Iraq

A senior defense advisor to the Australian government says she was fired after refusing to write media briefings that supported claims that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. "I felt like I was part of the propaganda machine. As a public servant I shouldn't be expected to write propaganda," said engineer and analyst Jane Errey. Rather than participate in pro-war briefings, she took a leave of absence and has now been terminated permanently.

"The United States-led occupation in Iraq
has enlisted a British public relations firm to help
promote the establishment of democracy in the country.
The firm, Bell Pottinger, based in London, is creating
television and radio commercials that will explain to
Iraqis how and why the United States is handing over
sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government in June. The
campaign will begin next week on local and satellite
stations in Iraq. Bell Pottinger, a subsidiary of Chime Communications, has

"A year after US-led forces launched war on Iraq, the promise of improved human rights for Iraqis remains far from realized," warns Amnesty International in a detailed new report. "Most Iraqis still feel unsafe in a country ravaged by violence," the report states. Moreover, "Coalition Forces appear in many cases to be using the climate of violence to justify violating the very human rights standards they are supposed to be upholding. They have shot Iraqis dead during demonstrations. They have tortured and ill-treated prisoners and detainees.

The U.S. Army is training Iraqis, many of them translators, to be journalists. In workshops taught by military public affairs officers, students learn "things like news gathering, writing fair and balanced stories, interviewing techniques, ethics, the Associated Press Style Guide, and the role of the press in a free society," according to the U.S. Army website "Soldier Stories." "[The students] met for six hours a day, six days a week for about five weeks.