2004_01_18_archive

Sunday 11/1/2004

Last night I cried, I went to bed feeling pain and sadness. Why you

ask. Because I browsed through the Arabic news week. Raed gave me a

copy, he said you always like reading this newspaper. This is the new

edition, it had pictures of Saddam and Ben Laden, the land mines that

the US planted to blow up and ruin our lives. Then they come here and

pretend to be the compassionate saviors..... Ooooooh! In this issue

they had many articles that celebrate the victory and the arrest of

Saddam and the liberation of Iraq. One article in particular

devastated me. Its title is "Sin in Iraq", the author, he or she, I

don't know, I can't differentiate the name so please pardon me,

Christian Carel. The article talks about the availability of

prostitution houses in the new Iraq. The article mentions the exact

locations and the prices. It talks about a new wave of liquor stores,

drug pills and places to view movies of low morals. The article had

interviews with people that explain their happiness now because Saddam

was forbidding all such things. There was an interview with a

policeman. He said that there is nothing he could do to control women

of low morals because the occupation forces simply release them when

they are arrested. Had this article been published in an anti US

newspaper, I would have said that they are lying and make it all up. I

have never seen or heard of something like this. Isn't it embarrassing

for this newspaper to be issued in the US, to be read by the American

public? Are they going to smile and laugh about this or are they going

to feel embarrassment, are they going to say we shouldn't talk about

this? They should say, we won't allow these transgressions to happen

out of our respect for the Iraqi people, respect for the Iraqi

people's religion and their morals. That is, If have entered our land

as friends to help us out, as they claim. If they have entered our

land as enemies, this is exactly what they should do to expose their

hypocrisy to the world. The pictures with the article doesn't

collaborate the article. The people in the pictures are averages

citizens, one of them is holding a pepsi can, the other a bottle of

miranda (a soft drink), the dancing girls in the pictures work for a

folk national dance company. It is an old and known traditional dance

company. The article says that Saddam used to forbid the sales of

alchohol and cut off the heads of women of lose morals. I say that is

a lie. Had he been straight and careful about religion and morals, god

wouldn't have abandoned him. I believe that the Iraqi nation is

waiting for an apology from the author of the article and the

newspaper itself, That is if they have respect for the journalism

profession and assuming their goals are noble. There are some that

don't respect this profession and wrongs it and stains the profession

with embarrassment. I wonder, where is the senior editor? How does he

allow to print such a dirty article? I promise you I won't buy this

newspaper again, I will tell the story to every Iraqi.

[translation by www.ihath.com]

# posted by Faiza Al-Arji @ 6:48 PM

Sunday 11/1/2004

Last night I cried, I went to bed feeling pain and sadness. Why you

ask. Because I browsed through the Arabic Newsweek. Raed gave me a

copy; he said you always like reading this magazine. This is the new

edition, it had pictures of Saddam and Bin-Laden, the land mines that

the US planted to blow up and ruin our lives. Then they come here and

pretend to be the compassionate saviors.....

Ooooooh! In this issue they had many articles that celebrate the

victory and the arrest of Saddam and the liberation of Iraq. One

article in particular devastated me. Its title is "Sin in Iraq", the

author, he or she, I don't know, I can't differentiate the name so

please pardon me, Christian Carel. The article talks about the

availability of prostitution houses in the new Iraq. The article

mentions the exact locations and the prices. It talks about a new wave

of liquor stores, drug pills and places to view movies of low morals.

The article had interviews with people that explain their happiness

now because Saddam was forbidding all such things. There was an

interview with a policeman. He said that there is nothing he could do

to control women of low morals because the occupation forces simply

release them when they are arrested. Had this article been published

in an anti US newspaper, I would have said that they are lying and

make it all up. I have never seen or heard of something like this.

Isn't it embarrassing for this newspaper to be issued in the US, to be

read by the American public? Are they going to smile and laugh about

this or are they going to feel embarrassment, are they going to say we

shouldn't talk about this? They should say, we won't allow these

transgressions to happen out of our respect for the Iraqi people,

respect for the Iraqi people's religion and their morals. That is, If

have entered our land as friends to help us out, as they claim. If

they have entered our land as enemies, this is exactly what they

should do to expose their hypocrisy to the world. The pictures with

the article doesn't collaborate the article. The people in the

pictures are averages citizens, one of them is holding a pepsi can,

the other a bottle of mirinda (a soft drink), the dancing girls in the

pictures work for a folk national dance company. It is an old and

known traditional dance company. The article says that Saddam used to

forbid the sales of alcohol and cut off the heads of women of lose

morals. I say that is a lie. Had he been straight and careful about

religion and morals, god wouldn't have abandoned him. I believe that

the Iraqi nation is waiting for an apology from the author of the

article and the newspaper itself, that is if they have respect for the

journalism profession and assuming their goals are noble. There are

some that don't respect this profession and wrongs it and stains the