2008 Woodie Awards
Progress is being made in Iraq, terrorism expert says
Roxanne Anzelc
Issue date: 10/25/04 Section: News
U.S. occupation in Iraq has led to progress, in spite of what the media say, according to Robert Tappan.
Tappan, principle deputy assistant secretary of state, talked about his experience working in a war-torn Iraq, Thursday.
Tappan said he worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority to help establish a free press in Iraq with the ultimate goal of "sovereignty and control in the hands of the Iraqi people."
Prior to the United States' occupancy in Iraq, Hussein controlled the media, he said.
The CPA, along with help from Dan Rather, trained a generation of Iraqi journalists on basic journalism and ethical guidelines, Tappan said.
Tappan spent most of his time in Iraq in the "Green Zone" in downtown Baghdad, working to help American and international journalists gather news about the Iraqi War.
"I spent the better part of my life [working] in [Saddam Hussein's palace]," he said. He described the palace as "completely garish; lots of bad art work on the walls."
He said he faced weekly rocket attacks while working in Hussein's palace, and constant sandstorms.
One of the more difficult aspects of the job was dealing with rumor and conspiracy theories from the local media, he said.
He also found a pattern of misrepresentation and misreporting from Al Jazeera.
"In a large part of the Arab and Muslim world, there's a lot of rumor-mongering [among the media]," he said.
Tappan said other challenges of his job in Iraq included the United States' "occupier" label and soda-straw journalism, which is a narrow view of a broad issue among the media.
He described working with the media as a "challenge to work, feed and fight with the media."
Tappan and the CPA were also responsible for an advertising campaign in Iraq, he said. The messages in the three-commercial series were "We all yearn to live in a free Iraq," "I want my children to live in peace" and "I want a prosperous Iraq."
He said one of his proudest accomplishments was the transition of power to the interim Iraqi government June 28, 2004, and called it a "tight-lipped affair."
As far as mistakes made in Iraq, Tappan said he would only go as far as Secretary of State Colin Powell and President George W. Bush.
"Our intelligence was flawed," he said.
When asked why Iraqis were still trying to fight the U.S. military, Tappan disagreed with that representation.
"I don't think it's as bad as it's characterized," he said, citing soda-straw journalism and saying the media would rather follow and write stories about the military than follow the construction of a new hospital.
Ryan Schroeder, a sophomore majoring in chemical engineering, agreed with Tappan.
"He [Tappan] did a good job of conveying progress, a lot of which you don't see in the media," Schroeder said.
Tappan said he is "very, very hopeful" about Iraq's progress.
Tappan, principle deputy assistant secretary of state, talked about his experience working in a war-torn Iraq, Thursday.
Tappan said he worked for the Coalition Provisional Authority to help establish a free press in Iraq with the ultimate goal of "sovereignty and control in the hands of the Iraqi people."
Prior to the United States' occupancy in Iraq, Hussein controlled the media, he said.
The CPA, along with help from Dan Rather, trained a generation of Iraqi journalists on basic journalism and ethical guidelines, Tappan said.
Tappan spent most of his time in Iraq in the "Green Zone" in downtown Baghdad, working to help American and international journalists gather news about the Iraqi War.
"I spent the better part of my life [working] in [Saddam Hussein's palace]," he said. He described the palace as "completely garish; lots of bad art work on the walls."
He said he faced weekly rocket attacks while working in Hussein's palace, and constant sandstorms.
One of the more difficult aspects of the job was dealing with rumor and conspiracy theories from the local media, he said.
He also found a pattern of misrepresentation and misreporting from Al Jazeera.
"In a large part of the Arab and Muslim world, there's a lot of rumor-mongering [among the media]," he said.
Tappan said other challenges of his job in Iraq included the United States' "occupier" label and soda-straw journalism, which is a narrow view of a broad issue among the media.
He described working with the media as a "challenge to work, feed and fight with the media."
Tappan and the CPA were also responsible for an advertising campaign in Iraq, he said. The messages in the three-commercial series were "We all yearn to live in a free Iraq," "I want my children to live in peace" and "I want a prosperous Iraq."
He said one of his proudest accomplishments was the transition of power to the interim Iraqi government June 28, 2004, and called it a "tight-lipped affair."
As far as mistakes made in Iraq, Tappan said he would only go as far as Secretary of State Colin Powell and President George W. Bush.
"Our intelligence was flawed," he said.
When asked why Iraqis were still trying to fight the U.S. military, Tappan disagreed with that representation.
"I don't think it's as bad as it's characterized," he said, citing soda-straw journalism and saying the media would rather follow and write stories about the military than follow the construction of a new hospital.
Ryan Schroeder, a sophomore majoring in chemical engineering, agreed with Tappan.
"He [Tappan] did a good job of conveying progress, a lot of which you don't see in the media," Schroeder said.
Tappan said he is "very, very hopeful" about Iraq's progress.