US propaganda beamed to friend and foe

3.30pm - by DAVID USBORNE

NEW YORK - Call it the Airwaves War. The United States is engaged in an effort more comprehensive than ever before to use the power of broadcast to soften its enemy in Iraq and to soothe its population at home.

Spearheading the electronic propaganda campaign in Iraq are specially converted US Airforce cargo planes flying close to the Kuwait-Iraq border transmitting a mixture of Arabic and western music and spoken announcements to the citizens and troops of Iraq urging them not to fight and instructing them on how to surrender.

At the same time, the Pentagon is striving to interfere with Baghdad's broadcast capabilities.

Officials said today that during the first strike, US munitions destroyed a television station in western Iraq while electronic jamming had silenced an Iraqi satellite television station.

Even more dramatically, the US military reportedly succeeded, if only for a few moments, in hijacking the main state radio frequency in Baghdad to announce that Saddam Hussein's administration was under attack. "This is the day you have been waiting for," it said in a brief message before going silent.

The airwaves assault is all part of an intense psychological operation, known as 'psy-ops', designed to persuade the people and soldiers of Iraq to abandon Saddam and offer no resistance to the ground invasion when it begins.

A more subtle operation is under way, meanwhile, to project images of overwhelming American power to audiences at home.

While newspaper reporters struggle with all manner of restrictions on their movements and black-out periods preventing use of satellite phones, the Pentagon has given front-row seats on the spectacle that is war to US television teams and therefore to the viewers back home.

It has been especially obliging to CNN. Commanders, for example, allowed one of its correspondents to report live from one of the aircraft carriers involved in the first assaults on Wednesday night.

Better than that, they arranged for the pilot of one bomber to flash a grinning thumbs-up sign to the CNN camera while he revved his jets on deck.

Americans at home were meant to feel fuzzy reassurance.

But it is the flying radio stations patrolling Iraq's southern border that are most critical to the military push.

Commando Solo is a fleet of six converted C-130 cargo carriers that lower huge circular aerials from their bellies amplifying the 10,000-watt broadcasts.

The crew plays hour-long tapes with the music as well as periodic messages on how to surrender safely and avoid the wrath of advancing troops.

The planes, in fact, are America's weapons of mass persuasion.

The planes go up shortly after dusk, the clear intention of broadcasting during Iraq's primetime.

Dubbed "Information Radio", it is broadcast on 100.4 FM and 690 kHz on the AM dial, both frequencies that are not currently used in Iraq's territory.

There is also a shortwave frequency.

So far Saddam has been unable to jam the broadcasts.

"We are trying to convey information to the people of Iraq, whether it be to the civilian population, the military or even anyone who has any idea about weapons of mass destruction," Army Staff Sergeant Noble remarked, withholding his first name.

The tapes are prepared in advance by the US Army's Psychological Operations Group in Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

The radio transmissions are backed up by an intense leaflet-dropping campaign.

By yesterday, about 17 million leaflets had been dispersed over Iraqi territory offering detailed information on how to signal surrender to advancing troops.

Iraq's soldiers are advised, for example, to park their vehicles in a square and walk a mile away from them where they should await instructions.

Officers are told they can continue to wear small arms but regular troops must shed all weapons.

Warnings printed on the leaflets include this one:

"Attacking coalition aircraft invites your destruction. Do not risk your life and the lives of your comrades. Leave now and go home. Watch your children learn, grow and prosper."

The US military has a long tradition of radio psy-ops. Similar broadcasts were used during the US campaign in Afghanistan to urge local citizens to help unearth Taleban and al Qaeda factions.

They have been used in almost every conflict since the Vietnam War.

The Pentagon has no way of telling, however, exactly how many Iraqis are listening now or what kind of effect the broadcasts are having.

On a different tack, the US has also attempted to cozy up to Al Jazeera, the Arab satellite network based in Qatar that only a short while ago American officials scorned as "All Osama All the Time" - a reference to its willingness to broadcast video messages by Osama bin Laden.

Now, Al Jazeera is regarded as a crucial tool in influencing opinion in all of the Middle East, including in Iraq where some residents have illegal satellite dishes.

The network, with an audience of 47 million, has seven correspondents in Baghdad and has arrangements with several US networks to supply live video from the Iraq capital as the armed invasion unfolds.

Only CNN among American broadcasters still has dedicated reporters on the ground there, led by correspondent Nic Robertson.

The Pentagon has meanwhile given Al Jazeera privileged access to the military operations and has appointed a special liaison officer to look after the network.

At the same time, it has been granted access to the most senior US figures, including Condoleezza Rice, the National Security Adviser, who appeared on its airwaves in an exclusive interview last week.

Donald Rumsfeld, the Defence Secretary, also gave 30 minutes of his time to Al Jazeera recently.

In the US, all the main networks have laid down plans to scrap all normal entertainment programming in primetime at least for the first few days of military action.

NBC pipped its competition on Wednesday night (local time) when news anchor Tom Brokaw gave first word of the first wave of strikes and got a first audio report from Peter Arnett.

Mr Arnett, famed for reporting for CNN from Baghdad during the first Gulf War, is in Iraq for National Geographic, but has a deal to give reports to NBC.

- INDEPENDENT

Herald Feature: Iraq