This article deals with the role of interpreters/translators working for Western media organisations in Iraq since the Anglo-American invasion of 2003. The fault-lines in the political situation in Iraq post-2003 mean that any Iraqi working for Western media - or indeed, any Western organisation - is placed in a situation characterised by potentially conflicting loyalties; and create a situation in which other Iraqis are apt to make different evaluations of their role. The article deals with the uses to which translation and translators are put rather than the question of the translator's choices concerning their role. For resource reasons it is based on interviews with a number of Western journalists - mostly UK and French - who have worked in Iraq since 2003. It is thus concerned with the uses to which translation is put in particular circumstances: newsgathering in a conflict situation, and therefore in a particular 'target culture', the professional sub-culture of journalism.