Why is Egypt airing insurgent TV from Iraq? csmonitor.com
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0117/p01s03-wome.html
Why is Egypt airing insurgent TV from Iraq?
Al Zawraa's broadcasting of Sunni attacks on American soldiers highlights sectarian politics.
By Sarah Gauch Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
CAIRO - Al Zawraa television station, the face of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, shows roadside bombs blowing up American tanks, dead and bloody Iraqi children, and insurgent snipers taking aim and firing.
And all this blatant anti-Americanism is broadcasting 24/7 on an Egyptian government-controlled satellite provider from one of Washington's closest allies. Even though Iraq and the US have asked Egypt to pull the plug, the station remains on the air.
The question is, why? While Nilesat, which broadcasts Al Zawraa, argues that it's airing the channel for purely commercial reasons, analysts point to the political benefits for Egypt.
Some say the country's reluctance to shut down the channel shows that Egypt, predominantly Sunni, may be taking a stand against what it sees as the unjust aggressiveness of Iraq's Shiite-led government and the dangers of Iran's influence there.
"With Iran flexing its muscles in Iraq and Lebanon and talking about becoming a nuclear power, all of this puts the Sunni Arab regimes – Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan – on the defensive," says Lawrence Pintak, director of American University in Cairo's television journalism program and author of "Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens: America, Islam, & the War of Ideas."
Mr. Pintak says Egypt's decision to keep Al Zawraa on the air plays into the Sunni-Shiite cold war that has descended on the region, caused largely by sectarian bloodshed in Iraq and Iran's nuclear ambitions. In essence, he says, it's a show of support for fellow Sunnis.
American officials have reportedly called the station "utterly offensive," saying that closing it down is a priority.
But one Egyptian government official, who asked to remain anonymous, reiterated Nilesat's stand that the station remains on air purely for commercial reasons. "We're merely a carrier of this station. We're not producing it. This is a straightforward business deal," he says, adding that, "none of us would reject the principle of freedom of speech and broadcasting for everyone."
Egypt has a history, though, of arresting bloggers and journalists and violently dispersing protests critical of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government. On Saturday, Egyptian authorities detained an Al Jazeera journalist for allegedly fabricating scenes of torture in Egyptian police stations. The journalist was later released.
If Nilesat should buckle under US pressure, however, Al Zawraa will soon have other venues.
Station owner Mishan al-Jabouri says he's just signed contracts with Paris-based satellite provider Hot Bird and Emirates-based Arabsat. He also hopes to sign a contract soon with an American satellite company, which he didn't want to name, and to open new studios in Paris. American subtitles, too, are in the offing, he says.
"I want to show people everywhere what the Americans are doing to my country," says Mr. Jabouri, a former member of Iraq's parliament, now based in Damascus, "what American democracy has done to Iraq, how it has killed children, what has happened in the prisons, how the Americans gave Iraq to Iran."
While many see Nilesat as Al Zawraa's staunch supporter, Jabouri complains that the satellite provider is already reacting to US pressure by raising technical obstacles that prevent him from sending new footage from the field, forcing him to loop already-broadcast material.
Al Zawraa began two years ago as an above-ground, hard-line Sunni TV station, based in Iraq, until the Iraqi government closed it down last November, around the time Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. Today, it's an underground station with brutal, no-holds-barred content, often amateur, shaky footage showing American soldiers crumpling to the ground after being shoot, and alleged American atrocities against Iraqi civilians. The station's anchors wear military fatigues and rail against the Shiite-led Iraqi government.
The Iranian flag is superimposed over Iraq's Shiite leaders shown on air and news crawls call on viewers "to liberate Iraq from occupying US and Iranian forces" and say that "the mafia" of Moqtada al-Sadr are all "criminals and thieves."
The station closely resembles Islamic extremist websites, with even religious chanting backing up some footage, although Jabouri emphasizes that his station has no ties to Al Qaeda.
The business deal between Al Zawraa and Nilesat is all the more curious, commentators say, since Islamic extremism remains a threat in Egypt and Al Zawraa appears the perfect militant recruiting tool. But, it seems Egypt is more concerned about reasserting its leadership in the Sunni Arab world than it is in gagging a possible militant mouthpiece, analysts say.
This is also a sign that Egypt may be further distancing itself from Washington. Recently, it defiantly announced a nuclear energy program of its own and criticized Mr. Hussein's execution last month.
However, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Egyptian officials Monday to shore up this country's support for American efforts in Iraq. Ms. Rice is traveling through the Middle East on a trip intended largely to bolster support for President Bush's new plan to stabilize Iraq and to reassure the US's Arab allies of its commitment to Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking. Arab states are anxious for Washington to renew efforts to find a solution to the historical conflict, which they say is the underlying cause of the region's political problems.
In Egypt, Ms. Rice said, "We share risk and we share responsibility, because this is an area of the world which will very much be affected by how Iraq turns out."
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit, a frequent critic, was ready to give Mr. Bush's plan the benefit of the doubt. "We are supportive of that plan because we are hopeful that the plan would lead ensure the stability, the unity, and the cohesion of the Iraqi government."
• Material from Reuters was used in this report.
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Qaeda's Successful Recruiting Efforts
http://www.nysun.com/article/47019
New York Sun, NY - Jan 18, 2007
Qaeda's Successful Recruiting Efforts
The MEMRI Report
By STEVEN STALINSKY
January 19, 2007
In response to reports that recruitment into America's armed forces is at its lowest level in years, Secretary of Defense Gates has called for increasing the Army and Marine corps by 92,000 troops over the next five years.
On the other hand, Al Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups seem to have an unlimited pool of recruits. This is because their followers are brainwashed — through messages that they receive in schools and mosques as well as on television — that if they give their lives for jihad, they will be rewarded in the afterlife with 72 black-eyed virgins.
As Sheik Ahmad Qattan explained on Saudi Iqra TV on January 3, 2005, "The martyrdom seeker … these heroes who stand in line and await their turn … to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their God's religion … seek the … longest life in the heavens. They want to join their brothers, the martyrs, and to reap martyr's rewards. … He is married off to 72 black-eyed women."
Al Qaeda in Iraq, an organization led by the late Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, published a statement addressed to America on January 26, 2005, which discussed what is promised to its recruits: "We have men who love death as you love life. Our fallen [go to] heaven, and yours — to hell. While your reinforcements come from the Jews and the Christians, ours come from the Blessed and Lofty Allah. … Oh the gardens [of Eden], prepare yourselves; oh black-eye [virgins], approach. ... The martyrs' wedding is at hand." A year and a half later, Zarqawi's clan celebrated his wedding in Jordan after he was killed.
During the second intifada, the Palestinian Arab press frequently reported the death of suicide bombers by printing wedding announcements and "bridal" pictures.
One announcement read, "In the name of Allah, all merciful, all the compassionate, do not consider who died for the sake of Allah as dead. Rather as alive, the Martyr, Ali-Khadha Al-Yassini, who was wedded to the blackeyed virgin in the Garden of Eternity on the morning of September 16, 2001. Congratulations to him for his wedding."
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on January 24, 2007 Neil Cavuto http://www.foxnews.com/yourworld/ had Peter Brooks http://www.heritage.org/About/Staff/PeterBrookes.cfm speaking out to pressure Egypt that we the US are aiding with 2 Billion dollars a year!!! and they broadcast Al Qaeda's propaganda 'Terror TV' to cause loss of American lives???
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Terror TV http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?mg=wsj-users1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB114411567552116124.html%3Fmod%3Darticle-outset-box
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On any given night of the week, between 10 and 15 million Arabic speakers in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East tune into Al-Manar (the Beacon), the television channel produced in Beirut by the terrorist group Hezbollah. The station's purpose, an Al-Manar official told researcher Avi Jorisch of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, is to "help people on the way to committing what you call in the West a suicide mission."
Watch some of its programming (revealing clips ...)
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Michelle Malkin: Shutting down Terror TVThe Coalition Against Terrorist Media has done tremendous work fighting al Manar's Terror TV programming and successfully pressing the US Treasury Dept to ...
http://michellemalkin.com/archives/005819.htm
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