Ariel 'Foreign Bureau'

By Nick Childs, Pentagon Correspondent, Washington, 1 February 2005

Go for three months initially, they said. As an experiment. Thus, in April 2002, I became the BBC’s inaugural Pentagon correspondent. Now, after nearly three extraordinary and fascinating years, it’s time to hand on the baton.

After 9/11 and the toppling of the Taleban, with thoughts of Iraq already well-formed, the Pentagon had assumed a new prominence in the affairs of the US and the world and, of course, it has at its head an extraordinary and controversial force of a personality in the shape of Donald Rumsfeld.

The Pentagon was welcoming but wary when I arrived. Planting the BBC flag was a daunting affair.

The Pentagon is huge, but space is at a premium. The BBC’s share to begin with was a desk behind a door in a corner of the radio section of the press room.

As the Pentagon started to take us more seriously, so we quickly graduated to a cubby hole of our own and now have a proper broadcast booth (although it’s still a tight fit when our Pentagon producer Diana Ray is working there as well, with one computer to share).

Political rollercoaster

Thanks to the generosity of ABC News, and especially its regular Pentagon crew, we also have a regular TV live spot there, enabling us to compete shoulder-to-shoulder with CNN.

The BBC remains the only foreign broadcaster with a dedicated post in the Pentagon, and the only foreign media organisation with one, except for the AFP news agency.

Whatever the rights or wrongs of what the Pentagon does, it is a complex organisation made up of legions of individuals who’ve experienced anger, pride, elation, despair and grim determination as events in Afghanistan and Iraq have unfolded.

And the events themselves have seemed relentless: the attack on Afghanistan, the tensions of the build-up to war in Iraq, the invasion, the insurgency, the firestorm over Abu Ghraib, the Guantanamo controversy and the rollercoaster of Rumsfeld’s political fortunes.

The first close encounter with ‘the Secretary’, as he’s called, was around the highly-polished table of his dining room.

Rumsfeld's snowflakes

The Pentagon was already a bit upset with the British media’s early coverage of Guantanamo Bay, and seemed to blame the BBC for it. So I got some gentle ribbing from Mr Rumsfeld, although there was steeliness behind it as well. His officials told me not to worry, but they were obviously a little tense too.

One-on-one, he can be remarkably personable and is usually very good when visiting the troops. But there’s no doubt that he’s a hard taskmaster and you get the impression that most people – even four-star generals – are a little afraid of him.

He often gets things done by distributing notes (Rumsfeld’s ‘snowflakes’). When you get one, you know you need to act on it.

I still find the access granted journalists remarkable. We’re free to roam the corridors, even the third floor outer E Ring that houses the offices of Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz.

Of course, trying to barge in on them uninvited or, say, the National Military Command Centre, would probably get one shot. And trying to prise information out of people at times is also another matter.

But I still can’t conceive of the UK Ministry of Defence offering the same freedoms.

Now it’s time to move on, my feet may be thankful for the respite, but I shall certainly miss those miles of corridors.

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