diamond geezer
Mar 16, 2005, 03:24 PM
Well sort of anyway. Isn't this the sort of thing the Saddam regime would have been admonished for?
link (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/15/news/tube.html)
BAGHDAD Iraq's wildly popular new television show features a nightly parade of men, most with bruised faces, confessing to all kinds of terrorist and criminal acts.
"Terrorism in the Hands of Justice" is the Iraqi government's slick new propaganda tool. Its televised confessions, the police say, aim to discredit the armed resistance and advertise the government's success at cracking down on gangs.
If it is meant to showcase a brave new Iraq, the television show is disturbingly reminiscent of the bad old Iraq. The show, which appears six nights a week on the state-run Iraqiya network, has a strong flavor of Saddam Hussein-era strong-arming.
Since its debut a month ago, "Terrorism" has become a fixture in Iraq's cafés and living rooms.
Government officials brag that the show has ruined the image of jihad in the country, exposing members of the resistance not as holy warriors but as street criminals and thugs who attack Americans and Iraqi security forces for pay.
It also raises a host of disturbing questions. The bruised, swollen faces and hunched shoulders of many of the suspects suggest that they have been beaten or tortured. The neat confessions of terrorist attacks at times fit together so seamlessly as to seem implausible. And the suspects are presented to the public without any legal process to protect them, presumed guilty, with no word about rule of law as a weapon in the arsenal against terrorism.
U.S. officials have sidestepped questions about the program shown on Iraqiya, a network still run by the American contractor hired by occupation officials nearly a year ago.
There is no question, however, about the program's popularity and wide reach. Men at cafés debate the details of certain gang members from "Terrorists." Others interrupt soliloquies about recently murdered relatives to declare: "I expect to see his killers on TV."
The show aims to change the minds of Iraqis who see insurgents as patriotic Muslims.
Powerful politicians have blasted the show: Mohsen Abdulhameed, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, called a news conference this week to accuse the show of airing lies, outraged not that a party member was presented as a terrorist, but that the man confessed that he drinks alcohol and does not pray.
Footage is provided by the Interior Ministry. Colonel Adnan Abdurahman, the Iraqi police official in charge of producing taped confessions for the show, sends a camera crew wherever police commandos make a lot of arrests. In the last week his staff has filmed confessions in Mosul, Baquba and Baghdad.
"Previously Iraqi people saw the resistance as fighting the occupation," Abdurahman said. "But when people saw how they talk, and the details of their actions, they became despicable in the eyes of Iraqi society.
"They're not resistance. None of them say they are fighting Americans. They are killing Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi police, only Iraqis."
In the show's opening montage, the theme song plays over images of hooded members of Tawhid and Jihad about to execute an American hostage in an orange jumpsuit, a bloodied corpse and finally two smiling Iraqi children holding paper signs that say "No to Terrorism."
Then a police special forces trooper in camouflage uniform and red beret extols the work of "our brave, noble Iraqi law enforcement brothers."
Who are the perpetrators of the daily bombings and ambushes that have killed hundreds of civilians, Iraqi police and soldiers?
According to the taped confessions the answer is, essentially: lowlifes.
The fighters almost never describe themselves as patriots or holy warriors; they say they fight for pay. Many of the men admit to homosexual acts, considered particularly shameful in Iraqi culture.
They frequently admit to rape and pedophilia, and clips often end with the unseen interrogator excoriating the detainee for having no honor.
In the episode last Wednesday, men identified as members of an insurgent cell from Mahmoudia admitted to murdering and raping several Iraqis.
One of the men, Azawi Hassan Azawi, said the leader of a criminal cell had induced him to kidnap and kill a boy by offering Azawi his sister in marriage.
Another man, Hassan Mahdi Hassan al-Kafaji, said he used to fight in the Saddam Fedayeen militia. After the war he joined Tawhid and Jihad, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi now called Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, as a killer for hire. Kafaji said he pops pills before each mission.
"They pay me $100 or $150 for each person I slay," Kafaji said.
Talal Ra'ad Ismail al-Abassi came next. He said he had led an insurgent cell in Mosul.
According to the interrogator, Abassi had been an imam but was fired by the religious authorities under Saddam for having sex with men in the mosque.
Abassi said his group had killed a dozen Iraqi "collaborators" - once a leader can claim 10 kills, he becomes an emir - simply to earn $1,500 a month from Saudi financiers of the insurgency.
"I do not believe in jihad in Iraq," Abassi told the camera. "It was important for my group to kill enough people that I could become an emir and get the $1,500 salary."
Qahtan Khalid, the last man to appear before the camera, was skinny and hunched over, his face more bruised and sunken than the rest. He said he was a police officer who had collaborated with insurgents in 10 killings.
"I joined them so they would not slaughter me," Khalid said.
On Thursday, Khalid's father told Agence France-Presse that Interior Ministry police commandos had delivered his son's corpse to him. The Human Rights Ministry has opened an investigation.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said televising confessions is legal. "Nothing that appears on the television program is a violation of Iraqi law," a U.S. official familiar with the show said on condition of anonymity.
link (http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/15/news/tube.html)
BAGHDAD Iraq's wildly popular new television show features a nightly parade of men, most with bruised faces, confessing to all kinds of terrorist and criminal acts.
"Terrorism in the Hands of Justice" is the Iraqi government's slick new propaganda tool. Its televised confessions, the police say, aim to discredit the armed resistance and advertise the government's success at cracking down on gangs.
If it is meant to showcase a brave new Iraq, the television show is disturbingly reminiscent of the bad old Iraq. The show, which appears six nights a week on the state-run Iraqiya network, has a strong flavor of Saddam Hussein-era strong-arming.
Since its debut a month ago, "Terrorism" has become a fixture in Iraq's cafés and living rooms.
Government officials brag that the show has ruined the image of jihad in the country, exposing members of the resistance not as holy warriors but as street criminals and thugs who attack Americans and Iraqi security forces for pay.
It also raises a host of disturbing questions. The bruised, swollen faces and hunched shoulders of many of the suspects suggest that they have been beaten or tortured. The neat confessions of terrorist attacks at times fit together so seamlessly as to seem implausible. And the suspects are presented to the public without any legal process to protect them, presumed guilty, with no word about rule of law as a weapon in the arsenal against terrorism.
U.S. officials have sidestepped questions about the program shown on Iraqiya, a network still run by the American contractor hired by occupation officials nearly a year ago.
There is no question, however, about the program's popularity and wide reach. Men at cafés debate the details of certain gang members from "Terrorists." Others interrupt soliloquies about recently murdered relatives to declare: "I expect to see his killers on TV."
The show aims to change the minds of Iraqis who see insurgents as patriotic Muslims.
Powerful politicians have blasted the show: Mohsen Abdulhameed, head of the Iraqi Islamic Party, called a news conference this week to accuse the show of airing lies, outraged not that a party member was presented as a terrorist, but that the man confessed that he drinks alcohol and does not pray.
Footage is provided by the Interior Ministry. Colonel Adnan Abdurahman, the Iraqi police official in charge of producing taped confessions for the show, sends a camera crew wherever police commandos make a lot of arrests. In the last week his staff has filmed confessions in Mosul, Baquba and Baghdad.
"Previously Iraqi people saw the resistance as fighting the occupation," Abdurahman said. "But when people saw how they talk, and the details of their actions, they became despicable in the eyes of Iraqi society.
"They're not resistance. None of them say they are fighting Americans. They are killing Iraqi National Guard and Iraqi police, only Iraqis."
In the show's opening montage, the theme song plays over images of hooded members of Tawhid and Jihad about to execute an American hostage in an orange jumpsuit, a bloodied corpse and finally two smiling Iraqi children holding paper signs that say "No to Terrorism."
Then a police special forces trooper in camouflage uniform and red beret extols the work of "our brave, noble Iraqi law enforcement brothers."
Who are the perpetrators of the daily bombings and ambushes that have killed hundreds of civilians, Iraqi police and soldiers?
According to the taped confessions the answer is, essentially: lowlifes.
The fighters almost never describe themselves as patriots or holy warriors; they say they fight for pay. Many of the men admit to homosexual acts, considered particularly shameful in Iraqi culture.
They frequently admit to rape and pedophilia, and clips often end with the unseen interrogator excoriating the detainee for having no honor.
In the episode last Wednesday, men identified as members of an insurgent cell from Mahmoudia admitted to murdering and raping several Iraqis.
One of the men, Azawi Hassan Azawi, said the leader of a criminal cell had induced him to kidnap and kill a boy by offering Azawi his sister in marriage.
Another man, Hassan Mahdi Hassan al-Kafaji, said he used to fight in the Saddam Fedayeen militia. After the war he joined Tawhid and Jihad, the group led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi now called Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, as a killer for hire. Kafaji said he pops pills before each mission.
"They pay me $100 or $150 for each person I slay," Kafaji said.
Talal Ra'ad Ismail al-Abassi came next. He said he had led an insurgent cell in Mosul.
According to the interrogator, Abassi had been an imam but was fired by the religious authorities under Saddam for having sex with men in the mosque.
Abassi said his group had killed a dozen Iraqi "collaborators" - once a leader can claim 10 kills, he becomes an emir - simply to earn $1,500 a month from Saudi financiers of the insurgency.
"I do not believe in jihad in Iraq," Abassi told the camera. "It was important for my group to kill enough people that I could become an emir and get the $1,500 salary."
Qahtan Khalid, the last man to appear before the camera, was skinny and hunched over, his face more bruised and sunken than the rest. He said he was a police officer who had collaborated with insurgents in 10 killings.
"I joined them so they would not slaughter me," Khalid said.
On Thursday, Khalid's father told Agence France-Presse that Interior Ministry police commandos had delivered his son's corpse to him. The Human Rights Ministry has opened an investigation.
U.S. and Iraqi officials said televising confessions is legal. "Nothing that appears on the television program is a violation of Iraqi law," a U.S. official familiar with the show said on condition of anonymity.
