Posted on 08/05/2003 6:35:19 PM PDT by blam
Voice of free Iraq walks out on US
Brian Whitaker
Wednesday August 6, 2003
The Guardian (UK)
A broadcaster who became known as "the voice of free Iraq" after the fall of Saddam Hussein has walked out of his job, saying the United States is losing the propaganda war. Failure to invest in the new Iraqi broadcasting service means foreign channels are gaining popularity at the expense of the US, Ahmed al-Rikabi, the American-appointed director of TV and radio said yesterday.
"The people of Iraq, including the Sunni Muslims, are not about to turn against their liberators, but they are being incited to do so. These [foreign] channels contribute to tension within Iraq," he said.
Saddam is scoring propaganda successes over the Americans by sending audio tapes to Arab satellite channels, Mr Rikabi continued.
"Saddam is doing better at marketing himself, through al-Jazeera and al-Arabiyya channels," he said, referring to the deposed Iraqi leader's recent messages which have been broadcast throughout the Middle East.
Last April Mr Rikabi, who had been head-hunted by the Americans, announced the overthrow of the Iraqi regime from a tent near Baghdad airport. Many Iraqis still recall his exact words: "Welcome to the new Iraq. Welcome to an Iraq without Saddam, Uday or Qusay."
He then helped to recruit a team of journalists that started TV transmissions lasting up to 16 hours a day. But the channel was dogged by a lack of money and resources.
The station was provided with only three studio cameras and five portable cameras, Mr Rikabi said. For the five portable cameras, they were allowed only 10 rechargeable batteries lasting 15 minutes each.
The best-paid journalist got a salary of $120 a month, compared with the minimum of $500 a month paid by other Arab networks, he added.
There was also a clothing allowance for newsreaders, but only to clothe the visible top half of their bodies.
Stephen Claypole, who was a public affairs adviser to Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad, said: "It's very typical of everything the Americans get involved in. They announce large budgets and the money is never released."
Yeah, Americans are lousy at everything. That is why our country is so screwed up and nobody wants to come here.
And that's all they care about, getting that "free" American money.
Lets change this statement to a more truthful statement.
The us Failure to bomb the old Iraq propaganda machines.
Now don't come back with how this would look to the rest of the world. I realise we believe in a free press BUT, lets add to that AN HONEST PRESS!
LETS BOMB ALL THE DISHONEST PRESS
Our local cable company provides 3 channels for local public school coverage and WE can't get the CENTCOM and DOD briefings - are forced to hear the war news through the wanker-filter...dishonest from day one.
We do have radio and press and TV in Iraq - but the world is big, with thousands of TV, radio and press outlets preaching anti-American pap - incited by a major US political party and our own former Presidents to act against us to weaken America on the world stage...all afraid of Big Good America.
Why are we not acting on this? As Roy Innis said, the first amendment was never supposed to be a suicide pact.
No, it's not, and I'm inclined to believe that it is true. This isn't the first I've heard of problems in the communicating-to-the-people-of-Iraq department. We've got to win over the hearts and minds of the Iraqis, otherwise our job will be a thousand times more difficult. Money spent to get our message out to the Iraqis -- that we're working hard, that progress is being made, that we're on their side -- is money very well spent. If there is such a thing as a morally justified time for propaganda, this is one of them. We shouldn't be skimping on this.
It was worse during Vietnam. Cronkite's lies won the day, because we had few ways to check the facts - mail took weeks, internet non-existant.
Today, Americans are being conned daily - either don't care or don't know - wouldn't know unless they check CENTCOM, or have loved ones serving.
It's up to us to get the word out.
A member of Pres. GHW Bush's first admin. wrote a book about the media not allowing a President to fight a war. Solzhenitsyn was onto 'em long ago:
The (inter)national mainstream press IS the #1 answer to "why they hate us."
The only solution really is to take them less seriously...and get the facts out, as well as standing up to the liars.
As long as people believe the well-coiffed spinners and noisy activists, people like Hillary Clinton and Fidel Castro stay in power.
Where is the common sense here?
The Iraqi people survived over 24 years of brutality from the Hussein regime. They may have a more difficult time ignoring the hate speech surrounding them today.
When was the last time you heard a pro-American AMERICAN news outlet?
This is true.
But we could try harder to get our message across to the Iraqis.
How?
I know what this administration's been doing in Iraq. I doubt many here cared enough to look past the destructive partisan press for the truth. YES, the Iraqi people need to be strong and need to learn who to trust in the press.
Clinton gave the UN and international socialist NGOS and think tanks unprecidented authority in US foreign policy matters. We have no Jesse Helms sitting on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee defending US from the pro-UN-crook globalists. What THIS administration has accomplished in Iraq even with the forces they're up against (#1 enemy = the VLWC) is nothing short of a miracle. Blaming this administration for the current efforts of the international press is rather like Clinton telling Juanita Broderick, "Put some ice on it."
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