Chaos In Iraq, Says Unembedded Reporter

The ASZ Interview: Aaron Glantz
Aaron Glantz has made three trips into Iraq as one of the few unembedded journalists on the ground. His in-country reporting and commentary have been featured on Pacifica Radio, Inter Press Service, antiwar.com, and other independent news outlets. Glantz also authors a personal website at aaronglantz.com. His new book, “How America Lost Iraq”, was published in May by Tarcher/Penguin Books.

I interviewed Mr. Glantz this past week.


All Spin Zone: At the beginning of your book, you acknowledge that you never went inside of Saddam's Iraq. Was it something that you just didn't want to do, were afraid to do, or were you concerned about being co-opted by the regime?

Aaron Glantz: I never went to Iraq when Saddam was the President because I didn't think I could add anything to the work that many other journalists were doing before the war. As an unembedded journalist in Saddam's Iraq, I would have been assigned a minder everywhere I went and everyone I interviewed would have told me “with our blood, with our soul we will fight for Saddam Hussein. We love Saddam Hussein.” Since I wanted to tell the whole stories of regular people, I thought it would be more useful to spend my time reporting on the war's regional aspects from Jordan and Turkey.

ASZ: When did you finally enter Iraq?

Glantz: I entered Iraq just a few weeks after a US military crane brought down Saddam's statue in Central Baghdad. I came with a French reporter, Raphael Krafft in an old orange and white taxi station wagon. We got a deal on the price because we allowed the driver to smuggle 1,000 cans of Pepsi cola in his trunk...