Control Centre: The war, and the spin on it, will be controlled from Qatar, Deaglán de Bréadún reports
When the US-led war against Saddam Hussein begins, it will be run from Doha in Qatar, where the world's media will be given daily briefings on its progress.
The Coalition Media Centre will feature General Tommy Franks, the man President Bush has earmarked as effective ruler of Iraq once President Saddam is ousted, Britain's Air Marshal Brian Burridge and a cast of their colleagues.
There will be no old-fashioned flipcharts, no overhead projectors; instead, four flat "plasma" screens will show the action.
The Centre is in Camp As Sayliyah, headquarters of US Central Command, or Centcom. The war to oust Saddam will be controlled from this camp, and the parallel battle for the hearts and minds of the world will be waged in this media centre.
There were relatively few journalists at the centre yesterday, but it was a case of the calm before the desert storm. Journalists who decide to leave Baghdad for the time being are likely to come here or to Kuwait.
Camp As Sayliyah is a lonely-looking place with barbed-wire fences, a lengthy Connemara-style stone wall and concrete blocks at the entrance to deter suicide bombers in heavy trucks. Journalists are X-rayed twice, facing to the front and the rear, at Security Gate 11 and a sniffer dog makes a fastidious inspection of camera equipment.
There are mini-studios and the usual banks of phones and one of the corridors is named after Ernie Pyle, the illustrious second World War correspondent. A military team in desert fatigues, led by Col Ray Shepherd, is on hand to provide assistance.
Six television sets bring the war news from elsewhere and soldiers made no comment as they watched the continuing debate which raged in the House of Commons, the European Union and elsewhere. I met an affable Australian and thought I heard an English accent but most of the military personnel were American.
If they have a quick victory with few casualties, the whole world will probably come around; if not, or if things get messy, they could look very lonely sitting in the middle of the Arabian desert.
There is much talk in media circles about being "embedded". This is the process whereby correspondents join military units in the field, sometimes even wearing military uniform. The danger for the military is that they give away their secrets. The danger for correspondents is that they lose their detachment, or to put it another way: "If I become embedded with you now, will you still respect me when the war is over?"
Embedded or not, no journalist seems to know for sure when the war will start. The unofficial speculation at Camp As Sayliyah was that President Bush would not order the planes over Baghdad on Friday, since the day is holy to Muslims, but that all hell could break loose at the weekend.
So relaxed yesterday, this media centre will become frantic once the conflict starts. There will be wall-to-wall, round-the-clock coverage and, since the bombing is likely to begin at night, the trucks and the satellite dishes will be early on the scene. Already Sky TV, Fox News, NBC, ABC and the BBC have set up shop at Camp As Sayliyah.
The first big issue is likely to be civilian casualties. How many are there and could they have been avoided? Was there negligence or a reckless disregard for the lives of non-combatants? Is Saddam engineering things to make the Coalition forces look bad or was this war misconceived from the outset? Are smart bombs really that smart? Is Saddam using chemicals or poison gas against his own people?
These are questions that could very well arise, based on past experience. Just as video replays changed the face of football, so the far more deadly business of war is subject to increased monitoring by the cameras. Television arguably brought an end to the Vietnam War; it remains to be seen how it will affect the current conflict.
We will be seeing a lot of Tommy Franks and his plasma screens in the next few weeks.