Calling A Truce

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By Newsweek Editors

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Peter Arnett, CNN's man in Baghdad, returned home and found himself in the middle of another cease-fire. Last week, Wyoming Sen. Alan Simpson, who had labeled the correspondent an Iraqi "sympathizer" and questioned his loyalties during the Vietnam War because his brother-in-law was supposedly "active in the Viet Cong," offered a halfbaked apology. In a letter printed in The New York Times, Simpson said he was sorry for "repeating the [unsubstantiated] rumors about Mr. Arnett's family connection to the Viet Cong." (In a Times op-ed a week earlier, Arnett's son Andrew wrote, "My mother, an American citizen, still mourns her brothers. [who] were trapped in [North Vietnam] while she fled to the South. This pain has been compounded by [Simpson's allegations.]") Simpson regretted using the word "sympathizer," saying "dupe" or "tool" would have been more appropriate, and called Arnett's Iraq reporting "repugnant" - a word he repeated on the "NBC Nightly News." Arnett says he accepts the apology and the "case is closed."

Arnett says he has "no apologies" about his coverage of the gulf war (during which he proposed by phone to American journalist Kimberly Moore, 23). At the National Press Club in Washington, Arnett was asked about his report on the bombing of the baby-formula factory, which U.S. officials said was a bio-weapons plant. "I didn't see any evidence of biological weapons," he said. Holding up a bag of formula from the site, he added, "If you believe me, join me later. We'll put it in our coffee."

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