The TV station which was run unofficially for weeks by a local Iraqi militia leader named Meshaam Jabori was ordered to be taken over by the 101st Airborn Division's "Maj. Gen." David Petraeus for whom the stations dissentive rebroadcasting of the Qatar-based Al-Jazeera network was too much of a freedom of speech to give to the citizens of Mosul.

"Maj." Charmaine Means who repeatedly failed to comply with orders coming from her superiors said she could not agree to seizing the station and posting troops there. The WSJ writes: "She argued that the presence of armed soldiers would intimidate the station's Arab employees into airing only programming produced by, or acceptable to, the American military." Shortly after, "Maj." Means was sent off duty and flown out of Iraq.

According to the Wallstreet Journal military officers had been uncomfortable with the TV station's programming and wanted to "apply a U.S. military formula for gauging the station's accuracy, balance and trustworthiness" and if the programming "fell short", they said "the station would be shut".

I shall refuse to add personal commentary to this news item, but my opinion on the integrity of the American military operation named "Iraqi Freedom" is fairly obvious.

I would like to send my kindest regards to the people at Baghdad IMC and wish them good luck for the future. Let's hope that Indymedia Baghdad will be the first in a series of blowbacks to the American propaganda effort in the Middle East and provide a balance in accurate and dissentive news reporting for the people in Iraq and from the people in Iraq.


(Military titles have been put in quotes intentionally by the author.)

The original story can be found here:  http://wsjclassroomedition.com/wsjtoday/war/03may08_story2.html