wherever YOU went to school dear, you need to sue them ! Reading comprehension is not exactly your forte.

Who is/was Uday ?

Uday is/was Saddam's son; a son who for all purposes, WAS " Iraq ". So, all you've managed to do is pick nits, where no nits exist. :-)

346 posted on 04/10/2003 11:56:24 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: diamond6
Uday was his source; you said he was trying to protect his sources in Iraq. I can connect dots.
347 posted on 04/10/2003 11:58:29 PM PDT by Howlin (It's a great day to be an American -- or an Iraqi!)
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To: nopardons
I'm well aware dear of who Uday is. I think you would get an F in reading comprehension.
348 posted on 04/10/2003 11:58:54 PM PDT by diamond6 ("Everyone who is for abortion HAS been born." Ronald Reagan)
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To: EaglesUpForever
Well, what did you expect from CNN ? Morals ? Ethics ? Journalistic terpitude ? LOL
349 posted on 04/10/2003 11:59:08 PM PDT by nopardons
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To: diamond6
Ok diamond, I've had all I can stand. Here's the detail of your argument. Think about it.

Sadam kills an estimated 5000 of his citizens per month. CNN knows this and even has anecdotal evidence among their own staff. So they keep quiet about the killings in the hope that this may make their 10 staff members safer.

Hmmm, 5000 a month dead for 13 years and you find this an acceptable trade off. Think about it. The truth is out there (but not on CNN).
350 posted on 04/10/2003 11:59:25 PM PDT by KingKongCobra
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To: marajade
Hey remember when CNN celebrated that Iraqis had voted for Saddam with a 100% vote return and that many had voted in blood...

Some likely from the blood of their decaying corpses.

I guess that's where Democrats get this from...

351 posted on 04/10/2003 11:59:48 PM PDT by Tall_Texan (Where liberals lead, misery follows.)
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To: diamond6
Oh please, compared to you, my reading comprehension ability is beyond genius. LOL
352 posted on 04/11/2003 12:00:21 AM PDT by nopardons
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To: Luis Gonzalez
You are suffering for his sin more than he is

Exactly, this media whore thought it more important to keep up appearances with the "prestige" of a Baghdad bureau, than actually report the truth of the brutality.

353 posted on 04/11/2003 12:00:49 AM PDT by Dane
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To: marajade
" You know as much as I detest Clinton... "

Today's New York Post, Page Six-Clinton was booed big time at the Beacon Theater in NYC,when he took the stage at a Willie Nelson concert.His aide said that Clinton wasn't booed,the noise was actually applause.These people all live in Bizarro World.
354 posted on 04/11/2003 12:00:52 AM PDT by Wild Irish Rogue
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To: KingKongCobra
I'm glad you piped up tonight! Keep it coming.
355 posted on 04/11/2003 12:01:22 AM PDT by Howlin (It's a great day to be an American -- or an Iraqi!)
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To: Toskrin
The writer clearly doesn't have a clear understanding of the realities on the ground because CNN has demonstrated again and again that it has a spine; that it's prepared to be forthright; is forthright in its reporting.

He has just admitted that this was a blatant and deliberate lie ("Each time I visited, I became more distressed by what I saw and heard — awful things that could not be reported because doing so would have jeopardized the lives of Iraqis, particularly those on our Baghdad staff."). Not only did he cover up for Saddam's regime, he couldn't even maintain a discreet silence about it, but went and did an interview in which he lied through his damned face about CNN's "forthright" reporting.

EASON JORDAN: We'd very much like to be there if there's a second war; but-- we are not going to make journalistic compromises in an effort to make that happen, being mindful that in wartime there is censorship on all sides, and we're prepared to deal with a certain amount of censorship as long as it's not-- extreme, ridiculous censorship where -- which we've actually seen a number of cases in previous conflicts -- not just with Iraq. But-- sure! We want to be there, but it's --we don't want to be there come hell or high water. We want to be there if we can be there and operate as a responsible news organization.

Them more I find out about this, the more depressed and angry I get.

356 posted on 04/11/2003 12:01:53 AM PDT by The Hon. Galahad Threepwood
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To: nopardons
No, I hadn't expected any of those, that's why this rare glimpse of honesty comes as a shock.
357 posted on 04/11/2003 12:02:05 AM PDT by EaglesUpForever (Scott Ritter's breath smells like crow)
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To: Wild Irish Rogue
LOL....isn't that what Michael Moore said, too?
358 posted on 04/11/2003 12:02:14 AM PDT by Howlin (It's a great day to be an American -- or an Iraqi!)
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To: Howlin
this is nothing nobody didn't really know, except the libs and other fools who actually believe the likes of Judy Woodruff & Co. After all, CNN is a Ted Turner creation and close to an outright propaganda wing for the DemoncRAT Party and for Saddam Hussein. What surprises me is the outright admission that they were so complicit in such dispicable acts. I used to think of CNN and their sickening ultra-lib anchor-people posing as objective journalists as just above dirt in value. I was wrong, they're not even worth dirt and the blood of many is on their putrid hands.
359 posted on 04/11/2003 12:02:46 AM PDT by Steven W.
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To: The Hon. Galahad Threepwood
Dear Sir Galahad,

I have not finished reading this entire thread, but please don't lose heart..

We need you, you have the heart of a Lion..

Free Republic can and WILL be heard..

How else was Chirac so dismayed to be referred to as a "cheese eating surrender monkey?"
(Personally, I think Chirac is a PIMP)

Also heard the Free Republic mentioned by Howie Carr, a popular radio talk show host back East..

Iraq is having her eyes opened and her heart renewed by America..that much is plain to see..if we back down from this story, we will be just as complicit as the coward who wrote this.

This much is true, if it is on here, the News Orgs already know of it..

Carry on, Good Sir!

Ms.B

360 posted on 04/11/2003 12:02:48 AM PDT by MS.BEHAVIN
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