|
Gulf War disinformation PR exec.
promotes Private Jessica memoir
By Andrew Buncombe
Washington, DC, Oct. 19— In the murky world where myth,
reality, and disinformation merge, a public relations consultant responsible
for spreading one of the most notorious falsehoods of the first Iraq
war is promoting a new account of one of the most controversial episodes
of the second.
Lauri Fitz-Pegado, a former US official, is helping to publicize a newly
published book by Mohammed Odeh al-Rehaief, an Iraqi lawyer who provided
information to US forces searching for prisoner of war Jessica Lynch.
In his book published on Friday, Because Each Life is Precious: Why
an Iraqi Man Risked Everything for Private Jessica Lynch, Rehaief tells
how he risked his life to get news to US troops that the captured 19-year-old
soldier was lying injured in a hospital bed in the Iraqi city of Nasiriyah.
“I cannot say how I had pictured this American PoW but I never
imagined her as quite so small or quite so young,” he writes, recounting
how he saw Pvt. Lynch being slapped by an Iraqi militiaman who was interrogating
her.
“In that moment I felt compelled to help that person in the hospital
bed. I had no idea of what I could do, but I knew that I had to do something.”
Rehaief’s actions helped lead US forces to the city’s Saddam
Hospital, where special forces carried out a dramatic night-time “rescue.”
The Pentagon was quick to seize on the mission and leaked many details
about the photogenic Pvt. Lynch, her efforts to avoid capture and the
resistance the Special Forces soldiers met — details that subsequently
proved to be false.
Rehaief, 33, has been well-rewarded for his actions. In addition to
the $300,000 advance he was paid by HarperCollins, the lawyer and his
wife were granted asylum in the US. He has also been hired by one of
Washington’s biggest lobbying firms, the Livingston Group, and
as a consultant for a TV movie about Pvt. Lynch.
Fitz-Pegado told The Independent yesterday that she was handling press
relations for Rehaief in his capacity as an employee of Livingston.
But she has previously been involved in another high-profile PR campaign
involving Iraq. In 1990 — following the invasion of Kuwait by Saddam
Hussein’s forces — she was a senior executive with the PR
firm Hill & Knowlton, which was hired by the Kuwaiti royal family
for almost $12 million to run a campaign to pressure the US government
into acting against Iraq.
One of the key elements of the campaign focused on allegations that
Iraqi soldiers had thrown Kuwaiti babies out of their incubators and
taken the machines back to Baghdad. One of the most powerful pieces
of evidence was the testimony of a 15-year-old Kuwaiti girl, “Nayirah,”
who told a Congressional hearing: “I volunteered at al-Addan hospital.
While I was there I saw the Iraqi soldiers come into the hospital with
guns.
“They took the babies out of the incubators, took the incubators
and left the babies on the cold floor to die.” It later emerged
that the allegations were entirely false.
Nayirah was in fact the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the US
and had been coached on what to say by Fitz-Pegado. Fitz-Pegado later
told the author of a book about media censorship and the Gulf war: “Come
on ... Who gives a shit whether there were six babies or two? I believed
her.” On Oct. 18, she said she had been quoted out of context:
“What I meant was one baby would be too many.”
Rehaief’s book is being published just two weeks before Lynch’s
own memoir — co-written by former New York Times reporter Rick
Bragg, who recently left the newspaper under a cloud — reaches
the bookshops. Lynch is due to give an exclusive interview to ABC television
on Nov. 11.
Source: Independent (UK)
Court agrees to try US soldiers
for reporter’s death in Iraq
By Tito Drago
Madrid, Spain, Oct. 17 (IPS)— Three US soldiers are to
be indicted in Spain for the death of Spanish journalist and cameraman
José Couso in the war in Iraq. The Audiencia Nacional, equivalent
to a federal court, on Friday accepted the lawsuit filed in May by the
victim’s family.
A source from that court told IPS that the death could be categorized
as a “crime of war,” because the ones who fired the weapon
were soldiers and the victim was a civilian.
Even if it is proven that there was no intention to kill, Article 23.4
of Spain’s Organic Judicial Law would allow it to be described
as “a casual but intentional crime of war.”
The source said these criteria were applied in the case against the
perpetrators who set fire to Spain’s embassy in Guatemala in January
1980, killing 37 people.
That lawsuit went forward because there were Spaniards among the dead,
giving Spanish courts jurisdiction to try the case — a precedent
that will have to be taken into account in the Couso case.
Couso, 38, father of two young children, died in Baghdad on Apr. 8 when
he was mortally wounded by a shell fired from a U.S. tank at the Palestine
Hotel, the known residence for most foreign journalists covering the
war in Baghdad. There were no Iraqi forces in the area.
The Central Command (Centcom) of the US army said in a report released
Aug. 11 that the attack was based on reliable intelligence reports about
an enemy lookout that directed fire against A Company of the 3rd Infantry’s
64th armored regiment, to which the tank that fired at the Palestine
Hotel belonged.
According to the Centcom report, A Company personnel “observed
a person with binoculars on the balcony of a room on the upper floors
of a large tan-colored building.” It was only “some time after
the incident” that the soldiers realized that it was the Palestine
Hotel.
The soldiers also saw “flashes of light, consistent with enemy
fire, coming from the same general location as the building.” The
tank fired “at the suspected enemy observer position,” says
the text.
“Immediately following that, monitored transmissions indicated
that the enemy observer was taking fire and coordinated enemy fire directed
at A Company ceased.”
“The activities on the balcony of the Palestine Hotel were consistent
with that of an enemy spotter” and the tank fired “a single
round in self-defense in full accordance with the rules of engagement,”
concludes the Centcom report.
Judge Guillermo Ruiz Polanco, of the Audiencia Nacional, accepted the
lawsuit filed May 27 by Couso’s mother and siblings against three
members of the 3rd Infantry Division for “assassination and crime
of war.”
The defendants are Sgt. Tom Gibson, Capt. Phillip Wolford and Lt. Col.
Phillip de Camp, the last being identified by the plaintiffs as “the
person who gave the order to fire on the Palestine Hotel.”
Respected jurist Leopoldo Torres, former attorney general of Spain,
predicts that the case will not prosper because the chief prosecutor
of the Audiencia Nacional has demonstrated in previous cases that he
would oppose such proceedings.
This case has no future, but the lawsuit that Lola Couso, the victim’s
widow, is planning to file in the United States does, added Torres.
Couso confirmed in an interview with IPS that she will file a civil
lawsuit in the United States, advised by Torres himself and by the international
organization Reporters Without Borders, which is actively pushing for
a murder investigation and appropriate legal action.
As far as the case that was accepted Friday in Madrid, Couso agrees
with Torres that it has little chance of succeeding. Nevertheless, she
said, “They must carry it forward, because it sets a precedent.”
Washington firmly opposes trials of US citizens in other countries,
and the Spanish government is creating obstacles for the local court
decisions that call for the extradition of the accused.
Journalist Gustavo Sierra, of the Argentine daily Clarín, was
at the Palestine Hotel on Apr. 8, two stories above Couso. Sierra, like
dozens of journalists who witnessed the attack, said there was nothing
that would have given the invading forces reason to suspect that anyone
at the hotel was attacking them.
Jon Sistiaga, of Tele5 (where Couso worked), Monica García Prieto,
of El Mundo newspaper, and Carlos Hernández, of Antena 3 Televisión,
all based in Spain, were subpoenaed by the judge to testify as witnesses
on Oct. 23.
The judge took that decision after receiving a report from government
attorney Ignacio Gordillo in favour of opening the investigation, despite
the fact that the chief prosecutor of the Audiencia, Eduardo Fungairiño,
told the media on May 8 that the ministry would oppose the action.
Fungairiño could still appeal, but on previous occasions the
Audiencia has refused his petitions, as occurred in the case that Spanish
judge Baltasar Garzón carried out — unsuccessfully in the
end — against former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, for crimes
against humanity.
Rafael Permuy, Couso’s uncle and spokesman for the family, said,
“Finally, a door to justice is opening,” and commented that
Friday’s decision stands in contrast to “the shameful attitude
of the Spanish government,” which has never given an opportunity
to find out the truth or to carry out justice.
Speaking on behalf of an artists group against the Iraq war, El Gran
Wyoming, a Spanish television host and artist, criticized the center-right
government of José María Aznar for “insisting on
considering Couso’s death an accident.”
“An accident does not have a previous phase of aiming, charging
and firing against a concrete target,” he said.
El Gran Wyoming predicted that the government would never demand justice
in the case because the Aznar administration is known for “sticking
out its chest before the weak, and lowering its pants before the strong,”
a reference to Madrid’s continued support for Washington in the
war against Iraq.
Izquierda Unida (United Left), the political opposition coalition, describes
Couso’s death as “a crime of war... committed in the context
of an illegal and unjust war, supported by José María
Aznar to its ultimate consequences.”
The coalition announced that its representatives in local government
would file motions demanding that the national government order an independent
investigation into Couso’s death.
These efforts come on top of the initiative by all parliamentary groups
in the National Congress, except for Aznar’s governing Popular
Party, which have requested the diplomatic and political steps necessary
for investigating the killing.
|
