The News We (CNN) Kept To Ourselves [must read]

The New York Times ^ | 04/11/03 | EASON JORDAN

[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.

[Freedom2specul8]

"Why didn't he at least rein in his Judy Woodruff's etc.?"

Everytime something happens, I lose my faith again. Our media is completely hopeless.

[Howlin]

Am I wrong, or are they OUR airwaves that CNN uses?

Don't they owe us the truth?

I thought that's what journalism was, and now here we have yet more situtational ethics!

[Vets_Husband_and_Wife]

FoxNews "Eric Burns" has been talking about it all day. CNN won't like his stand on it either!!

Eric Burns will have a special on Saturday night at 6:30 pm (CT?)

I have a feeling he will be covering the "ethical" aspects of this. Again.. CNN won't like it if he does!

[Lucas1]

Quote "We all thought Al- Jeezera was criminal but their actions pale in comparison to those of CNN. If they had brought these stories to the forefront the tyranny of
Saddam would have ended long ago."

Excellent...this is SOOOO true. Al-Jeezera looks great compared with CNN!!!!

[Howlin]

He has a band job tonight, so I'll be here with you all, still carping about this!

But I am going out with my stepdaughters and their children for an early dinner!

Thanks.

[Freedom2specul8]

I've decided that we are forever victims..victims of the press, victims of Bill of rights enemies in congress..thnking about patriot act II... We might as well face it. We the people have no more control. (/defeatist mode off)

[ken5050]

Excellent comments...FYI..in case you missed it, must read Pirhana's comments on #744 this thread....he's new...and he's very good....regards

[Freedom2specul8]

ps:THe FCC says they're OUR AIRWAVES..but our doesn't include US.

[Freedom2specul8]

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY
WE'RE ALL SO GLAD YOU CAME
HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY
FROM THE FREEPER GANG!

[Howlin]

Thanks!

[Squantos]

Ted Fondas Communist Nooooze Network.........I'm not suprised by this BS from them at all. We "all" knew they were of such caliber years ago Travis. They were , are and will always be self agrandizing presstitutes of the nth degree.

Only one thing can make me watch their propaganda and that is if every other channel has that whorebait POS Whorealdo on the air. Just my personal opinion of course.......mine none the less.

Stay Safe Travis !!

[Stakka Skynet]

Why does none of this suprise me?

[KingKongCobra]

Mr Jordan is living with some serious guilt. He wrote this admission to ease his guilt. There's an interesting finish to it where he says now more stories can be told. See it? He's trying to get other writers to admit their guilt also. This way he can share his pain with others and ease his conscience. If others will admit that they did it too, he won't feel so bad.

May he never get a comfotable night's sleep for the rest of his miserable life.

[Timesink]

Run-DMC?

[Toskrin]

He doesn't come across like he is confessing. He is just telling the rest of the story. He slants the story so we should feel sorry for CNN having to work under these conditions, and that we should remain grateful that CNN stayed in Baghdad as long as it did.

Does he really feel guilty and humiliated? You bet he does. Why else would he rush this story out only 24 hours after the the Baghdad press was "freed"? There's a lot more that he wants to say. Nic Robertson is in on it too, I'm sure. Nic reports the news like he has a gun to his head...

[Beck_isright]

Today is a good day to short AOL stock. Wow, what a bunch of screw ups.

V

[Captain Shamrock]

"I am shocked...shocked to find gambling going on in this establishment!"

This is the first death knell of Liberal Journalism.

[goodnesswins]

Shorting AOL stock....LOL.....hey....it's a little late, I think....sorry....(I know from bad experience.)

[Freedom'sWorthIt]

"Media corruption runs wide and deep like an open sewer whose stench you cannot escape. It's time to clean it up. "

You are so right, PW! BRAVO for your efforts!

I am sure that somewhere in this great land, there are enterprising souls who can come up with an apt "clean it up" solution.

Let's get to work to figure it out.

(Howlin - I did not see the article, info you mentioned in your response to me a few hundred posts ealier....)

[kcvl]

Brad.Turell@turner.com
Walter.Isaacson@turner.com
Rick.Davis@turner.com
Eason.Jordan@Turner.com
stevecase@aol.com
allfeedback@cnn.com


655 posted on 04/11/2003 8:31 AM PDT by Howlin