'Iraqis did have Scuds' (Brit correspondent admits she "self-censored" her reports)

The UK Guardian ^ | June 11, 2003 | Ciar Byrne

[Dog]

Wasn't this reporter hanging out in front of our Baghdad cam with Pretty Chicken during the war??

[Dog]

Media coming clean again..

[maica]

"The Atlanta Constitution had two correspondents but the American networks weren't there and that's very serious because it means the Americans don't know what happened," Hilsum said.

And this person calls herself a reporter? I think Americans were getting reports from Baghdad regularly. Does she actually believe that reporting from Rather, Jennings or Brokaw would have been better than what we saw on Foxnews?

She claims to have self-censored amazing news. How were people served by her only reporting 'safe' facts.

[Dog]

I'll be damned she saw a SCUD near the first market "bombing"

Hilsum saw a missile launcher in a back street of Baghdad after losing her way when driving to the scene of the first marketplace bombing in the city, in which 14 people were killed.

Although Channel 4 News was not censored by Saddam's secret police, the Mukhabarat, Hilsum decided not to report on what she had seen for fear of being ejected from the city.

[redbaiter]

I saw the hole that missile hit made in the pavement, and it didn't look near big enough to have been one of ours. It looked the size of your average Philly pothole. And I also saw a photo of the Baghdad night sky, showing the SAMs going straight up.... and coming straight back down, having failed to find a target. To my layman's mind, case closed: Most of these errant missile hits were Iraqi SAMs being used improperly and launched way too close to civilian areas.

[Howlin]

I wonder how many others "self censored" so they could stay in country.

Disgusting.

[John H K]

Channel 4 News diplomatic correspondent Lindsey Hilsum

If anyone can claim that it's likely a British female diplomatic correspondent can tell a "SCUD" from a SA-2, then I'm Saddam Hussein.

Even the military started using "SCUD" as a generic term for "missle" during the war.

The missile that people saw in the background on TV coverage in Baghdad was a SA-2, for example (a really big surface-to-AIR missle) and I suspect that's what she saw.

And we now know there were no SCUDs fired at Coalition forces during the war; there was a lot of misuse of "SCUD" as a generic term, particularly by Kuwaiti military sources.

[Dog]

She knew the truth of that market bombing and decided to hide the fact of the missile launcher until what 3 months later.....the %$#%^@!!!!!!!

[ladyinred]

Better late than never? In some sense, I suppose the answer is yes. In another however, they wonder why we don't trust the media? Always looking out for number one, and the safety of American and British forces, not to mention the civilians they cared so much about, be damned!

[FreedomCalls]

[Dog]

John this isnt about the what size the missiles the Iraqis had .....this is about a reporter deciding her access to the story was more important than getting the real facts out.

She knew the Americans were being blamed for that market bombing yet she hid the fact of that missile launcher being parked near that market.

[xm177e2]

KEEP IN MIND: Just because this bimbo thinks the misile in question was a "Scud" DOES NOT MAKE IT SO. There are a lot of different surface-to-surface missiles, and nobody denies Saddam had these (I mean, he fired them at coalition forces), but "Scud" refers to a specific type of missile that is especially notable because it was banned for Saddam after Operation Desert Storm.

[veronica]

Barf. I prefer this gang...:)

[El Gato]

The missile that people saw in the background on TV coverage in Baghdad was a SA-2, for example (a really big surface-to-AIR missle) and I suspect that's what she saw.

Quite possibly, but one of the illegal missles that Saddam did have, the one we saw in pairs in the back of trucks and so forth, was a derivitive of the SA-2, even though it was a surface to surface missle and not a SAM. They put on smaller control fins, since a SSM doesn't need to manuever as violently as a SAM does, the weight saved could then be used for a combination of more fuel and bigger warhead. The SSM, the Al Samoud used the same motors as the SA-2.

[cavtrooper21]

Maybe she needs to apply for a position with CNN... Sounds like she would fit right in with their style of journalism/editing...

[bigfootbob]

What is it Mike Savage calls gals who look like her? Mean faced, clipped haired.....

[FreedomCalls]

Mean faced, clipped haired.....

And that is her official portrait from the Channel 4 web site!

[optimistically_conservative]

I'm skeptical of her assessment as well. I'm not sure what training she has had in missile/launcher identification.

And I also agree that SCUD, a prohibited missile family, had become a generic term for reporters.

Regardless, this missile would be a military target in a civilian area.

Also, I'm not aware of any reports on the missiles that were fired by Iraq, particulary at the beginning of the war (http://www.sacbee.com/24hour/special_reports/iraq/story/829513p-5850028c.html):

"Spokesman Jim Wilkinson told The Associated Press Thursday that Iraq had fired at least two missiles exceeding the 150-kilometer (93-mile) limit, one that flew 158 kilometers (about 99 miles) and one that flew 190 kilometers (about 119 miles), since the war started.

"Kuwait's U.N. Ambassador Mohammad Abulhasan also claimed in a letter to the Security Council that at least one of 11 missiles fired by Iraq into Kuwait between Thursday and Monday was a banned Scud missile."

[Bubba_Leroy]

"The Atlanta Constitution had two correspondents but the American networks weren't there and that's very serious because it means the Americans don't know what happened"

The Americans don't know what happened because news sluts like this bimbo and CNN weren't telling us.

They didn't want to report the truth because they were afraid they would get thrown out of Iraq. If they aren't going to report the truth, what the hell is the point of their being there?