March 18, 2005

SURE, IT'S WINNING THE WAR, BUT IT'S SO MEAN....:

Confessions rivet Iraqis: Fight for minds uses a TV show as battleground (Thanassis Cambanis, March 18, 2005, Boston Globe)

Iraq's wildly popular new television hit 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, 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 starkly reminiscent of the bad, old Iraq. Part ''Oprah Winfrey Show" and part ''Cops" -- with a strong flavor of Saddam Hussein-era strong-arming -- the show airs six nights a week on the state-run Iraqiya network.

Since its debut a month ago, ''Terrorism" has become a fixture in Iraq's cafes and living rooms.

Iraqi government officials brag that the show has ruined the image of jihad, or holy war, in the country, exposing the resistance as a racket of street criminals and thugs who attack Americans and Iraqi security forces for pay.

It also raises a host of questions about Iraq's treatment of the suspects and the reliability of their confessions.


Do you suppose he knows how inane that sounds?

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 18, 2005 8:08 PM
Comments

"... with a strong flavor of Saddam Hussein-era strong-arming ..."
What, do they feed people into a shredder? Moral equivalence moron.

Posted by: jd watson at March 18, 2005 8:33 PM

"with a strong flavor of saddam hussein-era excuse making and covering up by a corrupt and incompetent media"

Posted by: cjm at March 18, 2005 9:00 PM

....and the reliability of their confessions.

My money is on their confessions being more honest than the Boston Globe. Maybe they're getting primed to trot out some more Abu Ghraib news and editorials.

Posted by: Tom Wall at March 18, 2005 9:21 PM

Now Abu Ghraib, there was comedy. (Seriously.) Shouldn't have been televised, though.

Posted by: ghostcat at March 18, 2005 10:04 PM

live from abu-grahib, its bagdhad tonight

da da dee dum dum, da da dee da

wait until they start showing the executuions on tv

Posted by: cjm at March 18, 2005 10:38 PM

This fascinating programming was originally blogged by Iraq the Model back on the sixth. http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/ [scroll down]

I linked him here:

http://lightseekinglight.blogspot.com/2005/03/iraqi-tv.html

Posted by: Dale Light at March 18, 2005 10:45 PM

Put it on TV here and I'll bet it beats American Idol its first night. Then I'm sure it would drop off, but it would be a solid hit the first time.

Posted by: NKR at March 18, 2005 11:33 PM

Replace Nightline with it and move it into prime time.

Posted by: Genecis at March 19, 2005 11:10 AM

Johnny Knoxville and the crew from Jackass could certainly come up with creative ways to interrogate the terrorists.

I'm all in favor of Miranda rights for terrorists, i.e. Carmen Miranda rights. They get wear a fruit hat and listen to samba music while being tortured for example.

Posted by: bart at March 19, 2005 11:16 AM

i think these broadcasts are going to be effective in cutting down on new recruits for the jihadists. getting captured by the u.s. military is one thing, being handed over to an iraqi interrogation is another. imagine the brutality being applied to these roaches; why, i almost feel sorry for them.

Posted by: cjm at March 19, 2005 11:59 AM
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