Arnett fired for pro-Iraq propaganda statement

New American, The, April 21, 2003

Peter Arnett was known as "Hanoi Pete" for his biased war reporting from Vietnam for the Associated Press. Later, he was known as "Baghdad Pete" for his pro-Saddam propaganda for CNN during the 1991 Desert Storm war. At the beginning of the current Gulf conflict, he was reporting for NBC and National Geographic--until he was fired on March 30th for providing propaganda statements for Iraq's state-run television.

Arnett told his interviewer, attired in an Iraqi Army uniform, that the U.S. "war plan has failed because of Iraqi resistance. Now they are trying to write another war plan. Clearly, the American war planners misjudged the determination of the Iraqi forces." Arnett also thanked Iraq for giving him and other reporters a "degree of freedom which we appreciate." By that time Iraq had already expelled many journalists, and apparently imprisoned two journalists from the New York newspaper Newsday.

During the Iraqi TV interview, Arnett said, "I'd like to say from the beginning that the 12 years I've been coming here, I've met unfailing courtesy and cooperation, courtesy from your people and cooperation from the Ministry of Information."

NBC and National Geographic severed relations with Arnett on March 30th. The Daily Mirror, a British tabloid newspaper, hired Arnett within 24 hours. Piers Morgan, an editor for the Mirror, told CNN, "Peter is one of the most respected journalists in the world, and we are delighted he is joining us to expose the truth about a war increasingly dominated by propaganda."

Propaganda, not journalism, is Arnett's strength. Not content with the anti-American propaganda he had disgorged during the Vietnam War, Arnett narrated a 1998 CNN "investigation," entitled "The Valley of Death," that claimed U.S. forces had used the deadly nerve gas sarin in 1970 in Laos against U.S. defectors. The charges proved completely false, and CNN fired Arnett over the affair.

A few days before NBC fired him for his latest Iraq caper, Arnett had said in a Reuters interview that he had returned to Baghdad seeking "professional redemption" from the disgrace of the "Valley of Death" piece.

Sorry, Pete. Instead of redemption, you just added more evidence for conviction.