Posted on 05/16/2007 8:22:33 PM PDT by Ooh-Ah
A recently surfaced letter dated September 24, 2002 refers to a decision by the Iraqi Council of Ministers under Saddam authorizing the Ministry of Culture and Information to make a monthly payment of €50,000 to Al-Jazeera TV.
Source: Sotaliraq, May 12, 2007
Posted at: 2007-05-14
Ping
What’s the big deal? The US government still today funds NPR and PBS, which are hardly any friendlier to American interests than Al-Jazeera is.
well that explains alot!!!
Are you really that naive to think Saddam was funding an information channel that would make him look bad?
The sheer lameness of putting that in writing is astounding.
I wonder how many stories Al-Jazeera did and how many were picked up by the world press on how the United States was starving women and children with the sanctions on Iraq.
“Oh, PLEASE! If this were true, it would have come out by now!”—my prediction of what Michael Moore will say when confronted with this info
The post shows the smoking gun document, as if it were proof of something sinister. But until NPR is defunded by Congress, we are doing something nearly as bad ourselves.
Surprise!
Surprise!
Surprise!
Nothing to see here!
Sorry but your analogy is not the appropriate one. Your point has value in and of itself but not with the context of the Arab world and Middle East politics.
Al Jajizm spews Sunni Supremacy and caters to the dictator in power as upholding some model of super Arab.
And the beneficiaries of such was certainly not the Iraqi majority. In fact, Iraqis detest them so much they rioted when they saw their truck and would have ripped their “journalists” to pieces.
The Iraqis know how much suffering they’ve undergone through the cynical relationship of the two. There’s no comparison unless NPR tells the US how great their leadership is while that leadership persecutes, tortures, and murders the dissenting majority.
Not clear why you don’t understand this, so I’ve spelled it out.
(excerpted - FULL)
"Before the recent conflict, says Tareq al-Mezrem from the Kuwaiti Information Office, the Iraqi regime gave journalists luxury "villas in Jordan, Tunisia, and even Lebanon."
"Some of the transactions were straightforward cash payments, often in U.S. dollars, handed out from Iraqi embassies in Arab capitals--luxury cars delivered to top editors, Toyotas for less influential journalists. "This was not secret," says Salama Nimat, a Jordanian journalist who was jailed briefly in 1995 in that nation for highlighting the corruption. "Most of it was done out in the open."
"For years, the Iraqi leader has been waging an intensive, sometimes clandestine, and by most accounts highly effective image war in the Arab world," wrote Wall Street Journal reporters Jane Mayer and Geraldine Brooks in an exposé published February 15, 1991. "His strategy has ranged from financing friendly publications and columnists as far away as Paris to doling out gifts as big as new Mercedes-Benzes."
"That campaign continued until days before the regime was deposed. "If they're not bought and paid for, they're at least rented," says a top national security official, who adds that the administration has intelligence implicating big-name journalists throughout the Arab world and Europe.
"I could give you lots of names," says Tareq al-Mezrem. "Everyone knows them on the street. Everyone knows this information."
"In a series of interviews conducted in Kuwait City and Washington in recent weeks, Arab journalists and media experts said the same thing. Several of those interviewed, with assurances of confidentiality, provided names, lots of them. If their reports are accurate, the Iraqi regime's "modest media strategy" so appealing to Reuters' Marr was actually an elaborate scheme to buy victory in the propaganda war with the United States."
"To lots of people, Saddam Hussein and his regime was a godsend," says a Washington-based columnist for a prominent Arabic-language newspaper. "Only a few journalists [in the Arab world] didn't take money from him."
"In an April 2, 2003, speech in New York City, British home secretary David Blunkett complained about Arab journalism. "It's hard to get the true facts if the reporters of Al Jazeera are actually linked into, and are only there because they are provided with facilities and support from the regime." The accusation caused a minor stir in Britain, with several scathing editorials in left-wing newspapers calling for Blunkett's head.
"In fact, he may have simply revealed something that wasn't meant for public consumption. According to the CIA report, "Saddam's son Uday . . . assigned a writer, closely associated to him, Rahim Mizyad, as the correspondent to the al-Jazirah satellite television channel. Mizyad also is head of several weekly newspapers in Iraq and General Press Coordinator of all Iraqi governates, but Uday oversees his work."
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READ THE WHOLE ARTICLE! Too much to list!
CNN used to be a total shill for Sadam. To protect their “access” they had to feed stories he wouldn’t object to. Someone here can find the threads I’m talking about.
I tried finding the relevent thread(s) using FR search, but can’t figure out how to narrow the search by keyword/s “Sadam +CNN” which comes out “cnnsadam” which gives me nothing.
Freeper Sono pinged me yesterday about it and I read the Arabic document that they linked. The translation is correct.
I especially appreciated your recent translation of Iraqi Document: Planning of a Meeting Between Al Zawahiri and Saddam Regime in 2002 (Translation) and your caution that it could be a fake.
I just noticed the excellent idea you mentioned at this link for doing something on YOU TUBE.
I personally want to thank you for all your efforts.
Thank you very much and you are very welcome :)
You got that right! Jveritas is a gentleman, a scholar, and a true patriot! They don’t come any finer!
You are making me blush :)
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