In Islamabad, coalition partners try to get out message on the war – conceding they're late

By NIKO PRICE
Associated Press Writer

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – The U.S.-led coalition launched an effort Tuesday to get its message on the war in Afghanistan out to a foreign audience, conceding that a month and a half after it began bombing, the move came a bit late in the game.

The new Coalition Information Service opened phone lines to answer questions from the news media and held a news conference in Islamabad – the first of what it said would be daily briefings.

Spokesman Kenton Keith, a former U.S. ambassador to Qatar, conceded that the inauguration of the operation – after coalition bombing had already helped drive the Taliban from most of Afghanistan – should have happened long ago.

"To a certain extent, we dropped the ball," he said.

Images of civilians killed in coalition bombing caused many to turn against the war. And the Taliban's ambassador to Pakistan, Abdul Salam Zaeef, had given regular briefings in Islamabad until Pakistan's government ordered a halt.

Meanwhile, aside from a few interviews U.S. officials gave to the Arabic-language news network Al-Jazeera, the U.S.-led coalition had little media presence outside the United States and Britain.

President Bush recognized that, announcing on Oct. 31 that he would send media officials to Britain and Pakistan to explain the anti-terrorism fight to foreign audiences.

"It's important that the coalition be able to speak to the media," said British Lt. Col. Robin Hodges, a spokesman for the Coalition Information Service.

He said the Islamabad news conferences, along with others already in place in Washington and London, would allow the coalition to get out its point of view throughout the 24-hour cycle of international news.

In a packed room of journalists with a long row of television cameras, Keith appeared in a black pinstriped suit, calmly fielding questions from foreign and Pakistani journalists.

One reporter asked him to respond to Taliban claims of widespread civilian casualties from the bombing.

"We deeply regret any civilian casualties," Keith said. "We have no numbers on civilian casualties but we assume they are smaller in number than reports by the Taliban."

The Taliban had begun to issue those reports on Oct. 7.

AP-WS-11-20-01 1918EST