May/June 2003

In Iraq, Everyone
Is=20 Media-Savvy

BY BORZOU=20 DARAGAHI=20

This tale=20 begins in early February in the mountains of northeastern = Iraq, a=20 few days after Secretary of State Colin Powell showed the UN = Security Council =97 and the world =97 a satellite photo of = what he said=20 was a poison factory operated by Ansar al Islam, a militant = band of=20 Islamic fighters with ties to al Qaeda.=20

A few of us journalists wanted = to see the=20 factory for ourselves. After a morning of negotiation, Ansar = agreed=20 to take us past their checkpoints and into the hostile = terrain=20 within the folds of the Zagros Mountains. The leaders said = they=20 wanted to show us, as representatives of the world media, = that they=20 were not manufacturing chemical weapons. It struck me at = that moment=20 how crucial a role journalists were playing in this crisis, = and how=20 media-savvy all the players were. (A Kurdish politician told = me=20 recently: =93In the old days, if I had a dispute with a = rival, I=20 picked up my Kalashnikov and went to visit him. Now, I pick = up the=20 phone and call one of the international journalists in = town.=94)=20

When we finally reached the = site pictured=20 in the satellite photo, the Ansar warriors let us roam about = at=20 will. The place was a horrifying dump. The residents were = dirt poor.=20 The Ansar fighters looked mean, disheveled, and somewhat = confused.=20 We tried to approach them, but the leaders would let us = speak only=20 to the designated spokesman. Each of the journalists began = opening=20 doors and drawers, and shooting roll after roll of film. It = was a=20 bonafide media circus, right there in those wilderness=20 mountains.=20

Then things really got weird. = The Ansar=20 warriors showed us the real purpose of the compound that = Powell had=20 labeled a poison factory.

It was their media = headquarters.=20

These back-to-the-land zealots = planning=20 their Islamic revolution =97 high in the mountains, without=20 electricity, running water, or telephones =97 had set up a=20 generator-powered film production studio. There were video = cameras=20 and editing decks and miles of wiring. They had even put = some of=20 their films on a multimedia Web site, www.ansarislam.com. =

One journalist swiped a pile of = documents=20 and floppy disks from a trashcan. Recipes for mustard gas = and nerve=20 agents? No. They turned out to be scripts for propaganda=20 documentaries.=20

The Ansar fighters suddenly = hurried us into=20 a room. I was scared. What if they wanted us as hostages, or = planned=20 to kill us? (Indeed, later that same day, Ansar members = assassinated=20 a Kurdish leader, killing a little girl and three other = civilians in=20 the process.) Two of the Ansar leaders =97 Ayoub Afghani and = Mohammad=20 Hassan =97 sat behind a table in front of a white backdrop, = with two=20 television cameras trained on them.=20

It was a press = conference!=20

In the=20 runup to a war that would make celebrities of such = spokespersons as=20 Brigadier General Vincent Brooks and the Iraqi information = minister,=20 Mohammad Saeed Al-Sahaf, the Ansar, in their rugged, remote = mountain=20 retreat, wanted their share of the media spotlight.

=93I want to set the record = straight,=94 said=20 the bearded, wild-eyed warrior, as we in the press listened=20 obediently. =93There are no chemical weapons here.=94 =

We had come to this hideout in = the hills on=20 the chance of finding a factory turning out weapons of mass=20 destruction. What we found instead was a studio cranking out = a=20 different sort of wartime weaponry: propaganda.=20

Early in the war, after our = visit, U.S.=20 cruise missiles hit Ansar positions in northern Iraq, just = days=20 before Kurds launched a ground offensive and virtually wiped = them=20 out. The Ansar=92s =93image war=94 wasn=92t effective enough = to save it from=20 the real thing.

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Borzou Daragahi is a Teheran-based reporter for = print and=20 radio media. =