Baghdad using Penn
as propaganda tool?

Fresh from a three-day "fact-finding" trip to Iraq, actor Sean Penn claims his new acquaintances there are using him as a propaganda tool.

An Iraqi online news service reported yesterday that Penn "has condemned the U.S.-British threats to wage war against Iraq," and that the actor "confirmed that Iraq is completely clear of weapons of mass destruction and the United Nations must adopt a positive stance toward Iraq," the New York Post reported today.

Sean Penn

The news agency also said Penn "condemned the U.S.' misleading claims, arguing that it is the U.S., not Iraq, who is practicing such illegal behavior."

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A spokeswoman for the actor, Mara Buxbaum, vigorously denied the claims made in the report.

"Oh please! I don't know where those statements are being fabricated from," she said. "This is specifically propaganda. It's a twisted interpretation of what he said. They are twisting his words."

She claims Penn never spoke to the Iraqi daily, which was not named in the Post report. Buxbaum could not say whether Penn would now write off the rogue nation he befriended only recently.

In traveling to Baghdad, Penn said he wanted more insight into ''this frightening conflict" with the U.S.

"As a father, an actor, a film-maker and patriot, my visit to Iraq is for me a natural extension of my obligation ... to find my own voice on matters of conscience,'' he said in a $56,000 advertisement in the Washington Post in October accusing President Bush of stifling debate over Iraq.

The liberal think tank that sponsored Penn's Iraq trip, the Institute of Public Accuracy, also was caught off-guard by the Iraqi media report, said the Post.

"This is the first I'm hearing about it," said an unidentified spokeswoman.

"By the invitation of the Institute for Public Accuracy, I have the privileged opportunity to pursue a deeper understanding of this frightening conflict,'' Penn said in a press release.

The institute also sponsored a Baghdad visit by U.S. Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va., in September, in a bid to ''give peace a chance.''

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Penn's trip to a potential enemy nation upset many Americans and won him the nickname "Baghdad Sean," a takeoff on the "Hanoi Jane" moniker Jane Fonda earned by visiting North Vietnam in 1971, the paper said.

Also, some analysts warned that Iraq may attempt to use his trip for propaganda purposes.

The Hollywood bad boy stayed an hour and a half in al-Mansur Hospital while in Baghdad, visiting many child leukemia victims and premature babies. He talked to the doctors and took pictures but made no comment to the press, explaining that he wished to avoid public exposure and focus on understanding the conflict.

Related story:

Sean Penn visits Baghdad for 'insight'