Closing the Control Room

The Iraqi interim government has shut down al-Jazeera's Baghdad office. Jazeera claims that the closure came via an extralegal directive from the interior ministry rather than a court order.

Comments

[Ken Shultz]

It's tough when a news organization has a bomb dropped on them like that, but at least the Iraqi Interior Ministry didn't literally drop a bomb on them.

[Rick Barton]

The interim government that our government installed is denying freedom. Wasn't "making them free" the last, though insufficient, excuse for the whole endeavor? It's Time for our government to bring the troops home before they generate any more ill will toward the American people.

[R C Dean]

Yeah, Rick - bring the troops home before they get someone so pissed off they highjack a bunch of planes and crashe them . . . oh, never mind.

[Gary Gunnels]

R.C. Dean,

As I recall, no Iraqis were involved in the 9/11 attacks.

[Rick Barton]

RC Dean,

You're starting to get the point. Our government's shortsighted interventionism is exactly what brought on the 9/11 attacks. The evidence is that our government's financing the Israeli government's occupation is what led to the 9/11 tragedy:

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the man who conceived and directed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was motivated by his strong disagreement with American support for Israel, said the final report of the Sept. 11 commission.

http://www.kentucky.com/mld/heraldleader/news/nation/9222612.htm

[thoreau]

Saddam was much worse. 'Nuff said!

[Patri Friedman]

thoreau - True, but we have to compare the difference between Saddam and present conditions to the cost of the invasion (money, deaths, destroyed infrastructure) to evaluate if it was worthwhile. So even if things are better now, evidence that the difference is smaller than was claimed by hawks is evidence pushing the net towards negative.

[Rick Barton]

Patri,

I'm almost sure that thoreau, our resident physicist, was being sarcastic. But, your point is well taken anyway.

[Ken Shultz]

Patri,

Maybe I've got it all wrong, but when I see moral equivalence coming from thoreau, I assume he's being facetious.

[thoreau]

I was just joking. Although Saddam was indeed much worse, that hardly constitutes a blank check for anything that the US gov't or its puppets...um, I mean, sovereign Iraqi interm government, might want to do.

[Meshuganer]

Al jazeera is definitely a propaganda machine (well, aren't most news agencies?)....the problem is that it's much more blatant in its message. Not a good idea that they were closed down...very bad precedent. How much Allawi pressured to do this by the Americans? The Administration has been bitching about Al Jazeera for ages but knew that it couldn't do it directly for fear of how that might be interpreted. But having Allawi do it for us makes it much more palpable (at least they think so) to the rest of the world.

[Bob D.]

I don't think you can lay this at the feet of the Americans. The government may not like Al Jazeera, but they know very well how it would look if they tried to ban any media from Iraq. No, I think the Iraqi's came up with this one on their own. Their tradition of smothering any dissent (literally!) is in line with this action.

[bigbigslacker]

I wonder, rhetorically and sarcastically, what those jew-loving Indonesians did to piss of their local al qaeda branch, that in tern caused the otherwise reasonable people to have to blow up the Bali night club?

[Ken Shultz]

"I don't think you can lay this at the feet of the Americans. The government may not like Al Jazeera, but they know very well how it would look if they tried to ban any media from Iraq. No, I think the Iraqi's came up with this one on their own. Their tradition of smothering any dissent (literally!) is in line with this action."

I guess my initial comment didn't click. We bombed Al Jazeera!

We targeted their reporters, and we killed them with a bomb. How's that for banning media? We killed their reporter! We dropped a bomb on him!

Is this getting through?

We assassinated an Al Jazeera reporter, among other reporters, with a bomb! No one cares how it looks.

We bombed Al Jazeera.

Got it?

[What Would Jesus Do?]

So inciting a riot (and worse) is now a legitimate exercise in free speech?

[anon]

"So inciting a riot (and worse) is now a legitimate exercise in free speech?"

If by "inciting a riot" you mean showing dead and wonded children. If your government didn't drop the bombs that killed those children, perhaps Al-Jazeera wouldn't have the execuse to incite riots.

Oh, and I see you a lot of you bushites ignored Ken's comments about bombing Al-Jazeera twice and killing a reporter. How pathetic!

[kevrob]

that in tern (sic) caused the otherwise reasonable people to have to blow up the Bali night club...

The Qaedists wanted to kill the Australian tourists who frequented the club, where they drank the forbidden substance, alcohol. The Ozzies backed our play in Afghanistan very strongly, on a per capita basis.

Kevin

[kevrob]

BTW, Some of the 9/11 hijackers reportedly drank while they were here.

Yeah, and they went to titty bars to do it, too. They must have figured that skyfather would forgive them all their "sins" once they martyred themselves. As somebody who used to be a Good Catholic Boy, I am familiar with the way believers can game their theological systems, such as making sure you get to confession after some especially fun sinning.

Kevin

[Rick Barton]

BTW, Some of the 9/11 hijackers reportedly drank while they were here.

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