On 16 Jan 1991, at midnight in Iraq, the UN deadline for the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait expired, and we prepared to commence offensive operations to forcibly eject Iraq from its 5-month occupation of its oil-rich neighbor. At 4:30 pm EST, the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off US and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf on bombing missions over Iraq. All evening, aircraft from the US-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire in television footage transmitted live via satellite from Baghdad and elsewhere. At 7:00 pm, Operation Desert Storm, the code-name for the massive US-led offensive against Iraq, was formally announced at the White House.
Shortly thereafter, all US media were forced to leave Iraq; they were there reporting the attacks from their hotels. When they returned our intelligence folks wanted to debrief them. Our fine American, patriotic journalists refused to provide our nation with any insights they had from time in the enemy capital. Their primary allegiance, they said, was to their journalistic integrity–not to any country; it was fine with them that American soldiers might die because they withheld information. We simply can not trust the values of our main-stream media.
