Remember last April, when US Marines knocked down a famous statue of Saddam Hussein, a couple of hundred Iraqis came out to celebrate, and the US media made a major event out of it? Today's media stunt by the Marines was a symbolic convoy driven to the heart of Fallujah. After the Marines left, thousands upon thousands of residents of the defiant city, joined by mujahideen fighters and US-trained Iraqi police and soldiers, poured into the streets to celebrate what Fallujans saw as their "victory" over US forces in the battle for their city.
Just as the Western media exaggerated last year's celebrations, they are systematically downplaying today's.
But NewStandard correspondent Dahr Jamail was there, and he wrote the story and took the photographs that should appear on the front pages of newspapers across the US tomorrow morning. The story he gathered -- standing among the people who watched the Iraqi-escorted convoy pass, and even talking to Iraqi soldiers and police -- differs dramatically from the version told by Marines and the Western journalists "embedded" with the convoy.
And we've posted here some extra photos that didn't fit in the article...
All photos are copyright © Dahr Jamail, The NewStandard, May 10, 2004. Please contact TNS for reprint permission. High-resolution versions available on request.
Dahr Jamail is Baghdad correspondent for The NewStandard. He is an Alaskan devoted to covering the untold stories from occupied Iraq. You can help Dahr continue his crucial work in Iraq by making donations. For more information or to donate to Dahr, visit The NewStandard.
