Iraq - "In the red zone" by Steven Vincent

Chrenkoff reviews Vincent's insightful book on post war Iraq.

Here are just a few interesting tidbits on how the media are covering, er making up, events.

"...Sometimes, the Western media is difficult to distinguish from the activists:

"Haider, for example, told me of acting as a translator for a German TV crew working outside Baghdad in the summer of 2003. The crew, he recounted, filmed a village trash heap, then reported , over his protests, that the smoldering compost was once 'fertile farmland destroyed by Coalition bombs'. In September, He accompanied a French photographer as she wandered through Baghdad looking for a scene that would dramatize Iraqi suffering resulting from war. Unable to find a suitable tableau, she paid an Iraqi woman to kneel in the debris of a partially demolished building and raise her arms to heaven as if imploring Allah to strike down the American infidels. 'The photographer had me ask the woman to remove her wristwatch so she wouldn't look too wealthy,' Haider related. Mohammad recalled watching an Al-Jazeera film crew pay men loitering on Saddoun Street to throw rocks and light a car on fire. 'Within a few minutes, Al-Jazeera made their own "anti-American" demonstration,' he said."

We'll have to take his word for it that it was Al Jazeera and not the BBC.

From Chrenkoff,

You can get Vincent's book in all good bookshops, or better still, order it straight from the publisher and save 50% on the cover price.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------