For the millions of ordinary Iraqis following the war by radio, figuring out what's really happening must be confoundingly difficult.
Official Iraqi radio and TV broadcasts have aired fevered calls for jihad, holy war, to drive out U.S. and British forces, along with accounts of imaginary Iraqi military victories.
But competing with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime are a host of opposition broadcasters, most of them organized or financed by the CIA and U.S. military. They, too, have broadcast disinformation, including premature reports of Hussein's death.
"The level of propaganda broadcasting we're seeing today really is `shock and awe' on the airwaves," says Nick Grace, a Web producer in Silver Spring who in his spare time helps run ClandestineRadio.com, which tracks unofficial broadcasts worldwide.
His network of volunteer listeners includes Arabic speakers in Tunisia and Egypt who closely follow the propaganda wars in Iraq.
Opposition radio
The anti-Hussein broadcasters include U.S. government-financed operations such as Radio Free Iraq, which works from the Prague, Czech Republic, headquarters of the Cold War stations Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty.
Less conventional but also clearly labeled is "Information Radio," U.S. military broadcasts from EC-130 Commando Solo aircraft and portable transmitters, part of a program of psychological operations or "psyops."
The messages resemble those on the astonishing 40 million leaflets - about two apiece for every Iraqi man, woman and child - dropped from U.S. planes or handed out on the street. Iraqi soldiers are advised not to fight.
Civilians are told that the Americans will liberate them from their oppressors.
Murky affiliations
The cacophony of voices includes at least five more broadcasting operations that do not fully reveal their location, financing and affiliations on the air.
Some speak for Iraqi opposition groups; all are believed by monitors to have ties to U.S. or British intelligence, Grace says.
According to monitors for ClandestineRadio.com and another tracking site, the Finland-based dxing.info, the oldest of the stations is the Voice of the Iraqi People, which uses transmitters in Saudi Arabia and first was heard in 1991.
In addition to broadcasting U.S. psyops messages, the station has aired such scoops as a 1990 tape purportedly of Hussein and his top generals discussing plans for the invasion of Kuwait, says Grace.
