Michael R. Gordon

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Michael Gordon at Camp Doha in Kuwait , before the invasion of Iraq in 2003

Michael R. Gordon (born February 10, 1951 ) is an American journalist and chief military correspondent for the New York Times . With Judith Miller, he was instrumental in reporting on the Bush administration's plans to invade Iraq in 2002 .

Life

During the first phase of the Iraq war , he was the only newspaper reporter assigned to a fighting military unit as an embedded journalist . So he had the opportunity to accompany the invasion troops under the leadership of General Tommy R. Franks .

In co-authorship with General Bernard E. Trainor, Gordon gained his experience in the two books The Generals' War: The Inside Story of the Conflict in the Gulf , which deals with the Second Gulf War in 1991 , and the bestseller Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq on the Iraq War 2003. The Generals' War received praise from then Defense Secretary Dick Cheney , among others .

The journalist Jim Lehrer described Cobra II , which is primarily devoted to the hasty preparations and relations between the USA and Iraq, as "an excellent analysis of what went right and what went wrong during the Gulf War". Eliot A. Cohen, a professor at Johns Hopkins University , called it the best single work on the subject.

Lawrence D. Freedman, a professor at King's College London and a foreign affairs specialist, wrote: "The careful research, based on authorized sources, never lets the human aspects of the conflict be forgotten". The New York Times called it "an amazing work by which other historical considerations of the Iraq invasion will have to be measured." The New Republic , on the other hand, criticized the fact that Gordon and Trainor seem trapped in the analysis of military errors and so unintentionally suppress the fundamental problem in Iraq, which is a political one.

Rabta

On January 1, 1989, Gordon and Steven Engelberg published the news that the West German chemical producer Imhausen-Chemie had become the main supplier for a Libyan chemical weapons production facility in Rabta in April 1980 . The article relied on classified information from the US authorities. The German government initially denied the allegations, but further revelations about the facility and pressure from the US government led in October 1991 to charges against three Imhausen employees, including the managing director, of illegal deliveries to Libya. A fourth German national was charged in 1996 for “helping Libya to acquire computer technology and other equipment to develop chemical weapons”.

In 1989, Gordon and Engelberg received the George Polk Award for international reporting for the series of articles on this topic .

Controversy

Coverage from Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion

Along with Judy Miller, Gordon wrote most of the reports in The Times about the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion. These articles resulted in a 2004 front-page "Admission of Guilt" ( mea culpa Editor's Note):

“Much of what the Times reported from this period was an exact reflection of the laboriously compiled facts from intelligence records, which in turn were based on fragmentary information. There have been a number of instances in the Times that have not scrutinized this information rigorously or were not qualified to do so. Some critics have blamed individual reporters for this. Our examination shows, however, that the underlying problem is of a complex nature and could not be pinpointed to individuals. "

- The New York Times, May 26, 2004

The New York Review of Books criticized the fact that many voices opposing US government claims of the existence of weapons of mass destruction were ignored by Gordon and Miller. Gordon also met only a few critics, although David Albright, founder of the Institute for Science and International Security , had drawn attention to the contradictions.

In particular, Gordon commented on criticism from Michael Massing, writer and regular guest author of the Columbia Journalism Review : “I stand by my claim that it was a widespread belief by experts inside and outside the US government that Iraq wanted to manufacture weapons of mass destruction . The subject is far more complex than Mr Massing suggests. He also took my statements out of context. "

Planned troop increase in Iraq in 2007

In an interview with Charlie Rose on Frontline , a program on the Public Broadcasting Service in January 2007, Gordon had explicitly supported an increase in troops in Iraq. The Times Public Editor Byron Calame then published his disapproval of the Times' chief military correspondent posting his personal opinion on Iraq on national television. Washington-based management noted that, "Gordon went too far during the interview." The New York Post (a Rupert Murdochs newspaper ) used the response from the Times and Gordon's later apology for an editorial. She wrote that the Times wanted to suppress any expression of possible victory and did not want America to win the war in Iraq.

Reporting on the uprisings in Iraq

In a Times cover story on February 10, 2007, Gordon alleged that there was evidence of Iran's involvement in developing and equipping Iraqi forces with one of the "deadliest bombs." Commenting on this claim, Editor & Publisher magazine , which calls itself America's Oldest Journal Covering the Newspaper Industry, noted that Gordon, who, with or without help from Judith Miller, wrote some of the most misleading and barely or disagreeable articles authored Iraqi weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 invasion, once again using only anonymous sources from a wide range of government agencies, his claim "should be viewed with caution". Byron Calame, the public editor of the Times , commented, "Mr. Gordon has become a preferred target for many critical readers who view the Times' coverage of Iran as one-sidedly politically tinged. I do not share this view and think that the quality of his journalistic work deserves a differentiated view ”and continued:“ The fact that Gordon had used anonymous government sources makes it necessary to qualify the sources in order to be able to decide whether they are Evidence or influence are to be assessed ”.

Byron Calame's successor, Clark Hoyt, criticized the Times’s military coverage, citing several articles by Gordon. He concluded that the uncommented adoption of statements by the president and the military about the influence of al-Qaeda in Iraq had become routine. These statements claimed that Al Qaeda was equivalent to Al Qaeda in Iraq, which Clark Hoyt and others have questioned.

An extensive article by Gordon in the Times discussed the president's position on al-Qaeda in Iraq: "With his references to al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia and his claims that this was the same group that attacked the US in 2001 the president has greatly simplified the relationships between the insurgents in Iraq and their relations with the leadership of al-Qaeda ”.

Works

  • Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor: Cobra II: the inside story of the invasion and occupation of Iraq . Pantheon Books, New York 2006, ISBN 0-375-42262-5 .
  • Michael R. Gordon, Bernard E. Trainor: The generals' war: the inside story of the conflict in the Gulf . Little, Brown, Boston 1995, ISBN 0-316-32172-9 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Virtual International Authority File - Gordon, Michael R.
  2. ↑ Michael R. Gordon . In: The New York Times
  3. ↑ a b Engdame: Interviews WGBH Public Broadcasting, Boston, January 11, 2007
  4. ↑ Quote: "a fascinating account of the war (that i would) recommend as something that gives them a different element of some of the key decisions that were made"
  5. ^ A b Cobra II: The Inside Story of the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq .
  6. ^ David Rieff: Optimism Goes to War, A Review . ( Memento of the original from June 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. April 20, 2006 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.powells.com
  7. ^ Robert McCartney: W. Germany Assails US on Libyan Plant . In: Washington Post , Jan. 7, 1989
  8. ↑ The camouflage was obviously perfect . In: Der Spiegel . No. 6 , 1989, pp. 48–49 ( online - interview with Salzgitter boss Ernst Pieper about the group's involvement in the poison gas affair).
  9. ^ Rabta chemical plant, Imhausen im Glück , Jürgen Hippenstiel is charged. In: Die Zeit , No. 14/1990 pp. 24, 42, 74
  10. ^ Polk Award
  11. ↑ Michael Gordon's Molehill Becomes A Mountain . In: Columbia Journalism Review , Jan. 30, 2007
  12. ^ From the Editors: The Times and Iraq . In: The New York Times , May 26, 2004
  13. ↑ Original: “What we reported was an accurate reflection of the state of our knowledge at the time, much of it painstakingly extracted from intelligence agencies that were themselves dependent on sketchy information, there were a number of instances that were not as rigorous as it should have been and that the administration's case was insufficiently qualified or allowed to stand unchallenged. "The Note further said:" Some critics of our coverage during that time have focused blame on individual reporters. Our examination, however, indicates that the problem was more complicated. "
  14. ^ Michael Massing: Now They Tell Us . In: The New York Review of Books , Volume 51, Number 3
  15. ↑ Original: “I stand by my assertion to Mr. Massing that the notion that Iraq had some form of WMD was a widely shared assumption inside and outside of the government. ... Mr. Massing takes that assertion out of context, and he cites Mr. Albright's work to challenge that observation though his work actually supports it. "
  16. ^ Iraq: Now They Tell Us: An Exchange . In: The New York Review of Books , Volume 51, Number 6
  17. ^ Byron Calame: Spotting Freelancer Conflicts . In: The New York Times , January 28, 2007
  18. ↑ Christopher Griffin: Gray Lady in Winter . ( Memento from January 20, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) In: Armed Forces Journal
  19. ^ A ban on Victory . ( Memento of July 5, 2009 on the Internet Archive ) In: New York Post , February 4, 2007
  20. ↑ Michael R. Gordon: Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, US Says . In: The New York Times , February 10, 2000
  21. ↑ 'NYT' Reporter Who Got Iraqi WMDs Wrong Now Highlights Iran Claims . ( Memento of February 14, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Editor and Publisher , February 11, 2007.
  22. ^ Byron Calame: The Public Editor: "Approaching Iran Intelligence With Intelligent Skepticism" . In: The New York Times , February 25, 2007
  23. ^ Clark Hoyt: Seeing Al Qaeda Around Every Corner . In: The New York Times , July 8, 2007
  24. ↑ Public Editor Hits Paper's Surge in Blaming `` al-Qaeda '' in Iraq . In: Editor and Publisher , July 8, 2007
  25. ↑ Bush Distorts Qaeda Links, Critics Assert . In: New York Times , July 13, 2007
  26. ^ Pot, Meet Kettle: 'NYT' Hits Bush For Al-Qaeda Claims - After Public Editor Blamed Paper . ( Memento of August 25, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) In: Editor and Publisher , July 13, 2007. “But just last Sunday, Clark Hoyt, the paper's new public editor, had criticized the paper for doing much the same, in increasingly pointing to al-Qaeda influence and failing to point out the distinction between the newly-formed Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia group and Osama bin Laden's operation. Gordon had written many of those faulty (in Hoyt's view) stories. ”
personal data
SURNAME Gordon, Michael R.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gordon, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American journalist, correspondent and author
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1951