Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 20, 1991                   TAG: 9103200097
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

AMERICAN JOURNALIST DEFENDS DECISION TO REPORT IRAQI VIEW

"I have no apologies," the Cable News Network correspondent told a crowd of hundreds of journalists.

He had been called an Iraqi sympathizer by Sen. Alan Simpson, R-Wyo. Many other Americans also had questioned why he had stayed behind to report from the capital of a nation with whom the United States was at war.

Arnett, the only U.S. journalist to report from Iraq for the duration of the war, said he was "amused, frankly" by Simpson's comments. But he added, "I guess the American people weren't quite clear about what we were doing."

American media have a long history of covering both sides of wars, from Vietnam to Central America to Afghanistan, he said.

Some of Arnett's most controversial reports dealt with the U.S. bombing of what Iraq called a civilian bomb shelter. The Pentagon called it a command and control center for the Iraqi military. Scores of people were killed in the attack.

Arnett questioned Iraqi officials repeatedly about the bombed shelter and examined it closely.

He said the only change he made in his reports as the story unfolded was to delete the word "civilian" in reference to the facility and to simply call it a shelter, he said.