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CNN SHOWDOWN: IRAQ
Media Battle Rages Despite War
Aired March 26, 2003 - 12:47 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. There's the war, and then there's the war to control the messenger. Our own Aaron Brown has more on that battle.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Away from the battlefield, another war is being waged.
GENERAL TOMMY FRANKS, CMDR., U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: Our troops are performing as we would expect, magnificent.
BROWN: A war of words.
MOHAMMED Al-SAHAF, IRAQI INFORMATION MINISTER (through translator): Shame on you. We will defeat you. We will destroy you.
BROWN: A war of images.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where do you come from?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Texas.
BROWN: To some, it is propaganda.
SADDAM HUSSEIN, PRESIDENT OF IRAQ (through translator): The victory is soon.
BROWN: Others will see as confidence.
GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And we will prevail.
BROWN: It is a war to spread rumors.
ARI FLEISCHER, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There are all kinds of rumors about what happened to Saddam Hussein and his sons.
BROWN: Or to quell them.
TARIZ AZIZ, IRAQI DEP. PRIME MINISTER (through translator): This is one of the easiest rumors to deny.
BROWN: To accuse.
FLEISCHER: There's no question we have said that Saddam Hussein possesses biological and chemical weapons.
BROWN: And to deny.
AZIZ (through translator): When they started to talk about the weapons of mass destruction, we know and we always knew that that was fabrication.
BROWN: To spin.
FLEISCHER: This war is about the very fact that Saddam Hussein will lie.
BROWN: And spin some more.
AZIZ (through translator): Don't believe them when they propagate news like this about anybody in the Iraqi leadership.
BROWN: To vilify.
BUSH: View the reign of fear of Saddam Hussein.
BROWN: To vilify back.
AL-SAHAF (through translator): Those criminals are lying to the world because they are natural criminals.
BROWN: Time is critical. It took almost no time at all for the Pentagon to release the pictures of the first missiles launched on Baghdad. It took no less time for Iraqi state television to broadcast footage of a wreckage of a U.S. helicopter.
It is a bilingual war.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING IN ARABIC) Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
BROWN: Where reality can be seen one way.
VICTORIA CLARKE, PENTAGON SPOKESWOMAN: Coalition forces have the key port of Umm Qasr.
BROWN: But also another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About the lies they are repeating in the media, about Umm Qasr.
BROWN: And caught in the middle, international media, trying to do a job, dissipating the fog of war. A media that can be embedded.
WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're out here with the 1st Squadron 7th Cavalry.
BROWN: Or expelled.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Iraqi officials told us they were going to close the CNN office. BROWN: It is a psychological war, warfare to win the hearts and minds of public opinion around the world, opinion that is divided.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA!
BROWN: Here at home ...
(CROWD CHANTING ANTI-WAR SLOGAN)
BROWN: ... as it is over there. Aaron Brown, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
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