- WASHINGTON (AFP) -- The Pentagon
refused to confirm Tuesday whether it sought to destroy or interfere with
Iraqi television, after two channels in Iraq lost their signal temporarily
due to strikes on transmitters.
-
- "We never discuss targets," information director
at the Pentagon Bryan Whitman told reporters.
-
- "We take extreme efforts to make sure we minimize
civilian casualties as we take out appropriate military targets that will
help us achieve our objectives," Whitman said.
-
- The Pentagon spokesman refused to say whether an electromagnetic
pulse, known as an E-bomb and aimed to paralyze computer and electrical
networks, would be deployed in addition to precision guided missiles.
-
- Iraq's state and youth television channels -- the latter
headed up by Uday Saddam Hussein, the oldest son of the Iraqi president
-- stopped broadcasting late Tuesday after a new series of bombings pounded
Baghdad.
-
- State television began transmitting again, alone, some
45 minutes later.
-
- CBS News reported Tuesday that the US Air Force had blasted
Iraqi television with the experimental electromagnetic pulse device to
try and knock off its signal and shut down Saddam's propaganda machine.
-
- The Pentagon does not acknowledge the existence of such
devices aside from US military having non-lethal, electronic means.
-
- An official with the Central Command in Qatar, Victor
Renuart, said Tuesday he did not think Iraqi broadcasts "affect us
in a negative way."
-
- "I think people around the world understand that
it is in fact ... not necessarily reality.
-
- "I think that certainly there are some who would
believe everything that they see on the television, but I think we -- as
we talk to leaders around the region, as we talk to leaders around the
world, it is -- it doesn't seem to be a message that is taking as much
as some might think," Renuart said.
-
- "We know they are practising deception and disinformation,"
he said.
-
- However, a senior Pentagon official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, floated the scenario, "What if Saddam is using the TV
for his commanders in the field? Let's not assume it just works as TV stations
in France or the US."
-
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