Powell's visit to middle east nearly brought about a war

March 2, 2001 8:56 AM

Powell's visit to middle east nearly brought about a war What is disturbing in this story (for me) is that I heard and read nothing about it in reputable American papers or on tv.
posted by Postroad (5 comments total)

Well, as columnist William Hoaglund noted [free reg needed?], Powell's visit to the Mideast was less about shoring up Arab support for US policy on Iraq and more about sharply warning leaders like Syria's Bashar Assad that recent political turmoil in Israel should not be taken as a sign of military weakness.
posted by dhartung at 9:14 AM on March 2, 2001

Postroad is right that this got essentially zero coverage in the American news media. The American media painted this as a typical Sec-o-State whirlwind visit to X number of foreign capitals.

Meanwhile, it seems like the cat-and-mouse games with Saddam are getting more and more serious. My question is how would American public opinion respond if they knew that both sides were escalating their activities. Bush and the press both waved off the U.S. air strikes as "business-as-usual", but in light of this story I wonder if Bush is trying to underplay it because he knows there's no public support OR international support for going toe-to-toe with Saddam.

(and it's Jim Hoagland, not William; no reg required for the Chicago Trib)
posted by briank at 11:57 AM on March 2, 2001

What bothers me .

As you say , there is no mention in the 'main press'.
Then , I clic on the posted links and get a 'fatal
error' crash .
posted by ojsbuddy at 10:17 PM on March 2, 2001

Start over . Clic through . Same pblm .

Smells like somebody's interferring .
posted by ojsbuddy at 10:27 PM on March 2, 2001

This story has been picked up by Drudge and can be found there now. He used the same overseas source as my link provided.
posted by Postroad at 6:42 AM on March 3, 2001