U.S. troops slam door on Baghdad newspaper

[Moe_Szyslak]

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c...MNG415SSPO1.DTL

[Reggie Cleveland]

On my ever-lengthening list of Things to Worry About.....this one slips in just after "end of the world."

[bombay]

We're gonna liberate those mfers whether they like it or not.

[Moe_Szyslak]

Originally posted by ReggieCleveland@Mar 29 2004, 02:27 PM
On my ever-lengthening list of Things to Worry About.....this one slips in just after "end of the world."

not surprised you fail to see the irony/signifcance...

[Reggie Cleveland]

It would be absolutely impossible for me to care less about a Baghdad newspaper getting shut down for the the sake of stability....real or imagined.

But I'm sure you care enough for both of us, so it all comes out even in the end.

[Moe_Szyslak]

Omar Jassem, a freelance reporter, said he thought democracy meant many viewpoints and many newspapers.

"I guess this is the Bush edition of democracy," Jassem said.

Tom Rosenstiel, vice chairman of the Committee of Concerned Journalists, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., said there was a basic irony in Americans practicing censorship in Iraq.

"If you're trying to promote democracy in a country that has never had it, you have to lead by example," Rosenstiel said. "I'm not in Iraq. But it's hard for me to see how the suppression of information, even false information, is going to help our cause."

[Razzy]

The Bush administration would love to do the same thing to American newspapers that write factual articles about his administration's fuckups.

How hypocritical of us to do that.

"Texas-style Democracy, where the Cowboys rule the Indians!"

[lazydaze]

moe. why did you edit your post...

I see you highlighted some points while deleting others.

Good for you and your freedom of information ideals.

[Reggie Cleveland]

"If you're trying to promote democracy in a country that has never had it, you have to lead by example," Rosenstiel said. "I'm not in Iraq. But it's hard for me to see how the suppression of information, even false information, is going to help our cause."

Well, maybe if you WERE in Iraq, you might understand better, you pontificating cocksucker. I imagine the bar at the NPC is pretty damn stable.

Sorry, lost control there for a second. But just for a second.

[lazydaze]

n/m

[Reggie Cleveland]

Gee....

[lazydaze]

strike that message wrong link..

[Damtoft]

What a shock.

Leave it to the lefties to swallow the bait whole.

[Airshark]

Man, I find it sooooo stunning that the anti-Bush crowd here would post a biased report like that. Before I get lumped in as a right-winger by the shrillpack here, let me just say that it's been my experience reading this forum that it's the lefties who are continually on the attack, posting what basically amounts to anti-American propaganda several times a day (and no, I do not equate "Bush" with "America"). It gets tedious after a while.

Even if the reporting in the first article had been absolutely dead-on, who here believes that Bush made the decision to close that newspaper? He probably couldn't care less about it, and probably doesn't even know it was closed. So the attack isn't an attack on Bush, it's an attack on the American occupation force as somehow being "anti-Democratic". How tiresome.

[lazydaze]

BAGHDAD, Iraq -- The U.S.-led coalition on Sunday shut down a weekly newspaper run by followers of a hardline Shiite Muslim cleric, saying its articles were increasing the threat of violence against occupation forces.

Hours after the closure of Al-Hawza, more than 1,000 supporters of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr demonstrated peacefully in front of the newspaper's offices, decrying what they called a crackdown on freedom of expression.

Dozens of U.S. soldiers arrived at the Al-Hawza newspaper offices Sunday morning and closed its doors with chains and locks, sheik Abdel-Hadi Darraja said in front of the one-story house.

Darraja is a representative of al-Sadr, who lives in the southern holy city of Najaf and has been an outspoken critic of the U.S.-led occupation, but has not called for armed attacks.

A coalition letter in Arabic, signed by top U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer and handed to employees at the newspaper, said the paper's articles "form a serious threat of violence against coalition forces and Iraqi citizens who cooperate with coalition authorities in rebuilding Iraq."

The paper will close for 60 days, the statement said.

A coalition spokesman confirmed the 60-day closure, saying several articles "were designed to incite violence against coalition forces and incite instability" in Iraq.

The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said any violation of the closure could lead to the imprisonment of newspaper employees for up to one year and a fine of up to $1,000.


Dan Senor, senior adviser to U.S. civil administrator Paul Bremer, said the newspaper was presenting grossly incorrect information encouraging Iraqis to direct their anger and violence toward U.S. coalition troops. He said they shut it down because the people at the paper are trying to provoke murders against the coalition and against Iraqi people.

On Feb. 26, an article in Al-Hawza claimed that a suicide bombing two weeks earlier that targeted the mostly Shiite town of Iskandariyah, south of Baghdad, was a rocket "fired by an (American) Apache helicopter and not a car bomb." The attack killed 53 people.

In the same edition an article was titled "Bremer follows the steps of Saddam," and criticized coalition work in Iraq.

"This is what happens when an Iraqi journalist expresses his opinion," said the white-turbaned Darraja.

"What is happening now is what used to happen during the days of Saddam. No freedom of opinion. It is like the days of the Baath," said Hussam Abdel-Kadhim, 25, a vendor who took part in the demonstration, referring to the Baath Party that ruled Iraq for 35 years until Saddam Hussein was ousted a year ago.

In July, the coalition announced the closure of a Baghdad newspaper and the arrest of its office manager. The statement said Al-Mustaqila, which means "The Independent" in Arabic, published an article on July 13 calling for "death to all spies and those who cooperate with the U.S." It said killing them was a religious duty.