MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ

UNCLAS AMMAN 003140

SIPDIS

STATE FOR NEA/ARN, NEA/PA, NEA/AIA, INR/NESA, R/MR,
I/GNEA, B/BXN, B/BRN, NEA/PPD, NEA/IPA FOR ALTERMAN
USAID/ANE/MEA
LONDON FOR GOLDRICH
PARIS FOR O'FRIEL

E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: KMDR JO
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION ON IRAQ


Summary

-- Lead stories in all papers today, April 22, focus
on the two explosions in Riyadh and Basra,
highlighting the death toll and the number of injured
civilians. One columnist strongly criticizes the U.S.
"campaign" against some Arab satellite stations for
their media coverage of the situation in Iraq.
Another columnist views Spain's decision to withdraw
its troops as the work of the Iraqi resistance.

Editorial Commentary

-- "Polishing the image of the occupation"

Chief Editor Taher Udwan writes on the back-page of
independent, mass-appeal Arabic daily Al-Arab Al-Yawm
(04/22): "I mean the American occupation that has
begun to express publicly its dismay with the media
coverage of the Arab media, particularly the satellite
stations, for events on the Iraqi scene. For the
first time, we see a coordinated campaign against Al-
Jazeerah and Al-Arabiyyah at the highest levels of the
Pentagon. Vocabulary used in this campaign is
designed to charge these satellite stations' news
reports as being lies and provocation, which is
definitely a preparation for further oppressive
measures that would put in darkness what is going on
in Iraq and portray the occupation as succeeding in
rebuilding the new Iraq, when in reality Iraq today is
an Iraq of victims, massacres, booby-trapped cars,
sieges of cities and prisons. It is ironic that the
American occupation would accuse the Arab media
outlets of lying, when it knows that the biggest lie
was that of the weapons of mass destruction.. Iraq
today is not a source of pride from America and
Britain, because Iraq now has been transferred from a
state of suffocating siege and regional wars into a
state of self-destruction, a shooting range and a
refuge for violence movements from Afghanistan all the
way to North Africa. What each of Bush and Blair
managed to do is create a different model in Iraq that
simulates the barbaric model established by Sharon in
Palestine. This truth does not require reports from
Al-Jazeerah and Al-Arabiyyah, for these two are just
witnesses."

-- The Spanish forces' withdrawal and the American
failure in Iraq"

Daily columnist Yaser Za'atreh writes on the op-ed
page of center-left, influential Arabic daily Al-
Dustour (04/22): "There is no point in viewing the
withdrawal of the Spanish forces from Iraq as the
outcome of fears of armed operations against Spanish
interests inside and outside Iraq. How would we
explain the Honduras' decision to do the same and the
expected decision b Thailand? What is actually going
on is an expression of the international forces'
feeling that the American occupation project of Iraq
has become a reason for financial and human exhaustion
and title for defeat. It has become clear that the
cake that was promised to the collaborators has become
some sort of lethal poison.. No one can sacrifice
troops for a failing project, let alone for the sake
of neo-conservatives in the United States? This is of
course the fruit of the work of the Iraqi resistance,
not the accomplishments of members of the governing
council or peaceful resistance.. The Spanish move is
to be praised and appreciated because it simply
declared the defeat of the occupation project in
Iraq."
HALE