posted on May 4, 2004 09:34:46 AM new
Editor-in-chief of U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quits, complaining of American control
By Lee Keath, Associated Press, 5/3/2004 14:47
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) The head of a U.S.-funded Iraqi newspaper quit and said Monday he was taking almost his entire staff with him because of American interference in the publication.
On a front-page editorial of the Al-Sabah newspaper, editor-in-chief Ismail Zayer said he and his staff were ''celebrating the end of a nightmare we have suffered from for months ... We want independence. They (the Americans) refuse.''
Al-Sabah was set up by U.S. officials with funding from the Pentagon soon after the fall of Saddam Hussein last year. Since its first issue in July, many Iraqis have considered it the mouthpiece of the U.S.-led coalition, along with the U.S.-funded television station Al-Iraqiya.
Zayer said almost the entire staff left the paper along with him and that they were launching a new paper called Al-Sabah Al-Jedid (''The New Morning''), which would begin publishing Tuesday.
Zayer had sought to break Al-Sabah away from the Iraqi Media Network, which groups the paper, Al-Iraqiya and a number of radio station and is run by Harris Inc., a Florida-based communications company that won a $96 million Pentagon contract in January to develop the media.
''We informed (Zayer) that the paper would remain part of the IMN,'' said Tom Hausman of Harris' corporate communications. ''He made the decision to resign.''
Hausman said Al-Sabah would continue publishing on Tuesday with a new staff.
''We had a project to create a free media in Iraq,'' Zayer said of the founding of Al-Sabah. ''They are trying to control us. We are being suffocated.''
Zayer accused Harris of interfering in the paper's workings, including trying to stop some of its advertising and speaking to reporters about articles.
Among the ads that he said Harris tried to prevent was advertisement from a new political organization called ''the Iraqi Republican Group.'' The ad ran in Monday's issue the last put together by Zayer's staff.
The ad complained of the ''griefs of occupation'' and called on Iraqi elite to rally ''to preserve our nation from destruction.''
Zayer said he was told by Harris that the ad was ''too political.''
posted on May 4, 2004 10:29:31 AM new
What a series of shameful embarrassments for America. Now this administration, after closing the Shiite newspaper, is further negating the values that we hold dear by overtly trying to interfere with freedom of the press.
posted on May 4, 2004 10:48:02 AM new
It won't be long until each group of American soldiers has a "political officer" with like the old Soviet Union's Red Army.
posted on May 4, 2004 11:24:25 AM new
US demotes Saddam general in Fallujah
The general selected by the US marines to command a new Iraqi force in Fallujah has been abruptly replaced after he denied that there were foreign fighters in the insurgent city and blamed America for fomenting the bloody rebellion there.
Maj Gen Jassim Mohammed Saleh, a former member of Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard, was trumpeted by local US commanders as the type of strong man who could pacify the 2,000 gunmen in Fallujah.
But in an indication of American desperation, it emerged that Gen Saleh had been selected even though little was known about him.
One of his main tasks was to ensure that an estimated several hundred foreign fighters were handed over to coalition forces. On Saturday, Lt Gen James Conway, the US marines commander, said the general was ready to deal with them.
Shortly afterwards, Gen Saleh said: "There are no foreign fighters in Fallujah and the local tribal leaders have told me the same.
"The reasons for the resistance go back to the American provocations, the raids and abolishing the army, which made Iraqis join the resistance."
Yesterday, coalition officials in Baghdad said Maj Gen Mohammed Latif, a military intelligence officer thought to have been exiled by Saddam, would take charge of the new Fallujah force and Gen Saleh would be a subordinate.
The appearance of Gen Saleh on the streets of Fallujah enraged several senior Iraqi politicians.
Iyad Allawi, the defence minister, said: "There is no place in the new Iraqi army for officers of Saddam's Republican Guard or those who have committed crimes against the Iraqi people."
