Jon Snow is one of our best and most honourable TV journalists in England. He once turned down an Honour from the Queen because he believed that a journalist should be independent. (He is probably the only journalist ever to have done so.) Jon Snow is now in Iraq and Channel Four TV most days will be sending a e-mail written by him. As the tension becomes more intense, Snow's e-mails will be interesting and I'll post them here.
Here is the latest Snowmail: 30 Jan, 2003 Hello, Jon Snow here with the latest from inside Iraq, capped-off with Krishnan's take on the news in London. Iraq's oil fields: ================= Iraq is digging-in for war. On a journey North today I could seen clumps of soldiers digging furiously at key points all along the road. Tanks, anti-aircraft power - it's all being deployed. We seem to be in the countdown to war. I headed up to Kirkuk right in the thick of Iraq's massive Northern oil field. What a place. It's heaving with traders and shoppers. It s a real frontier town, right on the edge of the No Fly Zone. Iraq's span of ethnicities jam the bridges where most of the merchants peddle their wares. In amongst the shoppers, young fresh-faced Iraqi soldiers, smiling in the mid-day sun. It is impossible to imagine that in a matter of days or weeks we could be at war with these boys, soon we shall have to depict them as the enemy. They shook my hand, laughed and joked, posing all the while for our cameras. What a strange overture to war this is. Saddam Hussein himself on bass tuba pumping out his message of resistance. Watching him on telly here he looked puffy and tired, but his voice was unexpectedly strong. Former MP Tony Benn is coming to see him tomorrow so we may get a first hand account of how he is. Most of the people I spoke to still thought war would not come, and if it did, didn't care much. They are inured to the nightly bomb runs by British and American warplanes that they have lived with for a decade or more. The oil fields up there are spectacular; spouting flames into the dawn air, plumes of smoke. Outside Kirkuk there s a symphony of fire, coming out of derricks and belching from behind complex iron structures. Ten per cent of the world s reserves are here. Do you know that a litre of oil in Iraq costs? One penny, whilst a litre of drinking water costs 20p. Once back in Baghdad we found more scientists on parade for the UN weapons inspectors and Saddam Hussein on telly again animated this time, spelling out how Iraq intends to fight the invading American or Brit. Poignant times, poignant too to be here amongst the people for whom so much feels just about to change. We've got Hans Blix the UN weapons chief LIVE on Channel Four News at seven, see you then. Best wishes as ever, Jon Snow ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
