Why is Egypt Airing Insurgent TV from Iraq?

Why is Egypt Airing Insurgent TV from Iraq? - Christian Science Monitor.

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Al Zawraa television station, the face of Iraq's Sunni insurgency, shows roadside bombs blowing up American tanks, dead and bloody Iraqi children, and insurgent snipers taking aim and firing.

And all this blatant anti-Americanism is broadcasting 24/7 on an Egyptian government-controlled satellite provider from one of Washington's closest allies. Even though Iraq and the U.S. have asked Egypt to pull the plug, the station remains on the air...

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BBC, 26 Feb 07: Egypt Stops Pro-Militant Iraq TV

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Egypt has stopped the transmission of a private Iraqi TV station which glorifies the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

The United States has privately asked the Egyptian authorities to stop al-Zawraa which is carried on Nilesat - a government-owned TV satellite.

Al-Zawraa broadcasts from a secret location. Its owner is a former Iraqi MP who now lives in Syria...

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It's still here. BBC, 10 May 07: Iraq "Jihad TV" Mocks Coalition

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...Al-Zawraa TV, which is known for airing videos of attacks by insurgent groups on US forces, recently started airing the programme as part of the channel's staple output of insurgent clips, patriotic songs urging jihad, or holy war, against "occupier forces", and documentary films often of a pro-Sunni, anti-Shia and anti-US slant.

The programme, purportedly produced by the Global Islamic Media Front (GIMF), is a pastiche of the style of hidden camera TV shows popular in the US, editing together insurgent-shot clips of attacks on coalition troops complete with a laughter track, sound effects and mocking English-language captions....

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U.S., Saudis at odds over TV station - LATIMES, 31 May. Glimmers of a bigger picture --- Saudi aid is mentioned in fomenting the split between al-Qaeda in Iraq and Sunni tribes. I have a feeling that Saudi funds have probably been critical in helping movements like the Anbar Salvation Council to cohere and survive.

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U.S. and Iraqi troops chased Al Zawraa television's staff out of Iraq last year, and this year Washington pressured the Egyptians and Europeans to stop bouncing the station's signal from their satellites. But despite pleas from Washington, the Saudi government has declined to use its influence as a major stakeholder in the satellite company Arabsat to stop the transmissions, U.S. officials say.

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The station — sometimes called "Muj TV," a shorthand for mujahedin — was launched in 2005 by Mishaan Jaburi, a former member of Iraq's parliament. Jaburi fled to Syria late last year amid charges that he had embezzled millions of dollars from the Iraqi government.

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The Saudis have an additional reason to support the station: Al Zawraa shares the Saudi goal of persuading Iraq's Sunni Arabs to turn against Al Qaeda.

The Islamic Army in Iraq, the largest Sunni Muslim insurgency group and the one Al Zawraa speaks for, had been aligned with the group Al Qaeda in Iraq. But this year the two organizations split, and Al Zawraa began accusing Al Qaeda of attacking members of the Islamic Army in Iraq, failing to protect Iraqi civilians and provoking fights with foreign countries that could lead to attacks on Iraq.
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The U.S. official said there was a range of opinion about the Saudis within the Bush administration and that many officials found their actions "annoying or irritating." Nonetheless, he said, many also believed that "they've been more helpful than not."

One of the Saudis' most important contributions, the U.S. official said, has been to work with other Sunni regimes on driving a wedge between Iraq's Sunnis and Al Qaeda.

The U.S. official also said the Saudis were effectively competing against the Iranians in the uniquely Mideastern arena of "personalities, money and byzantine backroom deals."

"They're skilled at it; we're clumsy," he said ...

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I'm not surprised with Egypt. A lot of terrorists that come to Iraq for suicide missions are from Egypt and Saudi Arabia - it's okay for them to mass murder civilians and coalition forces.

I wish America would put more pressure on the egyptian government rather than announce a $20 billion aid package for them.

After all Hosni Mubarak declared hanging Saddam made him a 'martyr'.
Mubarak and Saddam were good friends secretly.

Egypt has stopped the transmission of a private Iraqi TV station which glorifies the Sunni insurgency in Iraq.

Nice since they receive more of our foreign aid dollars than any other country out there (other than Israel).

Interesting that this is posted here today. While slogging along the I-95 parking lot into DC today I was listening to Woodward's new book. Supposedly Mubarak was plotting through Sunni insurgents to oust Maliki during the early Surge until he got a firm slap from the US.

Was the slap firm enough?

The number of bad guys we found with traceable Egyptian backgrounds, even if only while in transit to the OE, was and is entirely unacceptable.

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Al-Zawraa TV, which is known for airing videos of attacks by insurgent groups on US forces

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Playing the Devil's Advocate:
So now the U.S. is about censorship?

We claim we want to bring democracy and Western liberties to other countries but then we actively try to suppress them when they are exercised?

Aren't rights for everyone, not just people we like?

If Cuba and Russia, or even Cuba and Canada petitioned the U.S. to stop the Radio Marti broadcasts, would we comply or tell them to put it were the sun shineth not?

Personally, I think taking out their transmitters and servers (either physical destruction or hacking) would be one of the extremely few acceptable uses of covert (as opposed to clandestine) action.

Van, agree with you personally and not sure what to say about the advocacy position save that with rights come responsibility. While I see your point, after a few tours dealing with those who were incited to violence, martyrdom and general terrorist tomfoolery by the stations in question, I would be more than happy to see them finding sudden difficulties transmitting due either to raging fires in the general vicinity or some sort of unordered software retrogrades.

Some thoughts for you all to consider from someone who was embedded with the Egyptian Army during the first Gulf War:

1. Egypt and Saudi Arabia have a lot in common in that the populaces of both states suffer under dictatorships that are supported in power largely by the U.S in exchange for support that we ask of those governments.

2. Most foreign fighters (some 40%) in Iraq are indeed Saudi, and I would expect a large number to come from Eqypt as well, though I am not aware of their open source percentage. Some 20% each come from Lybia and Algeria.

3. The Saudi's fear any growth of Shia power in particular and Iranian power in general and often play the U.S. has a hedge to protect them from this. This is due largely to the heavily oppressed Shia minority in NE Saudi Arabia that is the most motivated dissident group in Saudi Arabia, though there is a large Sunni dissidence as well.

4. This thread started off by stating how "Egypt" was running insurgent supporting information on TV, I suspect that "Egypt" i.e., the state of Egypt, was not running this at all, and the reason this was running was becuase it is very popular with a suppressed Egyptian populace.

5. The Saudi and Egyptian populaces fully recognize that they have no real hope of resolving their issues of poor governance at home until they can break the support of the U.S. in the region in general, and to their governments in particular. This is a critical point to understand. Young Saudi and Egyptian men see phase one to successful nationalist insurgency at home to be this breaking of U.S. support to two governments that have very little in common with the principles that the U.S. holds so dear.

6. When you see that the Saudi government is "cracking down on terrorsts" at home, you would be wise to consider that the people they are cracking down on are Saudi citizens who are rising up in a quest for self-determined governance, and that this tremendous "help" by our Saudi allies most likely translates to their populace as all the more why reason they must work harder to break U.S. support to this government.

7. Some of these Saudis follow an extreme wahabi brand of Islam, but most are moderates who want something even more extreme in this region of the world: self-determined democracy.


My point in all of this is that this often gets colored in just one way as it is presented to the American populace. We see ourselves as "the good guys" and therefore our allies are on the "good guy" team too. We are good guys, but as our leadership has stated, we are addicted to oil, and addicts make bad decisions. Just keep an open mind, and try to see these things though the perspectives of others as well.

To apply the concepts that I presented a few months ago in the paper on "Populace-Centric Engagement" the course I would offer is that we need to be much more tuned in to the needs, will and requirements of populaces like those of Egypt and Saudi Arabia; and take a much firmer line with their governments, using a full bag of carrots and sticks to put more effort to getting them to evolve their governments in ways that give their entire populaces more voice, and less effort on turning a blind eye to that in order to gain their support for GWOT related issues, or out of fear that they would somehow stop selling us oil.

Americans all wish that the Middle East would change how it views us. I suggest that the critical first step is changing how we view them. The Cold War lens we view them through gets a little cloudier every day.

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Originally Posted by Bob's World

My point in all of this is that this often gets colored in just one way as it is presented to the American populace. We see ourselves as "the good guys" and therefore our allies are on the "good guy" team too. We are good guys, but as our leadership has stated, we are addicted to oil, and addicts make bad decisions. Just keep an open mind, and try to see these things though the perspectives of others as well.


Americans all wish that the Middle East would change how it views us. I suggest that the critical first step is changing how we view them. The Cold War lens we view them through gets a little cloudier every day.

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As my ten year old boy said over breakfast this morning Sir, "Dad, sometimes bad guys think the good guys are evil don't they?"

I wonder if we should acknowledge Hamas, which was democratically elected by the Palestinian people. Also, Hamas spends 90% of its budget on badly needed social welfare programs. We do not acknowledge them because they are considered a terrorist organization. I agree with Bob's assessment that it is inappropriate to talk of these issues in terms of "good" and "bad"; rather, we should merely consider our strategic interests.

Not to muddy the issue but, OMS and much of the Sadrist infrastructure is geared towards easing the suffering of the downtrodden. Just because some, or even most, of your efforts go towards "good" doesn't mean that some of your folks don't need to wake up dead.

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Originally Posted by invictus0972

I wonder if we should acknowledge Hamas, which was democratically elected by the Palestinian people. Also, Hamas spends 90% of its budget on badly needed social welfare programs. We do not acknowledge them because they are considered a terrorist organization. I agree with Bob's assessment that it is inappropriate to talk of these issues in terms of "good" and "bad"; rather, we should merely consider our strategic interests.

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I doubt very much that Hamas spends 90% of its budget on social problems--or, for that matter that we even know what its budget is.