BAGHDAD: The US-led war in Iraq was almost certainly the most intimately observed in history, writes Michael Jansen in Baghdad
The March-April US military offensive against Iraq should be known as the "satellite phone war", for this instrument has transformed war reporting for the better.
In 1991, possession of the latest satellite technology enabled the Cable News Network (CNN) to provide live coverage of the war to millions of viewers. The Pentagon made use of CNN's high-priced state-of-the-art equipment and connections to beam video footage taken from the noses of bombers to viewers around the world. They saw bombs making their way to targets before exploding in a cloud of dust, fire and smoke. The first Bush administration's war on Iraq could be characterised as CNN's War.
The US war on Afghanistan, waged a decade later, was also dominated by satellite technology, but in this conflict, CNN was not the only satellite player on the scene.
Al-Jazeera, an Arab news network, had the advantage of possessing both the latest satellite technology and well-placed political connections in the Arab and Muslim worlds. By marrying advanced technology with an old- boy network, al-Jazeera came out on top. As US forces engaged al- Qaeda on the battlefield, al-Jazeera repeatedly scooped CNN with images and voice recordings of Osama bin Laden, held responsible for the September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the US casus belli.
The Arabic challenger took over from CNN as the main vehicle for war coverage in Arab and Muslim countries and sold prime video footage to CNN and others.
Consequently, the 2001 campaign could be known as "al-Jazeera's war." During this campaign against Iraq, coverage was broadened by the emergence of additional satellite channels. Among these were al-Arabiya and Dubai television, modelled on al-Jazeera. But a revolution was produced by portable satellite phones, with or without their own mini-dishes.
These phones enabled hundreds of other television outlets as well as ordinary radio and print journalists to cover the war and made it all the more difficult for the US and Britain to "control" the news. As a result, the conduct of this war has been constantly debated and criticised by brigades of independent journalists from all corners of the globe. Indeed, the US-British campaign in Iraq was almost certainly the most intimately observed and closely analysed war in history.
The portable phone married to a computer linked to a satellite conferred on journalists, sitting on roofs and balconies of hotels the ability speak to their editors and file copy on e-mail independent of the censors of both the Iraqi Ministry of Information and the joint forces. Therefore, the 2003 campaign should be known as the "sat-phone war".
In the run-up to and during the war, the Thuraya dealership in Amman, the main gateway to Iraq for journalists, sold about 1,200 sat-phones, Mr Samer Nsair, the firm's local manager, told The Irish Times. Hundreds of these phones, which are about a third larger than normal mobile phones and have a built-in extendable antenna, were also bought by journalists passing through the Gulf, where the company is based.
Because Iraq's telecommunications facilities were bombed by the joint forces, then comprehensively looted by rampaging Iraqis and burnt by mysterious agents, the sat-phone is likely to dominate the country's communications scene until the US restores normal domestic service, perhaps by installing a mobile or cell phone network instead of landlines.
Talk time on Thuraya phones is already being hawked by enterprising young Iraqis standing on street corners holding up sets to attract the custom of Iraqis seeking to speak to relatives living abroad. Thuraya has set up shop in central Baghdad near the Palestine Hotel where a large number of journalists are based. UN staff also carry the phones in their pockets and have cradles on their desks which enable the phones to work inside buildings instead of only in the open.
An Iraqi entrepreneur plans to establish a private satellite communications facility within weeks, siting his office in the Karada district where many firms had offices before the war. He is almost certain to be challenged by others who have the same idea, ensuring that the peace, if it comes, could be characterised by sat-phone turf battles.