inside the glass house

ABC Baghdad reporter target of gossip attack
NEW YORK-- When Jeffrey Kofman, a Baghdad-based correspondent for the American Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) TV network, did a widely-circulated piece on US soldiers openly lambasting their leaders for the military misadventure in Iraq, the Bush administration went ballistic.

One of the American soldiers in the news story was quoted as saying: "If (Defence Secretary) Donald Rumsfeld was here, I'd ask him for his resignation." A furious "White House operative," reacting to the ABC piece, is said to have planted a story in an online gossip column vilifying the messenger -- instead of retorting to the message.

The ABC news reporter, according to the item in the gossip column, was not only a Canadian but also a self-declared gay. Although both were irrelevant to the credibility of the news report, the gossipy item was meant to convey the impression that the reporter was not a true-blooded American but a "foreigner" who did not have the interests of the country at heart.

And the fact that the reporter was a homosexual was cannon fodder for some of the right wing, gay-bashing Christian fundamentalists who are strong supporters of the Bush administration. One White House critic said the double-edged story was an example of both "homophobia and jingoism."

As expected, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan denied that any of his staff members was responsible for the smear attack on Kofman. But as the American military occupation of Iraq is heading towards a debacle -- despite last week's killings of Saddam Hussein's two sons -- the Bush administration has continued to criticise what it calls the "liberal bias" in some sections of the American media.

Still, some of the most critical stories of the war in Iraq are coming from European, not American newspapers or TV networks. The smear campaign has also reached out to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which is being described by Bush supporters as the "Baghdad Broadcasting Corporation."

Even the Israeli government has blacklisted BBC on the grounds that it is too pro-Palestinian. When Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was in London recently, the BBC was barred from a news media breakfast.

Meanwhile, even the United Nations caved in to American pressure last week when it provided legitimacy to the 25-member, US-handpicked Iraqi Governing Council whose three-member delegation was allowed to address the Security Council.

But the meeting was briefly disrupted by two members of an anti-war US group, the International Occupation Watch Centre (IOWC), who shouted at the Iraqi delegates accusing them of representing an "illegal Council hand-picked by the United States."
Gael Murphy, one of the protesters who were dragged from the visitor's gallery by UN security guards, dismissed the Governing Council and its three-member delegation as frauds.

"The United Nations should not have endorsed the Governing Council," Murphy told me, just after she was ejected from the UN premises. "This is another example of the continued collusion of the United Nations with the United States," she said. "It just undermines the credibility of the United Nations."

She was also critical of Secretary-General Kofi Annan who, in his address to the Security Council, described the Governing Council as "an important first step towards the full restoration of Iraqi sovereignty."

The Governing Council, whose members have been described as "American puppets", is essentially a US creation -- and therefore does not represent the will of the 24 million Iraqis.

"Moreover," Murphy said, "How can the United Nations give legitimacy to a Governing Council, three of whose members are being investigated by Interpol?" And two other members of the Governing Council are known to have their own private militias in Baghdad.

The three-member delegation to the Security Council included Adnan Pachachi, a former foreign minister, Ahmad Chalabi, leader of the London-based Iraqi National Congress, and Aquila al-Hashimi, a diplomat who served in the foreign ministry under the former Saddam Hussein regime.

Murphy said that it was common knowledge that one of the members of the Iraqi delegation to the Security Council was a "convicted criminal" in Jordan. "If this is an indication of democracy -- as preached by the US -- Iraq is in deep trouble." But as it stands now, the military situation in Iraq could continue to worsen further before it could get better.

Perhaps what the Americans refuse to understand is that the continued attacks on US forces are not meant to be pro-Saddam but anti-military occupation.

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