The ?historic? scene of huge crowds celebrating the toppling of
Saddam Hussein?s statue Wednesday was compared by breathless TV
announcers and newspaper reporters to the fall of the Berlin Wall
in 1989. But photos released by Reuters today tell a very different
story.
The crowd never amounted to more than 200 people?including a
huge press contingent and the American troops who ringed Fardus
Square with tanks, reports Information Clearinghouse. And
while the joy in the faces of Iraqi citizens at the scene was
certainly genuine and the symbolism unmistakably triumphal, the
reportage by TV and newspapers was more than a little
deceptive.
?The masses are no doubt glad to see the back of Saddam
Hussein,? the report notes, ?but this was a U.S. Army propaganda
coup.?
See the photos at:
- A
Tale of Two Photos - A
Tale of Two Photos (annotated)
