Iraqis Defiant but Resigned to War

February 6, 2003
By Kim Ghattas BBC correspondent, Baghdad 

Colin Powell's televised address to the UN Security Council may have been front-page news all over the world, but it received little coverage in the Iraqi press.

There were no pictures of Mr Powell during his presentation and no details of his accusations.

It was all lies put together by the CIA

Iraqi newspapers' front pages were devoted instead to an interview broadcast two days ago between British MP Tony Benn and the Iraqi president Saddam Hussein.

The headline in al-Thawra read: "The valiant leader maintains that Iraq doesn't have any weapons of mass destruction and challenges anyone to prove the contrary."

This is what Mr Powell tried to do during his presentation, but Iraq was quick to deny all the accusations. It was this denial that made to the inside pages of the Iraqi state controlled press.

Several articles focused on the news conference given by Iraqi officials on Wednesday evening, soon after Mr Powell's presentation.

Amer al-Saadi, the Iraqi president's senior weapons adviser, said the report was a typical American show with stunts and special effects - with no substance but with a specific aim - to convince the uninformed public that war was necessary to disarm Iraq.

'Not Afghanistan'

Speaking in English, General al-Saadi was obviously trying to appeal to world opinion not to believe Mr Powell's accusations.

Not many Iraqis were able to listen to Mr Powell's presentation as satellite TVs are not available in Iraq and only a few people can listen in to foreign radio broadcasts.

But slowly, details of Mr Powell's address are filtering back to Baghdad.

"It was all lies put together by the CIA," said one teacher in a teahouse on Rasheed street in central Baghdad.

"Even if they attack, Iraq is not like Afghanistan. We have a strong leader."

Power blackout

Although Mr Powell's presentation does not seem to have impressed the Iraqis, it did reinforce the feeling that war is inevitable.

On Thursday, employees at the ministry of information came to the office to find there was a power blackout.

This was part of a war drill to try out the ministry's back-up generators and is a test which will take place in all government buildings over the next few days.

Iraqi officials could be seen working in their offices by candlelight as foreign journalists working out of the press centre in the ministry rushed to get their generators running, their offices lit up and their computers working.

On Thursday evening, Iraqi officials will hold another conference in which they say they will rebut all Mr Powell's accusations point by point.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2733705.stm