http://www.thecarolinachannel.com/helenthomas/2667834/detail.htmlThis headline has been picked up ALL over the place. It's a good sign. I hope the mods agree that the headline is the story here. If not, I certainly understand and apologize for the inconvenience.
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WASHINGTON -- The raid by the U.S.-appointed Iraqi officials on an Arab television network bureau in Baghdad and the ban on its broadcasts hardly fits my idea of how to spread democracy in the Middle East.
Isn't that the first thing dictators do -- shut down broadcast outlets and newspapers? For those in power, tolerating a free press is difficult, even in a democracy.
As a foreign occupier in Iraq, we are proving that it is intolerable.
The terrible irony here is that we pride ourselves on offering a model to the rest of the world on how to design -- and live by -- our constitutional freedoms.
Journalists around the globe have been taught to emulate our approach to newsgathering, hopefully in an atmosphere free of government restraints.
At the same time, we're snuffing out news outlets we don't like.
On Monday, the U.S.-appointed Iraqi government raided the Baghdad bureau of the Al-Arabiya TV network.
The network's crime was to broadcast an audiotape from Saddam Hussein complaining about Iraqis who were cooperating with the U.S. occupation force and calling for resistance. The tape had been sent to Al-Arabiya's headquarters in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates.
The network, which has interviewed Secretary of State Colin Powell in the past, is one of the largest TV outlets in the Arab world.
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What is amazing is the vast number of AMERICAN media that has been printing this story. Gives a person hope.
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