Free Republic

The Egyptian bureau of al-Hurra, an Arabic-language television network financed by the U.S. government, boasts a spectacular view of the Nile River and the capital's bustling streets. But inside, all is quiet. The bureau's satellite link was unplugged with little explanation a few weeks ago by a local company, making it impossible to broadcast live. Since then, staffers have had to use a studio controlled by the Egyptian secret police, who have warned guests not to say anything controversial on the air. Al-Hurra -- "The Free One" in Arabic -- is the centerpiece of a U.S. government campaign to spread...

An Arab-language television network and radio station, founded by the Bush administration to promote a positive image of the United States, has aired anti-American and anti-Israeli viewpoints, has showcased pro-Iranian policies and recently gave air time to a militant who called for the death of American soldiers in Iraq. So far, U.S. taxpayers have spent nearly $500 million to fund those broadcasts. The television station, called Alhurra, and the radio network, Sawa, were meant to provide an American perspective on world events and counter the wave of global criticism that had been building against the Bush administration since the invasion...

(CBS) American taxpayers are paying for a Middle Eastern television network that broadcast an anti-Israeli diatribe as recently as last month, a joint investigation by 60 Minutes and ProPublica reveals. This, despite the fact that Al Hurra management promised Congress nearly two years ago that they would take measures to prevent such mistakes, which had occurred repeatedly before. The joint investigation will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, June 22, at 7 p.m. ET/PT and be detailed on ProPublica's Web site simultaneously. Al Hurra is headquartered in Springfield, Va.; it was created four years ago by the Bush Administration...

When Ken Tomlinson calls for an investigation into the “cover-up” of U.S. Arabic broadcasting outrages, it is clear he understands where that probe would lead: to Karen Hughes, under secretary of State for public diplomacy and a long-time member of President George W. Bush’s inner circle...

U.S. taxpayers should not pay to air terrorist tirades. Yet, that is exactly what happened at Alhurra, an Arabic-language television network for the Middle East that is completely funded by U.S. tax dollars. Alhurra exists to counter the anti-American biases that pervade the Arab world’s news media. However, the station’s recent broadcasts have instead provided platforms for terrorists to spew hate directed at the United States and Israel. U.S. taxpayers should not pay ... U.S. taxpayers should not pay to air terrorist tirades. Yet, that is exactly what happened at Alhurra, an Arabic-language television network for the Middle East that...

The Virginia-based al-Hurra satellite television network that is financed by Congress and beams to the Arab world may be subject to an independent review following reports that it has routinely aired broadcasts that include denunciations of Israel or Jews. The station, which reportedly receives $62 million in funding annually (plus an additional $40 million for a station that targets Iraq), was reportedly set up as an alternative to the principal Arab news channel al-Jazeera, which has frequently been attacked by U.S. politicians as sympathetic to Arab militants. But the Associated Press reported Tuesday that al-Hurra has aired programs that have...

Two New Jersey Congressmen have expressed outrage that Alhurra, a US-funded Arabic-language television network in the Middle East created to counter the propaganda of media such as Al Jazeera, has broadcast live, hour-long interviews with terrorist leaders and sympathetically viewed Holocaust deniers.Representatives Steven Rothman, a Democrat, and Frank LoBiondo, a Republican, have called for, among other remedies, the immediate resignation of Larry Register, Alhurra’s non-Arab speaking news director.To make Alhurra more accountable so that terrorists never again take over the station’s broadcasts, Mr. Rothman, a long-standing member of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Foreign Operations, has requested funding so...

Saddam Hussein hanged, says Al Hurra TV station By Mariam Karouny 6 minutes ago U.S.-backed Iraqi television station Al Hurra said Saddam Hussein had been executed by hanging shortly before 6 a.m. (0300 GMT) on Saturday.Arabic satellite channel Arabiya also reported the execution had taken place.The former Iraqi president ousted in April 2003 by a U.S.-led invasion was convicted in November of crimes against humanity over the killings of 148 Shi'ite villagers from Dujail after a failed assassination bid in 1982.An appeals court upheld the death penalty on Tuesday and the government rushed through the procedures to hang him...

It comes as a relief to learn that Karen Hughes, who runs the public diplomacy shop at the U.S. State Department, has suspended the pathetic effort to reach out to Arab and other foreign audiences via a taxpayer-funded magazine named Hi International (best remembered for a notorious June 2005 article, "Sharp-Dressed Men," that told how "real men moisturize"). It's startling to realize that $4.5 million a year produced a mere 55,000 monthly copies of Hi and (according to alexa.com) a website that ranks about 900,000th from the top, suggesting it gets about 100 hits a day. The magazine has been...

The violence -- and casualties -- in Iraq continue to mount and many in the Arab world continue to view America as an imperialist power. But the US-based television station Al-Hurra is trying to change that. After all, there is some good news in Iraq, isn't there? The scenes of destruction have become a daily staple in Iraq: car bombs exploding in Baghdad, mutilated victims, the horrified faces of the survivors. And new footage from the Iraqi capital, it seems, is constantly flickering across television screens. Recently, it was graphic pictures showing newly discovered bodies of Iraqi security personnel. They...

Greenwich resident Steven Simmons says he helps fight the war on terrorism, albeit not on the front lines. His battle is fought over the airwaves rather than in insurgent-infested slums. Simmons, 58, is one of eight civilian members of the Broadcasting Board of Gover-nors, a bipartisan, presidential-appointed and U.S. Senate-confirmed agency that supervises all U.S. nonmilitary broadcasts, including Voice of America and Radio Free Europe. The agency has a $600 million annual budget and employs 3,200 people, in addition to 1,000 part-time stringers. Most of the agency's employees are journalists and producers, whose many ventures include the 2004 launch of...

On January 6, 2005, the U.S.-funded Arabic satellite network Al Hurra broadcast an explosive exposé detailing the financial links between Saddam Hussein's regime and the Arab press. Al Hurra's documentary--so far overlooked in the West--aired previously unseen video footage, recorded by Saddam Hussein's regime during its murderous heyday, of Saddam's son Uday meeting with several Arab media figures and referring to the bribes they had received.Recipients of this Baathist largesse appeared to include a former managing director of the influential Qatar-based government-subsidized satellite network Al Jazeera, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali. The videotaped meeting between Uday and al-Ali occurred on March 13,...

The Pentagon is now convinced that air strikes on Syria have become necessary to overthrow the Assad regime, liberate Lebanon and stop support of insurgents waging a guerrilla war against American forces in Iraq as well as Palestinian militants against Israel, the U.S.-sponsored Al Hurra TV network says. "Political action to deal with the problem of Syria's presence in Lebanon and its support of terrorism against Israel and Iraq is no longer deemed effective," Al Hurra quoted American intelligence sources as saying, according to slain ex-Premier Hariri's Al Mustaqbal newspaper on Friday. "Diplomacy as a means to deal with...

BASRA, Iraq (Reuters) - Gunmen killed the Basra correspondent of the U.S.-funded television station Alhurra outside his house in the southern Iraqi city of Basra, police said on Wednesday. Abdul-Hussein Khazal was killed when several gunmen attacked his house, police said. Alhurra is an Arabic-language satellite station set up with U.S. funding last year in an effort to compete with other Arabic satellite channels like Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya. It is based in the state of Virginia. Dozens of foreign and Iraqi journalists have been killed in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003.

Last Sunday, when Abu-Musab al-Zarqawi aired his infamous declaration of holy war against democracy, six main Iraqi leaders performed Iraq's first televised electoral debate on Al Hurra TV. The contrast between naked jihadism -- calling for the assassination of free choice -- and campaigning with ideas and words, is flagrant. The war in Iraq was never as clear as today, and its stakes were never as high as Sunday. The debate participants represented six major tickets. Iraq's future assembly will have 275 seats. More than 4,000 candidates have gathered in ''coalition lists'' representing ethnic, ideological and political interests -- the...

MONTE CARLO — This jewel of the Cote D'Azur oozes glamour, money and relaxation, not exactly the place to become immersed in the controversy about alleged jaundiced reporting by Arab satellite news channels. But it was here on the Riviera, as a panelist at the annual television festival sponsored by Monaco's royal family, that I promptly was engaged in spirited debate with representatives of al Jazeera, the Qatar-based network launched in 1996, often accused of being anti-American and anti-Israel; and al Hurra, a U.S. government-financed Arabic language TV operation that began broadcasting to the Middle East on Valentine's Day. Headquartered...

A new survey of Iraq conducted by Oxford Research International shows that 61 percent of Iraqi adults had watched the new US-funded Arabic language TV channel Alhurra (Arabic for "The Free One") in the previous week. Since it launched on February 14, 2004, Alhurra has quickly established itself as an important resource for Iraqis to get their news - 19 percent of those surveyed cited Alhurra as one of their top three sources of information. Of those people who watch Alhurra, 64 percent found the news to be 'very' or 'somewhat' reliable. The results are based on face-to-face interviews with...

With the transfer of political authority to the Iraqi interim government now complete, the Bush administration should focus its attention on promoting democracy in Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. One of the most effective ways in which the United States can pursue this goal is to transform Washington's Arab satellite news channel, Al Hurra, into a kind of C-Span for the Arab world. It would be difficult for the new channel to broadcast hearings and meetings of Arab and Middle Eastern governments, at least initially. It could begin, however, with programming that has already proved its attraction to...

The U.S. backed Arab-language news network Al Hurra broadcast video on Wednesday depicting grisly acts of torture on Iraqi citizens ordered by Saddam Hussein. But so far at least, the shocking new video remains embargoed by U.S. media outlets. The Washington Post admitted on Friday that it was in possession of some of the gruesome torture images - but did not publish them in a report on the video buried on Page A21. Instead, Post editors decided to front-page stale images of U.S. abuse of suspected terrorists held at Baghdad's Abu Ghraib prison. "The [Hussein torture] video reached news outlets,"...

Some of the readers asked about my opinion about the interviews that GWB gave to Al-Hurra and Al-Arabeya TV channels and since I'm a CIA agent (I'm thinking of leaving them to work for the Mossad. I've heard they pay better), I guess my opinion would be biased, so I decided to offer you some of the responses I saw on the BBC Arabic which offers a comment section for Arab readers to post their opinions about the hot topics. There were about 30 comments today, since it's still fresh on the site. As usual, the comments from Iraqis-in general-contradicted...

WASHINGTON — President Bush (search) has granted interviews to Arab news outlets in an effort to temper rising fury over images of American troops abusing Iraqi prisoners. White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Tuesday night that Bush will conduct two 10-minute interviews with the U.S.-sponsored Al-Hurra television network and the Arab network Al Arabiya. "This is an opportunity for the president to speak directly to the people in Arab nations and let them know that the images that we all have seen are shameless and unacceptable," McClellan said. "These images do not represent what America stands for, nor do they...

WASHINGTON — America's efforts to counteract the ill effects of Arabic satellite station Al Jazeera (search) appear to be paying off. The first ratings are in for Al Hurra (search) — the U.S.-based Arabic language television station that just went on the air in February, and they look promising. "Al Hurra" means "the free one" in Arabic. From its studios in Springfield, Va., it broadcasts news and public affairs programming throughout the Middle East and is available on all the same satellites where its long-standing competitors, Qatar-based Al Jazeera and Al Aribiya (search) are seen. The idea is to counter...

US launches “accurate” Arabic satellite television broadcasts In a bid to offset the spread of anti-American messages by pan-Arab media outlets, the US government launched Al-Hurra, a satellite television station broadcasting Arabic language news and information programming across the Middle East and North Africa, on Saturday, February 14, 2004. The broadcast schedule will expand progressively over the first month of operations to the point of providing a round-the-clock news and information service by March 14, stated a press release. “The people will hear free and open discussions not just about conflict in the Middle East, but also about subjects...

In a desperate effort to reverse America's negative image in the Arab world, a new Arabic-language television station called Alhurra ("the free one") has been added to the diet of existing government-sponsored broadcasting outlets in the Arab region. The new station joins America's Radio Sawa and its slick Hi magazine as post-September 11 Arabic-language media tools that the US hopes to use to win Arab hearts and minds. Judging from the broadcast content of its first day, Washington has a long way to go to achieve its goals. Alhurra operates with a $62-million grant from the US government. Judging from...

CAIRO, Egypt - Even before its first broadcast, a satellite television station financed by the U.S. government and directed at Arab viewers is drawing fire in the Middle East as an American attempt to destroy Islamic values and brainwash the young. Al-Hurra, or The Free One, is to start broadcasting Saturday. President Bush (news - web sites) has promised the news station, which will build up to 24-hour programming within a month, will "cut through the hateful propaganda that fills the airwaves in the Muslim world." It already has landed a one-on-one interview with Bush. White House Press Secretary Scott...

Arabs slam Washington's TV channel US-funded news station seen as Bush bid to spread propaganda and to undermine Islamic values CAIRO - Even before its first broadcast, a satellite television station financed by the US government and directed at Arab viewers is drawing fire in the Middle East as an American attempt to destroy Islamic values and brainwash the young. Al-Hurra, or The Free One, is to start broadcasting today. US President George W. Bush has promised that the news station, which will build up to 24-hour programming within a month, will 'cut through the hateful propaganda that fills the...