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offered to me by Abdallah Schleiffer, a former
Village Voice writer cultural critic who converted
to Islam and now lives in Cairo.
He sees the Arab satellite TV as responsible
for reviving Arab nationalism and a pan-Arab
identity. He compared it to Zionism in the sense
of that a small group of expats created a virtual
Arab Nation first and then helped mobilize their
people via media. I will have more to say about
our interview later.
FALLEN COLLEAGUES
EMBEDDED: WEAPONS OF MASS DECEPTION
AN Arab Journalism Prize was given in the name
of Tareq Ayyoub, a correspondent for al-Jazeera
who was killed by a US missile while reporting
from the roof of a clearly designated media
building in Baghdad the day before the first
phase of the war ended. His widow Dima Tareq
Tahboub, a lecturer at the Arab Open University
in Amman, accepted it, alongside their daughter
who carried a poster with her martyred father’s
picture. Last Saturday, she wrote movingly in the
Guardian about the difficulties she is having in
trying to sue the US government for wrongful
death.
She writes: “I can’t find anyone to help me to
launch legal action against those who killed him.
When I thought I had found an outlet under Belgian
law, US threats and ultimatums got the law
repealed and put an end to my hopes of gaining
justice...
“When the Muslim Association of Britain
invited me to speak at last weekend’s anti-war
march in London, I hesitated because of the
despair I have been in. But when I saw all these
people marching against the war, condemning
those responsible for it, my hope and belief in
288
the solidarity of humankind, in humanity, justice
and truth was rekindled.”
I also met one of the journalists who survived
the US military attack on the Palestine Hotel,
another well-known haven for journalists in
Baghdad. Several operations later, she now has
shrapnel in the brain. I told her I had just spoken
with Victoria Clarke, the former Pentagon Media
chief about whether the Pentagon investigated
the incident, Clarke said they had. This journalist
told me that no one from the Pentagon had
bothered to speak with her, or even apologize. So
much for an investigation.
A week after I met her, the International Federation
of Journalists denounced the lack of a
U.S. response. On October 14th, the world’s
largest journalist organization issued a detailed
report on the Iraq war and called for a “global
campaign to expose the secrecy, deceit and arrogance
of the United States authorities” surrounding
the killing of up to seven journalists
during and after the war. They also want an Independent
probe into unexplained killings; new
rules to make targeting of media and negligence
over journalists’ safety a war crime; and a global
campaign to demand justice for media victims." I
didn’t see this mentioned on any US TV outlet.
(See: http://www.ifj.org/default.asp?Index=2008&
Language=EN)
Big journalism is finally assessing its role in
Iraq. The Fall 2003 Nieman Reports of the Nieman
Foundation for Journalism at Harvard carries
an analysis of how the media was asleep at
the switch during the run-up to the war. Gilbert
Cranberg writes: “Five months went by before
many in the press questioned the Administration’s
evidence for going to war.” The American
Journalism Review carries a cover story asking