Reflecting this "one sided" vision of the conflict in the benefit of the Iraqis, Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, the second most powerful personality of the Islamic Republic after the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh'i, in his Friday sermon, claimed that the Iraqi people continue to resist to the "infamous American monster", that the American’s "imagined" might would be broken and promised that the "invaders" would be "buried" in the Iraqi "quagmire".

He also warned those among Iranians who "linger" for an American victory that they would be "humiliated", asking: "how can these people defend the American monster while our youth see the assassination of innocent Iraqi people?"

"Our political and military analysts, appearing on the Voice and Visage (Iranian Radio and Television) panels analysing the ongoing war situation, tell us about American strategist’s mistakes, about a conflict that is lasting more than forecast, about the Iraqi army’s resistance and setbacks of the "aggressors" or the "invaders", but while listening to other sources, including Arabic ones which are not always very credit worthy, one get a very different picture", wrote Mr. Ommid Parsanezhad.

"The presentation of the war by the VVIR is one sided, incomplete and void of any sense of reality. All the efforts of the Organisation’s editors, experts, interviewees and reporters are geared to show that Iraq is becoming a quagmire for the American-British forces engulfed in a new Vietnam", he observed, adding that high ranking officers from the Revolutionary Guards, "clad in military uniform" and bending over a map of Iraq, points to the "defeats" of the "forces of aggression" and the "resistance" of the Iraqi armies.

"There is no doubt that in their advance towards Baghdad, American and British forces encounter difficulties the strategists had not envisioned, partly due to the fact that Saddam uses his people as human shield and civilian installations, like hospitals, schools and factories for hiding his tanks and artillery, but all told, one has to agree that so far, they have not met an unexpected situation. While everyone knows well how the conflict would end, meaning that Saddam’s regime would be toppled, then why twist the realities? Mr. Parsanezhad asked officials at the Iranian Radio and Television.

Adding his voice in highlighting the "dangers" of projecting such an "unrealistic vision" of the conflict, "made up" by the Iranian public media, presents for the regime’s decision-makers, professor Sadeq Ziba Kalam of the Tehran University says the Radio and Television have got "out of neutrality" by adopting a "deliberate anti-American colour".

Edmadeddin Baqi, a young journalist who was jailed for his investigative reports on what is known as the "Serial Murders" (of Iranian political and intellectual dissidents at the hands of the Intelligence Ministry when it was controlled by Mr. Hashemi Rafsanjani, the former president) also described as "dangerous" the way the VVIR is reporting about the crisis.

Addressing single-handedly the anti-American "warmongers", Mr. Nima Rashedan, an outspoken Iranian dissident journalist based in Switzerland, refutes those who claims the Americans targets Iraqi civilians, children and women, observing that "based on reports from the Iraqi television, 733 Iraqi civilians (a figure difficult to confirm its accuracy) have been killed since the start of the war two weeks ago, but anyhow, this figure is half the people killed in Iran in road accidents during the two weeks of the New Year holiday".

"No doubt that human conscience suffers from the death or even the wounds of a child, but one shall not forget that in less than three month, Saddam Hoseyn massacred 180.000 Kurds in the north and 100.000 Shi’as in the southern regions of Iraq. That he and his regime slaughtered 6.000 Iraqi Kurdish children, women and elderly civilians in Halabja, using deadly chemical nerve gas. That in the past four years, he starved to death half a million Iraqi children. That the war he imposed on Iran in 1980, he left two millions dead, seven millions disabled and the destruction of entire regions in the two countries. But in this war, the 21.000 missiles the Allied dropped on Iraqi positions killed 733 people", he noted.

Contrary to the pro-Iraqi line adopted by the Radio and Television, the official news agency IRNA, which is close to the reformists and reports directly from the war fronts, quoting its own correspondents or international sources, seems more accurate and neutral -- and for this reason, its news, commentaries, debates and interviews are ignored by the VVIR.

"We try to be as objective as possible, but as you know, we have our own limits and red lines imposed on us by the ones above us", one journalist at the agency told Iran Press Service on condition of anonymity, adding that the VVIR is controlled by the "mo’avedins" (Iraqis of Iranian origin) who, anyhow, are more Iraqi and Iranians".

He was referring to prominent mo’avedin personalities the who have "infiltrated" several key positions in the Iranian political, media, diplomatic and even military establishments, people like Ayatollah Mahmood Hashemi Shahroodi (formerly al-Araqi), the first leader of the Tehran-based Supreme Assembly of the Islamic Revolution of Iraq who is in charge of the Iranian Judiciary, Ayatollah Mohammad Ali Taskhiri, the Head of the powerful Islamic Propaganda Organisation or Hamid Reza Asefi, the senior spokesman of the Foreign Affairs Ministry etc.). ENDS VVIR CRITICISED 4403