All language subtitles for 컨트롤 룸 - Control Room (2004).en

You cannot wage a war
without rumors,

without media,
without propaganda.

Any military planner...

that plans for a war,

if he doesn't put
media, propaganda...

on top of his agenda...

he's a bad military.

- Okay, fine.
- 30 seconds.

Okay, I'll give you a countdown.

- Ten...
- Nine...

Not yet, lmad. Not yet.

Ten...

Nine, eight, seven...

Six, five, four...

Three, two, one.

- Cue.
- Cue.

Cue.

My fellow citizens,

the United Nations
Security Council

has not lived up to
its responsibilities,

so we will rise to ours.

Saddam Hussein and his sons

must leave Iraq
within 48 hours.

Their refusal to do so will
result in military conflict

commenced at a time
of our choosing.

For their own safety,
all foreign nationals

including journalists
and inspectors,

should leave Iraq immediately.

Many Iraqis can hear me tonight
in a translated broadcast,

and I have a message for them:

If we must begin
a military campaign,

it will be directed against the lawless men
who rule your country,

and not against you.

Your fate will
depend on your actions,

and it will be
no defense to say,

"I was just following orders."

It is too late for Saddam Hussein
to remain in power.

We will tear down
the apparatus of terror,

and we will help you
to build a new Iraq

that is prosperous and free.

I've never, ever in my life

I thought I would
live to see this, ever.

Do you know what I mean?

To find now, people...

you know, just normal
workers, not intellectuals...

basically saying that
Saddam is our hero,

that says something.

That America managed to...
the American policy of Bush...

managed to galvanize
people for Saddam

in a way that it's
just... so amazing.

It's amazing.

My own feeling is that
the message of Al Jazeera is,

first of all, educational,
to educate the Arab masses

on something called democracy.

Respect of the other opinion.

The free debate.
Really free debate.

No taboos.
Nothing is called taboo.

Everything should be
dealt with intelligently

and, uh, with openness,

and to try,
while using all these things,

to shake up these
rigid societies.

To awaken them.
Tell them, "Wake up! Wake up!

"There is a world around you.

"Something is happening in the
world. You're still sleeping.

Wake up." This is
the message of Al Jazeera.

Some of the equipment we're
taking to Baghdad with us.

This is our working gear. Huh?

When are you going to work?

But I don't think we
are gonna wear all this.

This and camera...
I don't think so.

Thank you.

What are these people preparing
for, a concert or something?

CentCom blues.

We've seen some, uh, movement
of Republican forces south.

We've been seeing
that for a week.

There are a number of
suspicious sites throughout Iraq

that we have sensitive
site exploitation teams.

Have you gotten
any information

on the whereabouts of Saddam
Hussein and the regime leaders?

I don't have specific information
on where Saddam Hussein is.

If I did, we'd... we'd go
find him there right now.

But it's about more than
one man, more than 55 men.

It's about the 23 million people of Iraq
and bringing them freedom.

That's what we're
really here to do.

Hi. How are you?

Josh Rushing.

I was your colleague in
BBC World long time ago.

Yes. Very long time,
in Bush House.

- Yes.
- Yeah. How are you?

- Fine. How are you?
- Who are you working for?

- AI Jazeera.
- Of course.

Why "of course"?

Because everybody who works for BBC
eventually works for Al Jazeera.

We believe that Iraq
has weapons of mass destruction,

that they had the will
to use them against us.

When?
What do you mean?

When did they use them against you?

That they have the will
to use them against us?

When? I mean,
do you think Sad...

When you say someone has
the will, that's like saying...

Saddam will threaten the U.S.
With weapons of mass destruction?

Yes.

When?

That's news to me. I'm sorry.

- This is... Now this is news to me.
- Okay...

When? When did Saddam threaten
the U.S. With weapons of mass destruction?

Oh, I see. I'm sorry.
I misunderstood your question.

We believe he had the will

to give them the forces
to use against us, and...

Well, go ahead.

I'm just conveying to you
what people are saying,

that the U.S. Is inventing
a purpose as it goes along.

In the beginning it was weapons
of mass destruction, and then

the whole thing transformed
into removing Saddam from power.

Why do they think we're doing it?
What do they think our motives are?

- No one knows. People think you're...
- Really?

People think you're there
to basically, uh, control, uh,

the oil of Iraq,
control the Iraqi,

uh, foreign, uh, politics.

Uh, to control
the, uh, region.

I won't back down
off of my point

when we talk about our intent
in this... in what we're doing.

We're not here
to-to occupy an Arab land.

We're not here to take
their oil. We're not here...

to-to kill Arabs or take mosques,

or any of the other...
myriad of reasons.

The American media
were hijacked

by some people within
their administration...

so as to be used as...

uh...

a leverage for inducing

some fears within
the American public.

Every time he used
to elevate the level of danger

from yellow to orange to,
uh, violet or purple.

I don't know what. Okay?

So as to make
the Americans always feel

that they are under siege,

and there is a threat,
and this threat...

was represented
by Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

"This guy... could develop
weapons of mass destruction

and give them to
Osama bin Laden to attack us."

So, when-when y...

a polling, uh,
institute comes to you,

"Do you feel threatened?"

You want to say, "Yes,
of course I feel threatened."

"Do you know that
this threat comes from

a guy called Saddam Hussein?"

"Huh? Is it?

So nuke him!"

Yes. They failed to get Saddam.
See, what they were hoping for

is 40 cruise missiles
falling on Baghdad,

then 400 paratroopers going
in and finishing the job.

Well, that failed.

They bombed this, uh,
place in Northern Iraq.

- Smashed completely.
- Pulverized.

Dead bodies en masse.
I mean, why?

We got the pictures
and we show them.

Of course we'll get...
we'll get grief

from the Americans for showing
these pictures because...

I guess we would be inciting
rebellion, and it would be

basically instigating
anti-American sentiments.

I mean, I'm sorry. They can't
have their cake and eat it.

I mean, yeah. Okay.

You are the most powerful
nation on Earth. I agree.

You can defeat everybody.
I agree.

You can crush everyone.
I agree.

But don't ask us...
to love it as well.

The question is,
who's going to stop it?

Or to stop the United States?
Who's going to do that?

You need a new, uh, new group.
You need a powerful group.

The United States is going
to stop the United States.

I have absolute confidence
in the American Constitution.

And I have absolute confidence

in the ability
of the American people.

The United States people

are going to stop
the United States empire.

- Make way.
- Make way.

Make way.
Make way. Make way. Make way.

Civilian casualties
are being reported

on the battlefield
through a number of sources.

We regret the loss of any
civilians on the battlefield,

and we have done all
that we can reasonably do

to prevent that from happening
from the air or on the ground.

But we know for certain there have been
civilians killed in this operation

because of the decisions
taken by the regime...

to put them in front,
to hide behind 'em,

to use pregnant women
to blow up cars at checkpoints.

We've seen this happen
on the battlefield.

Those are not being
investigated by us at this point.

Thanks very much, ladies
and gentlemen. Have a good day.

Here is, uh,
Command Headquarters,

which you call...
What's your little phrase?

Central Command?
Don't you have a short version?

CentCom news desk?

CentCom...
Right. Okay.

CentCom.

Huh?

It's C-E-N-T-C-O-M.

It sounds too much like
"sitcom." You gotta be careful.

- CentCom...
- Uh-huh.

With U.S. Army and State
Department spokesmen..."

- Right?
- Mm-hmm.

I've gone live on Al Jazeera,
and their questions were...

extremely combative.

They are biased
toward Saddam's regime.

I will give you one example.

When they cut away to
commercial, they have a, uh,

probably a 30- to 60-second
montage of video that plays.

Yeah.
Promo video.

It is American war planes.
American bombs exploding,

American tanks goin'
across the desert.

And then a... a baby child with
bandages on her head, crying.

And it never shows Iraqi troops.

You don't see American troops
treating a wounded P.O.W.

No. You don't see Iraqi
troops, uh, you know,

taking hostage families
or forcing people to fight

or firing on their own.

That brings us
back to my point.

Nobody has those pictures.
We, as Americans,

given all the historic,
psychological,

political problems,
vis-à-vis the Arab relations,

have to work a little harder.

And, I repeat, every one
of these damaging assertions...

And I have no reason
to disbelieve them,

because they certainly...
there's no reason why

Saddam Hussein and the Ba'athist
regime isn't doing it,

- Mm-hmm.
- Isn't using human shields.

Nevertheless, we don't
have the picture of it.

That's why pictures of
these things are so desperate.

That child was basically another
Iraqi weapon of mass destruction.

Wow.

Democracy.

This one. This one.
This one. Get in there.

Get on the fucking floor!
Get on the fucking floor!

Get on the fucking floor!

Face fucking front!

Face the fucking front!

So, here's my point.
This guy, Saddam, is probably

- the biggest threat to Arab Muslims
- Mm-hmm.

- That exists on the planet today.
- Right.

He's probably
killed more Muslims

- than anyone on the planet.
- No question.

No question about it. So...

Al Jazeera should be
reporting him as that,

rather than
protecting him as that,

- because I think they owe it to their audience.
- Right.

This is a threat.
This is a bad guy.

If the Muslim world doesn't know it,
that's 'cause they're not reporting it.

I think they're that ubiquitous
in-in-in the Muslim world.

These people, you know,
the whole world...

but particularly Arabs
who we always empathize with...

have been watching
Israeli troops,

especially in the last year,

crashing into
civilian districts, okay,

in Gaza, in the West Bank.

So, what they saw was an Israeli Army,
which is highly technological. Right?

And the officers are
all European-looking,

like you look, like I look.

And these images, unfortunately,
in the Arab psyche

are mingling now,
and the Israeli soldier

and the American soldier
become one image.

And the Palestinian civilians
who are being brutalized

somehow blend into the image
of this collateral damage,

or accidental bombings,

and it all becomes one image,
and that's disaster...

for the American side of it in
the... in the Arab perception.

We know that Al Jazeera has

a pattern of playing propaganda

over and over and over again.

What they do is-is,
when there's a bomb goes down,

they-they grab some
children and some women

and pretend that the bomb
hit the women and children.

It seems that it's up to all
of us to try to tell the truth,

to say what we know, what
we don't know, and recognize

that we're dealing with people
that are willing to...

to lie to the world to attempt
to further their case.

And to the extent people lie,

ultimately they are caught lying
and they lose their credibility.

It wouldn't take long for that to happen
dealing with people like this.

Thank you.

We wanted to show that

any war has a human cost.

Okay? We focused on that.

There is a human cost.
Because we care for the Iraqi people.

We are not like
Rumsfeld who says,

"We care for the Iraqi people."
He doesn't care at all.

Okay? We care for them.

We are Arabs like them.
We are Muslims like them.

Your heart can be
with your people.

Your soul can be
with your people.

But, as a journalist, your primary duty
is to get information.

- Absolutely right.
- Otherwise you would be something else.

A soldier or a diplomat.

I know what you mean, but...
Professionality, I... Okay.

I am representing my, uh, s-station,
but I am also representing my people.

You wanna help your people?
Get information.

Get news for your people.

Yeah. And he's a nice guy,
the lieutenant. You know?

Go to him. Say, "I really
appreciate it if you could..."

You could interview him.
He'll get on camera in front of you.

You know, but just don't be
combative. That's all. Smile.

- And-and-and be friendly.
- But we are facing war here.

I know, but you know
what I mean. I'm talking about the...

Yeah. But you were
advising me to smile.

- Yes. But I meant...
- How? How could...

I don't really mean that.
I didn't really...

How could I smile while my people
are being killed in Iraq? You know?

I was told early this morning

that perhaps
our troops were captured,

and if there
is somebody captured,

I expect those people
to be treated humanely.

Bill and then Mike.

Iraqi TV has shown what
appear to be American POWs

and also what appear
to be American dead.

I expect them to be treated...

The POWs I expect
to be treated humanely.

And, uh, uh...

Just like we're treating...

the prisoners that
we have captured, humanely.

I don't understand.

- Yes?
- I don't understand.

From where you
came from America?

From Kansas.

Why do you come?

'Cause I was told to come here.

I just follow orders.

You come to kill...
to kill Iraqi people?

No. I come to fix broke stuff.

I-I told to shoot
only if I'm shot at.

And they shot at me first,
so I shoot back.

I know... I don't
want to kill anybody.

Uh, what's your name?

Specialist Joseph Hudson,
585650287.

Where do
you come from?

Comin' from El Paso, Texas.

Say again?

Uh...

Why do you come
from Texas to Iraq?

I follow orders.

What's your name?

Edgar.

What's
your name?

Edgar.

Country?

My name is Edgar
from United States.

My name... My name is Edgar
from the United States.

What's your name?

Sergeant James Riley.

Where are do
you come from?

Texas.

You come
from Texas?

Yes.

How... How old are you?

Thirty.

- Yes?
- Thirty.

Thirty...

...calling the kettle black.

Rumsfeld is saying parading
the, uh, footage of the captives

uh, is a violation
of the Geneva Convention.

What do you call Guantanamo Bay?
What do you call the Iraqi

soldiers parading yesterday
on American television?

What do you call bombing
a city without authorization

from the U.N. Coun...
uh, Security Council?

Now there's a Geneva Convention?

The decision by Al Jazeera
to broadcast such material

is deplorable,

and we call on them to desist
from future broadcasts

of such a nature.

Are we sure about this news?
Are we sure?

Okay.

There's a lot of pressure,
obviously, on Al Jazeera

to withdraw
those pictures.

Were you surprised by the
reaction to those photographs?

Um...

I think, uh, they
were understandable.

The reactions didn't
really surprise me.

If you're an American and you're
seeing dead Americans,

of course it's going to,
um, affect you,

and you're gonna have
an emotional reaction.

But, you know, let the people...

understand that this is a war
and people are dying.

It's not a clean war.
It's a very messy war.

It will continue to get messier.

Your journalists have...

have a position on the war.

Are they capable
of being objective?

That's a good question,
but I ask the same question.

I'll answer the question
by asking the question.

Are any U.S. Journalists...

objective about this war?

Are any of the news
broadcasts that I tune into

not taking a position
on the war?

And that's absolutely...

Does that justify
your position, then?

No. But I'm just trying to show
that this word "objectivity"

is almost, uh, a mirage.

Um, you know,
if you're in the States...

I mean, the amount
of rage directed against us

because we showed soldiers

who had died in combat
or in an ambush...

They were soldiers who
had died in a war zone.

There was rage
directed against us.

If there was no agenda,
if there was no...

if there was true neutrality,
there would be a welcoming

of any and all information
from all sides.

The night they showed the POWs
and the dead soldiers...

Al Jazeera showed 'em...

it was powerful, 'cause America
doesn't show those images.

Most of the news in America
won't show really gory images,

and this showed American
soldiers in uniform

strewn about a floor,
a cold tile floor,

and it was, uh, revolting.

It was absolutely revolting.
It made me sick at my stomach.

And then what hit me was,
the night before,

there had been some kind
of bombing in Basra,

and Al Jazeera had shown

uh, images of the people.

And the... they were equally,
if not more, horrifying images.

And I remember having seen it in the
Al Jazeera offices and thought to myself,

"Wow. That-That-That's...
That's gross. That's bad. "

And then goin' away
and eating dinner or something.

You know, it didn't
affect me as much. So...

The impact that had on me,
me realizing that...

I-I just saw people on the other
side, and those Al Ja...

people in the Al Jazeera office

must've felt the way
I was feeling that night,

and it upset me
on a profound level

that I wasn't as bothered
as much the night before.

It-lt makes me hate war.

But it doesn't make me
believe that we're in a world

that can live without war yet.

Day by day, the Iraqi people
are closer to freedom.

Cut. Thank you. Well done.

Good job.

Al Jazeera has been critical,
but, at the same time,

they've been quite open to us,
inviting the U.S. Government officials

to speak directly
on their channel

and express
the American point of view.

And, uh, that's good.

While we may
disagree with certain

editorial policies
that they follow,

we do have respect
for them as an institution

that has wide reach
in the Arab world.

And, uh, as such,

uh, we feel the need
to have their points of view

and the points of view
of some of their guests

balanced by our own
points of view.

What do
you think?

Uh, this war, American and
British people lose the war.

- Will lose the war? Why?
- Ya.

- You lose the war.
- Why?

Why? Because Iraqi have...

These are the Shi'a
of Southern Iraq

who are receiving
the Americans with flowers.

...uhhhh, forces.

You lose the wars.

We're now watching Al Jazeera,

and, uh, I can tell...

what... what they're showing,

and then I can tell what they're
not showing... by-by choice.

Same thing when I watch Fox on
the other end of the spectrum.

I know which of the stories
they're picking up on,

and which ones they're
not giving much bounce.

It benefits Al Jazeera to play to Arab
nationalism, because that's their audience,

just like Fox plays
to American patriotism

for the exact same reason,
American nationalism, because

that's their demographic audience
and that's what they wanna see.

The part that disappoints me

is that Arab nationalism has
to include the anti-Americanism.

- Hi.
- How are you?

The Israelis and the United
States are trying to change...

everything in this area

in order to suit
the president of Israel.

See, the problem
with the Middle East...

everything is an Israeli...
conspiracy. Everything.

If a water pipe breaks
in the center of Damascus,

it will be blamed on the Israelis,

instead of blaming it
on our incompetence.

And don't tell me
it's Americanization.

Yeah, America is dominating,

but the rest of
the world is not castrated.

People are against this war,
and people are resisting.

And people matter.

I hope everybody in the world
will get the American passport

one day so this world
will be quiet.

God.

This is
a defeatist attitude.

Eventually, you will
have to find a solution

that doesn't include bombing
people into submission.

"Democratize,
or I'll shoot you." Hmm.

It just doesn't...
doesn't work this way.

- Jeffrey Steinberg.
- Jeffrey Steinberg.

- Steinberg.
- Jeffrey Steinberg.

And we have,
from Washington, uh,

Mr. Jeffrey Steinberg,
the political analyst.

Mr. Steinberg, would you say that the
Americans want to stay, militarily, in Iraq?

Uh, Mr., uh, Jeffrey Steinberg
from Washington,

thank you very much for being
with us live on our program.

That's it. I don't think
he was the right guest.

I have to talk to our,
uh, interview producer

to tell him that, uh,
this was a very bad choice.

Business as usual.

Iraq, uh... and then Iraq,

and then Iraq.

But, between us,

if I'm offered a job with Fox,
I will take it.

To change the Arab nightmare
into American Dream.

I still have that dream.

Maybe I will never
be able to do it,

but, uh, I have
plans for my children.

When they finish
their high school,

I will send them
to America to study.

I will pay for their study,

and they will stay there.

I really think the big thing
for my generation is for

these two perspectives...
my perspective,

the Western perspective,
and the Arab perspective...

to understand each other better.

It's our responsibility to try
to understand their perspective,

and I hope they
feel the same way,

that they need to reach out
and understand our perspective.

Because, truly, the two worlds

are colliding at
a rapid rate right now.

Al Jazeera, they've got the best
food. Best food, Al Jazeera.

They're also the nicest guys.

I'm so thankful
because I'm not a girl.

You know why? 'Cause I'd fall
in love with him directly.

All right, Johnny.
All right.

That's embarrassing.

I've met so many great Arabs
since I've been here.

I've been tryin' to learn Arabic
and they've been helping me. It's been fun.

You're welcome to come see us
in our workspace, if you like.

I respected Al Jazeera in the
sense that they were certainly

doing something that had never
been done in the Arab world,

and they were reaching a lot
of viewers, and they were...

ruffling a lot of feathers which
is a great part of journalism.

Part of what Al Jazeera
is struggling with is

how, when there isn't a long
tradition of being independent

and being able to say anything you want
in any of these kingdoms,

how do you establish that now?

We've got 200 years of
being able to build on that

in our country, and I think
that helps journalism.

Good afternoon,
ladies and gentlemen.

Coalition governments
have identified

a list of key regime leaders

who must be pursued
and brought to justice.

This list has been provided to
Coalition forces on the ground

in several forms
to ease identification

when contact does occur.

And this deck of cards is
one example of what we provide

to soldiers out... soldiers
and Marines out in the field,

with faces of the individuals
and what their role is.

Um, your deck
of 55 most wanted...

Um, does that include the
foreign Information Minister?

Because every pack
needs a joker.

Well said, Jeff. Well said.

I was wondering if we can get
copies of these, um, cards

as a part of the press pack
that we never got. Thank you.

Card packs are focused
to go elsewhere.

We don't have enough
to distribute,

but we can make 'em
available for you to look at.

Ladies and gentlemen,
thanks very much.

This argument has gone in there.
We've just spent ten minutes

talking with the general,
and he's not givin' up the pack.

If you've only got one,
could we just have them

put them on the wall,
and we can all have a look?

We've had this discussion.

Just borrow it for half
an hour and take pictures?

I know how to say "no"
in several languages.

So, that's where we stand.

But that is... unbelievably
inept to do that.

I'll be sure to convey
your thoughts to him.

Well, do. This isn't just a military operation.
It's a media operation.

And that is an incredibly
inept thing to do,

to offer that up and then
not have them available.

It is unbelievably inept.

You feel that you're
more important...

No. It's not more important.
It's the fact...

You just said it was more
important, and it's not.

I'm sorry, madam. It's
common sense to have two packs.

You put one on a wall.

Next time I run a war,
I'll remember that.

He's gone with his pack of
cards. He won't give 'em up.

We're not here to give,
uh, coverage to the press.

Uh, we're here to liberate
the people of Iraq.

Although you may not be seeing
a blow-by-blow account

of what's happening,
uh, rest assured,

we're on our mission
and we're completing our goals.

Not even allowed to touch
them or see them again.

All right. Bye.

They wanted to know if
I had the deck of cards.

Or if I could get them.

Sure.

If I had them, I wouldn't
be sitting here talking to you.

No. I mean, that thing
at the press conference...

He holds up this deck.

"These are the 55 members of the
regime we want dead or alive."

Gone.

All right. We'll do this.

Specifically, how this thing
that General Brooks mentioned

right outta the gate today,
evidence, as you mentioned...

I said, "Could I have
them for an hour?"

He said no. They've shown us by
holding them up in the briefing,

but beyond that are not willing
to release 'em just quite yet.

We haven't, uh, gotten to look
at the cards up close yet...

One question it raises was who's
gonna be the joker in the pack?

They say the list includes
the regime's top leaders,

and many more.

Change.

Run, Five. Count.

383 from beginning
and standby, please.

Major, what is
the situation now in Baghdad?

We are operating in
and around the city of Baghdad,

and that we have had
special forces on the ground

in and out of the city of
Baghdad for some time now.

- Thank you very much, sir.
- Thank you, sir.

- Hey, babe!
- Hello.

- How are you?
- Fine.

What about pictures
of tanks going into Baghdad

and people waving and smiling
at them. What's all that about?

Yeah.

Gosh. Okay, when do
you finish your shift today?

- 9:00.
- 9:00 tonight? Oh.

Okay, bubby.

- Hello. How are you?
- Fine, thank you.

So, how's everything going?

We don't know what's going on.

You said something, Iraq said
something. What's happened?

We want to know
what's going on.

The operation continues.
You know?

Uh, we are... we are in Baghdad.

And so, you know,
when we want to...

What's meaning
exactly "in Baghdad"?

Right now? Right now?

I can't point out
on a map, because...

that would let you know
where everybody is.

We'll see at
the press conference.

Did they tell you what would be at this press
conference today? They did? They came by?

Okay. It's Jessica Lynch.

Jessica Lynch.
The rescue mission.

You remember the girl
that we rescued?

Yes, yes, yes.

They're going... Yes.
They're going to tell you more

about her today.

We need to know more details
on what's going on...

In Baghdad.

That's the most important...

I know. I know.
He will try to do his best.

- Jessica is...
- I know. Okay.

In the situation we're talking
about with Private Lynch...

On about the 23rd of March,

her 507 maintenance
company was ambushed.

A number of the members of that
maintenance company were killed,

a number captured, and a number
were unaccounted for, she being one of them.

I was upset
that they spent so much time

giving us all of
the minute-by-minute,

this happened, she said this,
we said that,

this was our objective.

And on a day when you have
forces going into Baghdad.

It wasn't part of
the regular briefing.

I can't give you
any better answer than that.

I'm pretty comfortable
I know where those guys were.

Beyond that, I'm gonna leave
it there. Good try, though.

It seems like there's
an effort to manage the news

in an unmanageable situation.

They tried it
in the first Gulf War.

This time it was supposed
to be different.

Thank you for giving us
that level of detail about Jessica Lynch.

I have a couple of
follow-up questions about her.

They buried the lead,
and they're pretty good at it.

- Hi. How are you?
- Fine.

Do you have five minutes
for French newspaper?

Sure.

- I'm from Liberacion.
- You're from what?

Liberacion.

- You felt like it lacked context?
- Yes.

There were
no context at all.

I gotta tell ya, this was
a struggle for us,

because the last thing you want
to do is broadcast to the world,

which includes your enemy,

exactly where your troops are,
exactly what they're doing,

or exactly when they'll be there
and what they plan on doing.

So it was a real challenge
for us at this level.

We wanted to give a strategic
overview, a mosaic,

of what was going
on out there.

But we found if we
did it too well...

There was so much information
coming from the battlefield,

if we tied it all together too well,
it was a perfect intelligence report

for anybody watching
on the other side.

So we wanted to put out as much
information as we could here

without putting
our troops at risk.

? Yankee Doodle went to town?

? Riding there on Sunday?

? Found some people
living there?

? Killed them all by Monday?

Ah, let's see this...

liberating...

nice guys.

That's how Mr. Bush

was preaching
his democratic war.

From Syria, Lieutenant Rushing.

Thank you very much.

Lieutenant Rushing.

I was very happy because we kept
him like this for 15 minutes.

It's our way to torture people.

We say it all the time on the other side
of the wall... "No spin. Don't spin it."

And we catch ourselves doing it.
I catch myself doing it,

taking an event and spinning it
so strongly in one light,

that I have
to pull back and say,

"Well, wait a second."

That's not what
I'm here to do.

But when you feel
that a reporter is trying to present it

in a very certain light,

then you end up
having to defend it

in a polarizing effect,
like I was talking about,

over on this side of middle so that
the story will end up back in the middle.

This morning it was
the funniest report ever.

BBC.

He was surrounded by a bunch of Iraqi kids,
and they were saying...

chanting against Bush,

but he didn't know Arabic.

So he hears the name, Bush.

"And I'm surrounded by a bunch of children
cheering President Bush."

They were a bunch of kids cursing Bush.

And he thought they
were cheering Bush.

"Goddamn Bush.
Goddamn Bush."

If you've got Al Jazeera
day after day after day

pounding the people
in the region

with things that are not true,
which is what they do,

it isn't easy.

The media means nowadays

for people like Rumsfeld,
Bush and Cheney

is the media that is there

to defend the values
of these people.

They believe in these values.

So, for them,
defending these values

is right.

Obstructing the progress
of their own agenda

is misinformation.

Down!

Down! Get down!

All these images...
Who is going to miss all of this?

I mean, everybody
has a satellite dish.

Even a simple Bedouin
can run it on a generator

in the middle of the desert.

They can see it
for themselves.

The Americans,

they'll just radicalize
people more and more.

There'll be no more room
for people like me

who speak softly and rationally.

People will push
the likes of us aside,

and... they take things
into their own hands.

Believe me, nobody is crying
over Saddam Hussein.

Nobody's going to cry
over any Arab leader.

But the problem is

it's really degrading
to an Arab

to watch another
Arab capitol ransacked.

Did we ransack the capitol?

You bombed the hell
out of Baghdad.

We bombed the hell
out of Baghdad

with the most precision
munitions in the world.

We could save a lot of money. We could've
bought, what, a hundred normal bombs

what we pay for one
of the precision bombs.

They were
incredibly accurate.

Those precision bombs killed
so many civilians, my friend.

Compared to the carpet
bombing of Germany?

The carpet bombing of Tokyo?

The number of civilians killed,
I mean, it is no justification.

When a viewer sees that...

See, the bombing of Dresden was
before the days of television.

Since Vietnam,
the picture has changed.

And now in the Arab world,
of course,

we've come to discover
the wonders of television

much...

much later than
the rest of the world.

And when you see
the massacres in Palestine

and how people are butchered,

the idea, another
Arab capitol occupied,

is... is really
fueling anger.

Truth ultimately...

finds its way into people's
ears and eyes and hearts.

And I don't worry about
that over the long term.

Does it make me sad to see

television saying things
that are flat not true

and people printing things
in that part of the world

that's flat not true?

Children being taught things
that are flat not true?

Yes, it bothers me.

Rumsfeld called this
incitement.

I call it true journalism,

the only true journalism
in the world,

nothing else.

At 6:21 I received
a phone call

from our correspondent
in Baghdad,

saying that there's

a big fight around
our office in Baghdad.

So I put them
on the air live.

And we heard everything,
all the fighting going on,

but none of our correspondents was able
to go on top of the roof.

So... Oh, that's life.

They said it was
too dangerous.

But they said if
we can sneak out,

we can try to manage it.

At 6:47 the camera
that was filming

got stuck with a picture
of Tarek Ayyoub on the roof.

I shouted at them,

telling them
to move their camera

out of the face of this guy

because it has nothing to do
with the event... the fighting.

And they moved the camera.

Come on, come on.

Ten minutes later, I was on the phone
with the other correspondent,

and he said, "There's
a plane turning over us,

"and now it's coming
towards us.

And it's," he said,
"peaking down, nose down,"

which means
formation of attack.

And the American plane came

and launched the missiles
against our office.

And the explosion
killed Tarek Ayyoub.

When you announce that
one of your staff was hurt,

you expect phone calls
from the families

of all these reporters
and cameramen.

We received
only one phone call,

from the wife
of Tarek Ayyoub,

saying, "What happened
to Tarek?"

We told her,
"We didn't say it's Tarek."

She said, "I know.

"My heart tells me
it's Tarek,

and something happened to him."

"What can you say?"
I tell her.

So,

it was a hell of morning.

Everybody was crying

in the newsroom.

You can see their tears
coming down, except me.

I managed to...

to stay firm and not to cry

because it's too easy.

For me, that was a crime
that should be avenged,

or at least investigated.

Jim, as you can well imagine,
with 200 journalists inside this room

and the military
standing at the podium,

the question of the day
was about three incidents...

the strike against Al Jazeera
in the very early hours of the morning,

followed by a strike against
Abu Dhabi Television,

followed by the shot that was
fired at the Palestine Hotel.

These were questions that were
repeated several times, different variations,

but basically the same answer
from the military...

that the battlefield
is a dangerous place.

The only nearly safe position is of the
embedded reporters with coalition troops.

Asked about what could
journalists do to surrender,

whether they should put white sheets
out of the rooms or whatever,

they said basically that you
shouldn't be in this location.

In the run-up to this war,
the pentagon repeatedly warned journalists

that they should not
be in Baghdad

because precisely this kind
of thing would arise.

Now, some cynics might argue

that they simply didn't
want us there watching

while a particularly bloody episode
at the end of this war unfolded.

What's a journalist's take on
what happened in Baghdad today?

When you talk about killing three journalists
with three separate strikes,

journalists tend
to stick together,

just like soldiers
stick together.

I wonder how those two houses
and why they were targeted...

the Abu Dhabi and Al Jazeera...

Were they taking fire?
I didn't get my question answered.

The Americans are releasing
a statement that says,

"According to commanders on the ground,

"coalition forces came
under significant enemy fire

"from the building where
Al Jazeera journalists were working.

"And, consistent with the
inherent right of self-defense,

"coalition forces returned fire.

Sadly, an Al Jazeera correspondent
was killed in the exchange."

I have just faxed it to you,
so it should be there.

I'll give it to
the producers. Okay?

All right. Good-bye.

The first objective
of sending these missiles

on the offices of Al Jazeera
is to tell Al Jazeera,

"You're not siding 100% with us
against Saddam Hussein,

"so we are going
to punish you.

"We are sending
these missiles on you

"to kill...

to kill people."

Okay? We have received
the message.

We acknowledge the receipt
of this message.

If we really wanted
to shut down media coverage,

our army of tens
of thousands could do it.

We electronically jam
or do whatever we want to do.

But if the end is what
they want, is to shut down...

They want to turn
the media off...

By firing into a group of journalists,
you turn the media up.

So I don't think so.

We cannot compete with
the United States of America.

We are a tiny channel
in a tiny country.

What can we do?

We just shut up...

and try to go on,
uh, do our job.

That's it.

Welcome, colleagues,
and thank you for attending

what is a grave period
for us all, I believe.

Tarek

lived and died for his
and our professional integrity.

Let's hope it wasn't
all in vain.

I think we're open
for questions now.

The lady over there.

Thank you. I'm Anne Barnard
from the Boston Globe newspaper in the U.S.

And as a journalist
I'm sorry for what's happened.

What I wanted to know is
what is the latest communication you had

with representatives
of the U.S.?

Are you satisfied with their apology?
Was there an apology?

We have been expecting for a while
for the results of an investigation

which unfortunately came, and...

judging by the reports
of eyewitnesses,

it doesn't really fly.

And we are hoping that perhaps more light
will be shed in the future on the issue.

Now I think we managed to contact
the wife of our late colleague, Tarek.

She will deliver a message through telephone
from Amman in English for you.

You all could be Tarek.

Let's not let that happen.
Let's do something about it.

Welcome back.

Welcome home.
Welcome home.

We miss you guys.

You are most welcome.
You are home.

Coffee? Tea?

A malt. Coffee?

I was in Baghdad first.
Then I went to Mosul city.

And people are very nice.
People are very nice.

But after hitting
our office in Baghdad,

everybody was scared.

They didn't want to receive us

because they said,
"You are targeted.

"So if you start
your machines here,

the American airplanes
will target you."

This is shame.
This is shame. We are media.

We are not supposed
to be targeted.

No, no, we are not ready.
Hold on.

Okay. You can go
to the next item.

I don't have any correspondents
in Baghdad right now.

Let me just
bring you up to date.

The Americans are deploying
all around me.

We just heard a large
tank round go up.

Let's go over here and talk to the guy
who's unfolding the stars and stripes.

What's your name, mate?

What's your name?

Miguel Jimenez.

Good to see you.

Get that flag going.

Incredible.

Geographically,
what are we looking at?

Whereabouts is this?

What does it actually mean,
this point where the coalition troops are?

This is one of
the main squares in Baghdad.

It's a kind of focal point. For the British
viewers, it's kind of like Trafalgar Square.

Is that a statue of Saddam?

I can see the...
Okay, right.

I still can't believe it. It's...

I don't know what
to say, really.

It's... I can't...

It's... For us
it's really shocking,

how quickly the regime fell.

Where is
the Republican Guard?

Where is the Iraqi army?

They must be somewhere.

They couldn't have
just vanished.

A lot of young men and women
who died to make this moment happen, guys.

- Yes.
- A lot of reporters, too.

Good morning, Katie.

I am here with the director
of strategic communications

for United States Central Command.

What are the most striking
images that you've seen so far?

I think the most striking
images are any time you see

women, children and men
in Iraq celebrate.

These are good images.

Uh, it's important images,

and clearly they're happy.

They're almost liberated,
if not fully liberated.

You look at these pictures,
and you have to stop

and remember those Americans
and U.K. Soldiers and others

who have died to make
these moments happen.

Thank you very much for your insights
this morning. Katie, back to you.

- Thanks a lot.
- Wasn't that powerful?

You just think of all the folks that died
to make those moments happen.

It's amazing.

- Was I okay?
- Yes. Come back to us, though.

Thank you. You did great.

The Americans played
the media element

intelligently.

On the 9th of April,

the American troops

went down to Firdos Square.

It was a show.
It was a media show.

After having bombed
Al Jazeera

and some part of
Abu Dhabi Television,

they did this show.

They brought with them
some people,

supposedly Iraqis,
cheering up.

These people are not Iraqis.

I lived in Iraq.
I was born there.

I was raised there.

Okay? I can recognize
an Iraqi accent.

For me the most telling part

was when the American soldier
hanged the American flag

over Saddam's head.

I think somebody must have told him,
"Don't be that obvious.

We didn't tell you to do this.
Put it down. "

It's not a sense
of celebration.

It's a sense of relief,

their seeing Saddam Hussein...
disappearing.

That makes them feel
like a big burden

is taken off
their shoulders,

but they are not welcoming
the Americans as true liberators.

It was a very clever idea,
what they did. Of course.

They did it on purpose.
They knew they were coming to the square

where all
the journalists were,

where everybody
was going to be live

and was going to forget
everything else they had done.

They were going to forget
24 hours, what had happened.

They were going to forget
all the civilian casualties.

They were going
to forget everything.

All that was going to be
remembered was this statue.

And I bet they brought in
these teenage guys

who, like, broke the statue,
put it down.

They brought them in
with them,

because, if you notice, they're
all sort of the same age.

No women.

And they all went in,
and it was the same people on the square.

You couldn't see more people
gathering from the houses around.

No one came down to the street to see what
was happening 'cause people are scared.

And these people who came in,
how come one of them had

the flag of Iraq before 1991
in his pocket?

Has he just been waiting there
for ten years with the flag

on that square?

I don't think so.

But this is not something that
the U.S. Media would talk about.

The show was meant
for the international media.

Here we are in Baghdad.

The war...

is finished.

Yeah!

Thank you.

Major combat operations
in Iraq have ended.

In the battle of Iraq,

the United States and
our allies have prevailed.

The regime of Saddam Hussein
has passed into history.

Thanks to the courage
and might of our military,

the American people
are more secure.

Thanks to the courage
and might of our military,

the Iraqi people
are now free.

Now that Iraq is liberated,
the United Nations should lift

economic sanctions
on that country.

The whole war actually
is like an American movie.

You know the end.
You know who's the hero.

You know the bad guys.
They're going to die.

And... But you still watch because
you want to know how it's going to happen

and what weapons they're going
to use to, like, do it.

I mean, we lost Tarek.
I still can't believe that, you know.

I still... I still cannot,
like, sort of get it through...

And then we lost Baghdad.

And then what are we
going to lose next?

Do you know where the Baghdadis
and the people of Mosul

and how they're
organizing their lives

as from maybe this morning
or this afternoon?

From mosques now.

They're using
the loudspeakers.

There is no other way
of communication.

There is no government,
no authority, no civil order.

They're carrying sticks
and things to defend their property.

I mean, these people...

I see this...
Look at them.

They are the Kurds.

They are the ones who helped
the Americans throughout this campaign.

They're walking out
with sackfuls of money.

And you know why they
are ripping them to pieces?

Because in the Kurdish areas

they use a different, old
version of the Iraqi dinar.

This is meaningless.
That's why they...

We're in the middle of anarchy.

I want you to find out what it was,
that stuff they were throwing in the air,

whether that was
their old currency.

Hilarious.

It's almost like
The Price Is Right. Whoo!

The looting was done by Iraqis.
That's the bottom line.

And so it was done under the
noses of the Iraqi population.

The question is, who did the looting?
I think that's another issue.

According to Brooks, that answer
today was just ridiculous.

He suggested that Iraqis
were somehow supposed to be responsible

for preventing the looting
at that time,

which you say is still during
intense combat operations.

How some person
with a conscience

was supposed to stop
a bunch of riled-up looters

from going into the museum,
I don't know.

I mean, you needed a tank there
and guys with guns to stop it.

- The nation deserves some responsibility.
- How? How?

You guys took over this city.

How can you expect people
to stand up and try...

You don't think the looters
are responsible for what happened?

The looters are, but the people
who didn't want it to be looted

shouldn't be held responsible

for preventing the chaos
that erupted because you guys went in.

There is a responsibility there...

the Iraqi people to create
their own situations

where they protect
their cultural sites.

- We don't want to occupy Baghdad.
- But you are.

- We don't want to keep troops here.
- You are occupying it right now.

As we speak,
you occupy Baghdad.

Which is something you want us to do
because you want us to stop the looting.

No. Regardless...
I mean, you do...

If we pulled out, the looting
and the reparations at this point...

You do or you don't.

I'm not wrong in saying
you occupy Baghdad right now.

Okay.

You do occupy Baghdad?

When you do report that,
you say right now,

- and then it's temporary, right?
- Regardless.

Maybe you can
justify that to me.

I understand you.
I understand where you're coming from.

I understand the West. I understand
the mentality. I understand the American Army.

I understand what's going on.
I understand Iraq.

But to an average viewer,
what do they see on television?

American tanks in the center
of Baghdad. That's what they see.

That's what I'm trying
to convey to you.

Occupation will be us rolling into the center
of town and raising the American flag.

Try to put yourself in the place
of an average Arab viewer.

The Arab viewer sitting in a coffee shop
in Cairo, Damascus,

Amman, Khartoum, Morocco.

Just that simple viewer,
the simple person.

You're not talking facts.
You're talking their perception.

I see how it could be
perceived as that. I do.

But there's a feeling in America
that there's an instability in this region.

Do you hear what I'm saying,
that there's this instability?

Yeah, I do.

But they're going
to the wrong place.

How about
the Arab-lsraeli conflict?

I absolutely agree with you.

Why don't they want to do
anything about it?

They're doing nothing
about it,

and it's increasing the anger.

If I get out of the Marine
Corps and do anything,

I want to do something
with the Palestinian issue.

I don't think Americans are getting
good information about it. I really don't.

But no American connects
the Palestinian issue and this issue.

They're completely different.

They might as well be on different sides
of the world as far as they're concerned.

I have yet to meet anyone
in this part of the world

that sees them as
not the same issue.

Everyone here sees 'em
as the exact same thing.

Misunderstanding is running
across the board.

And it's so complex.
That's why I...

I'd like to talk about it more.
Will you be around in one hour?

How long do you all have?

What time is it?
Oh, my goodness, 5:00.

- You're welcome to have dinner or whatever.
- I would love to.

- I don't think we can leave base, though.
- Really can't?

My wife Cathy lived in Jerusalem,
speaks perfect Hebrew.

You'd really love
talking to her. Really.

I'll ask, see if
I can get permission.

If you get permission, you are
more than welcome. Thank you very much.

And I'll be back in an hour.

History tells us that...

human beings have
short memories.

Who thinks now
in the United States

about what happened
in Somalia in 1993?

Nobody.

Who thinks about what happened
in Bosnia-Herzegovina?

Nobody thinks about that.

History is written
by the victors.

All what will be left
from this war

are just scripts

and some history books,

and that's it.

Anyway, good seeing you.
I hope we meet again.

- Massalam.
- Aleichem salam.

Life will continue, will go on.

There will be other problems.
There will be other things to think about.

Oh, rain.

There is one single thing
that will be left.

Victory, and that's it.

People like... victory.

They don't like
justifications.

You don't have to justify.

Once you are victorious,
that's it.