UPDATED - ColdType

EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
them to verify what they claim to find.
One of the inspectors who was charged with
finding such weapons is now speaking out.
Aftenposten in Norway reports a story I have yet
to see on American TV:
“A U.S.-based Norwegian weapons inspector
accuses the USA and Secretary of State Colin
Powell with providing the United Nations Security
Council with incorrect and misleading information
about Iraq’s possession of weapons of
mass destruction (WMD), newspaper Dagbladet
reports.
“Joern Siljeholm, Ph.D. in environmental
chemistry, risk analysis and toxicology, said that
the USA’s basis for going to war is thin indeed,
and called it a slap in the face to the United
Nations weapons inspectors.
“Siljeholm told Dagbladet that Colin Powell’s
report to the Security Council on how Iraq camouflaged
their WMD program was full of holes.
Much of what he said was wrong. It did not
match up at all with our information. The entire
speech was misleading, Siljeholm said.
“We received much incomplete and poor intelligence
information from the Americans, and our
cooperation developed accordingly. Much of
what has been claimed about WMDs has proven
to be sheer nonsense. From what I have seen
they are going to war on very little, Siljeholm
told Dagbladet. I strongly doubt that the American
will find anything at all. In any case I doubt
that they will find WMDs that constitute a military
threat, Siljeholm said.”
Peace programming: the wrong demo
REPORTING on alternatives to war is verboten.
Case in point: Yesterday I was told about Jon
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Alpert’s new project filming conversations
between Iraqi high school students and their
American counterparts in Iraq. He had total
access, no minders and no censorship. I am told
the final film is moving and timely. Reportedly he
funded it himself. A top indy TV company tried
to place it, sending it from network to network,
channel to channel.
There were, as of yesterday, NO, repeat NO,
BUYERS. Jon has won more Emmy Awards than
anyone I know, except perhaps Bill Moyers. He is
a gutsy reporter who alone got into Baghdad in
the aftermath of Gulf War I. At the time, he was
working for NBC. His own network did not air his
report and canned him for an unauthorized act
of enterprise journalism.
Now it is happening again. I am told from
someone in the know that one three-initialed
news network “passed” because the subjects of
the film were “not in our demo.” They said they
would prefer to save the money for their war
coverage. (The Nets say today they expect to
lose $200 million in revenue to bring us their versions
of the war. Watch for stepped up post-war
lobbying so they can win new concessions from
the FCC that will allow them to recoup.)
Peter Arnett is back
THE networks have decided to share their footage
from Baghdad. Peter Arnett, no stranger to wars –
he seems to live for their oxygen – is staying put.
And NBC has him this time. As we must recall, he
was fired from CNN for reporting on a story
revealing that the U.S. used biological warfare in
Vietnam. The network canned several producers
who sued, charging censorship and insisted the
controversial Operation Tailwind report was true.