Cynopsis: 10th Anniversary Special Edition: "2003"

9/24/07

Greetings! It's Monday, September 24, 2007 and this is your Cynopsis Special Edition, taking a look back at the Year 2003.

This excerpt from the March 19, 2003 edition:

The news came at 9:32pm on March 19, 2003, from NBC's Tom Brokaw: 'Good evening everyone, and it has been an evening of tense expectations, a forty eight hour deadline for Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq has expired about an hour and 30 minutes ago now, and we have reports that American war planes could be in the air. We are going to go to Peter Arnett who is now in Baghdad where it is early Thursday morning and air raid sirens are sounding across the Capital city. Peter, what are you hearing and what are you seeing?'

Arnett: 'Hello Tom. I don't know if you can hear me, but the sirens are sounding all around Baghdad -- as of this moment it is about an hour before dawn here - sirens sounding but no sounds of missiles or anti aircraft fire. This could be a pre-warning of an attack. No sign of any attack but it could be a pre-warning. The sirens have now died down. In the Gulf War 12 years ago there was a similar series of sirens before the actual bombings began.'

From the Oval Office, the President declared War at 10:15pm. Peter Arnett was later fired for giving an interview to Iraqi television where he said in part that the US war plan had thus far failed. He was later rehired by nearly everyone.