I had blogged last month about Daveed Gartenstein-Ross's article on the "Oil-for-News" connection between Saddam Hussein and the Arab media. I am happy to report that the author has emailed a transcript of the al-Hurra tapes discussed in his article in The Weekly Standard.
The transcript is interesting, enlightening and, I must admit, a bit sickening. It's longish and I have no other place to post it, so please bear with me as I post it here. My thanks to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, not only for sending the transcript my way but for his fine work in keeping the rest of us informed.
If you're interested in following more of Gartenstein-Ross's work, check out the Counter-Terrorism Blog where he has become a contributor.
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Things from Uday
Part one: "The magnanimity of Uday"
-Uday: They brought you from Basra, right?
-Abdelamir Ahmad (AA), father of Iraqi Olympic weightlifting champion and political asylum seeker: Yes
-Uday: Now tell me, what's this new move?
-AA: What move sir?
-Uday: Well, your son is now a fugitive and he's badmouthing the government and Saddam Hussein
-AA: He talks about the government?
-Uday: About the government and about the rest of us too.
Narration:
At the end of July 1996, the weightlifter Raed Abdulameer Khdhaier carried the Iraqi flag during the opening ceremony of the Atlanta, USA Olympic Games. At the same time Raed was preparing to make a move that was as bold as it was uncertain.
-Raed Abdulameer: In 1995 I participated in the world weightlifting championship that was successfully organized in china. At that time I contemplated seeking asylum but I didn't have a chance to do it. As you know the situation in china left a lot to be desired; besides I was staying at the Iraqi embassy which as everyone knows is staffed with pawns of the regime and members of the secret police who prepared a daily report on the activities of our delegation in china. So I feared that if I expressed any intention to defect I would be not just turned down but also handed over to the Iraqi embassy and later tried. So I decided then that I had better wait for the upcoming Olympic Games which turned out to be a truly historic event given the participation of over 197 countries. And I thought to myself, God willing, when I get there and if an opportunity should present itself I will ask for political asylum knowing that, with regard to my folks back home, neither my father nor my mother had any idea that I was going to do so. I managed to contact my wife and organize her travel to Kirkuk as a first step to getting out of the country. On the same day she got there I gave a press conference in which I announced that I was seeking political asylum. The rest of the delegation was flabbergasted to see that one day I was lionized by the Iraqi media as the foremost athlete, the standard-bearer of our national pride, the personal representative of the President and the next day I was on TV asking for political asylum.
Narration:
This decision had a devastating effect on the Iraqi leadership and especially on Uday who chaired the Iraqi Olympic Committee. So the first thing Uday did was to meet with the IOC members.
-IOC Member # 1: Dr. Sadek!? Of course it's not reasonable to compare Dr. Sadek with Anmar. There is no commonality between the two men. We are all on the side of Dr.Sadek and those present before you here today, M'hammed, ghazi Dr. Raafaa and myself assume fully our responsibility in this regard. Everyone thought it's not befitting Dr. Sadek to play such a tiny role especially that he is Dean of a faculty and we all collectively, thought he should be afforded a shot at a bigger mission. However nobody asked me personally what I thought about it because I might have had a different opinion. Yet I consulted with Dr.Ali, I went to his office and asked him, (pointing to Dr.Ali) isn't that right?
-Unidentified off-camera voice: We consulted with Dr. Ali on another matter.
-IOC member # 1: No Dr., as soon as I heard from you I went to the office to meet him personally and he asked me to take him off this trip and told me that he didn't want Dr. Sadek to go either, because he judged the mission to be beneath his stature.
-IOC member# 2: This line of justification makes total sense and I of course stand by it, however and with all due respect, what we are talking about here is an event that takes place every four years and those who participate in it should have a certain political, patriotic background in addition to familiarity with delegations from other Arab countries coupled with a technical savvy when it comes to dealing with athletes. In other words we should send people who feel comfortable going right into the housing quarters of the athletes and talking to them. Of course majority decisions must be respected and I certainly abide by them but this was not the correct one. And before they even remitted the final report to you I talked to each and every one of them and told them all the same thing. When I talked to Raafaa finally he suggested that I express my thoughts "in a letter to you, professor"(addressing Uday).
-IOC member # 3: The nature of the administrator or his job is what led to Anmar being sent with this delegation and not the Dr.[Sadek]; and as it was said before there is no comparison between Dr. Sadek and professor Anmar.
-Uday: Why are we recycling the same thoughts over and over again? If you have anything new to add go ahead and say it but what you just said has already been voiced by Hichem.
-IOC member # 3: What is new is that, and I'm not here defending the executive bureau or the committee, the mistake is due to..
-Uday: This is what I will be investigating because the committee is saying that this guy is not a candidate and that's what was in their report to me.
-IOC member # 3 (off camera): He was their alternate candidate.
-Uday: well, I'll look into all that if this turns out to be true then that means that the committee has had no hand in this. Now is there anything new for us to hear?...Brigadier General (BG).
-BG: With your kind permission sir, the truth is that, like the rest of my colleagues in the organization, I feel sorry for what happened. This is not a pleasant situation and I frankly feel embarrassed because of it.
Narration:
Only one day after he had asked for asylum, Uday ordered that the whole family of the weightlifter be brought to Baghdad. On August 1, 1996 the family was officially arrested and transferred from Basra to Baghdad.
-Leila Salah Hassoun, Raed's Mother (RM): we didn't know he had asked for asylum and around five o'clock in the morning I heard noise coming from the garden so I went down to check it out. I met Abdelbaki who explained to me that Mr. Uday wanted to honor us and extend his hospitality to us in recognition of Raed's athletic accomplishments. I told him why doesn't he invite Raed's wife instead, after all she's closer to him than any of us. He said no no, he wants you and his father not his wife. They gave us no time to prepare ourselves or even put on some appropriate clothes. At that moment I was told there was a phone call for me from America, from Raed, so I hurried over to get it. He [Raed] asked me to tell Mohammed and Ammar to leave and go north. Then I heard someone running towards me so I hang up. He asked me what the call was about and I told him that the communication was bad and that I couldn't hear anything. As I came out I found a real armada of all sorts of vehicles and armed people there, even Lieutenant Ahmed in his car. We were surrounded from all directions. I said my God what do they want from us this early in the morning. The front yard gate was made of flimsy pieces of wood so they easily pushed it open and came right into the house without any regard for our privacy. I didn't even have a head scarf on so I grabbed one from the neighbor's. They went upstairs and brought my fifth-grade daughter and her two other brothers down.
Narration:
Uday kept pressing for information about the whereabouts of the fugitive athlete's wife saying that the security forces had been looking for her without success.
-Uday: Where's his wife now?
-Raed's father: She's in Baghdad, sir.
-Uday: Where? Security forces are looking for her but they can't find her.
Narration:
This athlete wouldn't have embarked on such an enterprise if he had thought it could put his family in danger. Indeed, he learned about an important fact that he knew would shield, for a while, his family from any retaliatory action.
-Raed: What I know is that the guarantor is the person ultimately responsible for the individual who travels outside Iraq. In my case the guarantor was Uday. So there wasn't much he could do. Besides all the training camps I have attended throughout my life as an athlete were mostly organized in Baghdad and while my family lived in Basra my wife's folks were from Baghdad so I was always traveling back and forth between the two cities. More importantly my family wasn't even aware that that I had traveled abroad. Therefore, while I feared that he might hold them accountable I was sure he didn't have much leverage with them since he was himself my guarantor. Had my father been my guarantor Uday wouldn't think twice about killing him in front of his family. But he knew the mistake was his own and no one else's. Normally any member of any delegation that travels outside Iraq must have a family member, either a wife, a brother or a father, who would be a guarantor of his/her return to the country and if they don't return to Iraq the guarantor would be held accountable.
-Raed's mother (looking emaciated): Her folks? I know where they are sir; they live in "Essaidya".
-Uday: You don't look like you are from Basra. Are you from "al-amara"? , "el-nassirya"?
-Raed's father (off camera): We belong to the "awled amer" tribe, from Basra. Basra, we are originally from Basra.
-Uday: Take their names and check them out.
(A new frame with Uday addressing the family of Raed)
-Uday: The filthiness of his behavior surely is the result of the filthy ways in which he was raised at home.
(A new frame)
-Uday: "Asking for political asylum".what do you call that, pride?
-Raed's father: No sir, it's wrong.
-Uday: No! it's shameful. It's wrong for him but shameful for you. Isn't this the definition of filthiness? Is there anything filthier than this?
Narration:
Then Uday dismissed the cameraman and every one else so he could talk to the family in total privacy and of course, off the record.
-Raed's mother: He ordered the recording of the meeting stopped and told us that he was giving us a last chance to contact Raed.
-Raed's father: He told us if we can't succeed in talking to him [Raed] he would behead the three of us.
-Raed's mother: But for now, he said, take them all into custody. The kids and their father put their T-shirts over their heads and I and my daughter were made to sit in the back of the car.
-Raed's father: we left the headquarters to be taken to General security
Narration:
The whole family was locked up for 16 days in Baghdad's general security jail in appallingly inhumane conditions.
-Raed's mother: Me and the little girls were put in one area and the father and the boys in another area, I am not sure where. They put us in a miniscule room with a tiny opening in the door. Very scary. There were no facilities besides a metal platform. The food consisted in an awful soup that was served in the same utensil we used for our ablutions. We hardly drunk any water either, it was disgusting.
Narration:
Three days into their detention Uday managed to find Raed's wife and sent Raed's mother along with security forces in order to bring her to prison.
-Raed's mother: Three days into our detention she was found and I was taken in a car to go get her. When I got to "el-saiddya" she was not there but her father said he would bring her to us. He said she had gone to Karbala to visit with the family. Sure enough, in the afternoon her father brought her. She's a nice beautiful girl and we feared for her from those guys.
Narration:
After a period of incarceration Raed's wife was released from prison and fired from her job as a teacher. In the meantime Raed had put together a plan to whisk his wife out of Iraq and into Amman with a forged passport.
-Raed: After those events I learned that my wife was released from prison and was fired from her job as a teacher, so was my mother who also was a teacher. I started thinking about ways to get them out of there with fake passports, except for the photograph which had to be authentic. So I made contacts with some close friends I know over there in Basra and one of them said perhaps he could help and he offered to issue a passport with his wife's name and my wife's picture. We all so agreed and a passport was issued for my wife who made it to Amman.
-Raed's mother: He told us we were traitors of the party and of the revolution and we were under surveillance around the clock. No 24 hours passed without somebody knocking on our door, then there was the "mokhabarat" [Infamous Internal security].
-Raed's father: They took us to Baghdad three times. It was during Ramadan and we never even had an opportunity to break our fast.
Narration:
This ordeal continued for seven years and all the way until one week before the beginning of the war in Iraq.
-Raed's mother: The war began on March 20, on the 7th I had to report to them for a "meeting". It was too much we couldn't take it anymore. I told my husband you either get rid of them or get rid of us. We came to hate our lives.
(Frame showing Uday in a wet suit and on a jet-ski)
(Closing frame with the sentence "The magnanimity of Uday")
(Frame of fast-cascading short footage from this documentary and other operating room scenes)
Part Two: "Kissing is allowed"
-Uday (off camera): Welcome Mrs. Hamida
-Hamida Naanaa (HN): Hello to you too, the dear son of the dear and the precious son of the precious. Hello, is kissing allowed?
-Uday: Certainly
Narration:
The oil coupons that the Saddam regime used to hand out to some Arab media figures in return for supporting his regime were of two kinds: Silver coupons, entitling their holders to a maximum of 9 million barrels of oil and Gold coupons for amounts in excess of that bar. The Syrian writer Hamida Naana is among those on whom the Golden coupon had been bestowed.
-Fallah Mich'al (FM) Editor in Chief of Assabah: I used to observe closely the Arab delegations as they streamed into Baghdad. They were for the most part special guests of ministers, high ranking officials and other personalities at the top of regime's pyramid. Saddam and the symbols of his regime had a predilection for dealing with the Arab media. This was the expression of a deep seated (and vastly known) complex that made them a great deal more generous to the lousiest Arab media personality than they ever would be towards his more competent Iraqi counterpart. This attitude exemplified the oppressive way in which the regime dealt with people in the media and the arts in this country. These Arab delegations would arrive to Baghdad according to specific schedules and would represent institution or individuals with interests tied to the fascist regime. These relationships were sustained through oil coupons, domestic investments, gifts and all manner of other private transactions.
Narration:
Hamida Naanaa was well known for her fierce defense of the Saddam regime in the media and especially in her Paris-published magazine "Arab Accord".
-Uday: (As he leafs through the magazine) Excellent quality!
-Hamida: Let me tell you about the trick we had to resort to. Well, after Iraqi media outlets were shut down in France it became difficult for us to publish anything in France. I mean just when we began to make a profit.
Narration:
During that profit-seeking visit to Baghdad Hamida offered to write a book on Saddam but Saddam turned down her offer on account that she had passed him up as her first choice when she wrote a book about Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Salah. She decided then to settle for a biography of Tarek Aziz which appeared in the year 2000 under the title Tarek Aziz, a man and a cause. However, her most effective efforts to defend the Saddam regime were made on TV and in the press.
-Uday: God willing the 7th issue will be just as good. Well by then 7 months will have elapsed.
-Hamida: Well, for the 7th issue I looked for a picture of your father in my personal archives. It was not easy because I wanted a picture in which he would look victorious or smiling.
-Uday: True, this is a picture.
-Hamida: Could you date it...
-Uday: I would say 1985.
-Hamida: From the days of "Al-Quadissiya" [the Iran/Iraq war], perhaps?
-Uday:..!
-Hamida: I suffered a great deal to find it.
-Uday: If you had asked we would have helped you.
-Fallah Mich'al: In reality the meaning of the oil coupons that were handed out by the regime and more precisely by its top cadres is clear to all. These were bribes that were paid to media figures, politicians, ministers and other influential people in important positions in neighboring countries and, indeed, across the world. In this regard Hamida Naanaa was only one name on a long list of other names.
Narration:
During the unfolding of the oil coupons scandal, subsequent to the fall of the regime in Iraq, Hamida Naanaa's name was found on documents listing those who took millions of barrels of oil in return for services rendered to Saddam Hussein. Hamida Naanaa has denied ever receiving such favors but a year after the story broke, copies of the original coupons were found in Baghdad and one of them, a Golden one, was made to Hamida Naanaa.
-Fallah Mich'al: The document which we published and which had Hamida Naanaa's name on it is one of many others that we gave consideration to here at Assabah.
Narration:
Among the documents that were handed to the United Nations in the context of its investigation of Iraq's oil-for-food program, and in which 21billion dollars have gone missing is, a coupon in the name of Hamida Naanaa along with a document signed by Taha Yassine Ramadhan and in which he orders an increase of her quota by one million barrels.
-Hamida Naanaa: As you mentioned in your beautiful and sweet letter to me.
-Uday: I just want to hear your views please.
-Hamida: God! I was so always looking forward to seeing you
-Uday (addressing someone hidden from the camera and to his left): sit down here, Jawad.
-Hamida: When your magazine "babel" was published I was very happy you know. I liked the format a lot and the manner in which it was published and everything else about it. It has a lot of character especially when it is read abroad. It is the Iraqi publication we are most curious about; we all want to know what "babel" is saying. We were very happy to see it come to the world and are even happier to see it stand on its feet. We are just delighted with it, and as true as your life is dear to me, if I had the means I would publish a magazine like "babel".
Narration:
Hamida's admiration for "babel", a magazine that was published by Uday, has evolved into an admiration of Uday as a person so she expresses her deep consternation at the news of the assassination attempt that was perpetrated against him in 1996 and which caused him serious injuries.
-Hamida: we got worried about you, you know.
-Uday: Thank you.
-Hamida: I just lost it when heard the news
-Uday: God bless you
Narration:
To see a prominent media personality who claims to be a defender of Arab national rights in this situation is surely disturbing to the Arab conscience and spirit alike.
-Fallah Mich'al: The Iraqi and the Arabs are well aware of the record breaking performance of the Iraqi dictatorship when it comes to bribes and the amounts thereof. For while other regimes dole out watches and other such small personal items, the Iraqi regime under Saddam dilapidated the resources of all the Iraqi people including the children, the weak, women, the elderly and the downtrodden simply to luster its political image. He squandered the people's wealth just to maintain itself in power. This is surely disconcerting for every honest human being in general not just Arabs, it should also be shocking to those who benefited wrongly from the past regime at the expense of the suffering and pain of the Iraqi people, never mind at the expense of the truth.
Narration:
Hamida's fascination with the personality and activities of Uday made her sit there and listen to him as he dispenses lessons and advice and, unabashedly, spews eternal wisdom such as "everyone has a price".
-Uday: It is true that everyone has a price but not necessarily in money
Narration:
(Reading a document shown on the screen)
To: Your Excellency minister of oil resources,
Subject: Approval of crude oil contracts.
Sir,
Based on the appropriations statement for the period number 13, dated November 9th 2002, on the approval of his Excellency deputy-President Taha Yassine Ramadhan and as per our phone conversation of November 21, 2002 regarding the increase of Mrs. Hamida Naanaa's quota by one million barrels, kindly proceed as follows:
Name of the company: Devon Petroleum Ltd
Beneficiary: Hamida Naanaa
Oil type: Basra light
Destination: North America and the Far-East
Price: According to destination
Approximate value: 42 million Euros, based on $31/ barrel
Part Three: "It is your TV station both figuratively and literally"
-Mohammed Jacem Al-ali (MJA): Assalamu -alaykum.
Narration:
Name: Mohammed Jacem Al-ali
Dob: 1954 in Doha
Nationality: Qatari
Job title: managing director of Al-jazeera satellite TV since its inception in 1996 and until the fall of the Saddam regime
-MJA: Hello, hello, good to see you
-Uday: As you can see I'm not wearing a tie today I am civilian, so to speak.
-MJA: How are you? Fine I hope.How is your health?
-Uday: Fine thank you. (Greeting another guest) Welcome Shamel
Narration:
What many observers find interesting about Al-jazeera is that it seems to share with the previous regime in Iraq the same feelings of enmity towards the same parties. The question is: Was this mere coincidence? But if it was so, how can we account for this chance meeting-of-the minds lasting this long, eight years to be precise? The elements of the "coincidence" premise began to crumble immediately following the fall of the regime in Iraq and when the ground started to shake under the feet of Al-jazeera's board of directors as news of financial scandals, shady dealings and secret communications with the fallen regime started to emerge.
(On the screen appears a picture of two men with the caption: Faysal Alkacem with Zeid Mohieddine, Station manager of Iraqi intelligence in Doha)
This is what prompted the decision makers at Al-jazeera to bring a new managing director in an effort to preempt the fallout of the events.
-MJA: Thanks to God our mission here has been successful. Indeed, yesterday we met with the information minister and the commerce minister and we had a succession of other activities which will have, Inshallah, beneficial results for both parties.
-Uday: Good, good, and it's nice to see you after this relatively long period of time, about a year I think, right?
Commentary by Jalel el-Machta, Iraqi media and politics figure:
Integrity in the media means the ability to report the facts as they are and to allow the reader, the listener or the viewer to accede to as many perspectives as possible of these facts. In other words Integrity requires that we completely divorce the fact, the truth or the news item from the opinion and the commentary. Any overlap of these two aspects constitutes a deliberate effort to slant the news-consumer's leaning in a particular direction. That is simply unacceptable in a media that seeks to be free, independent, and not the instrument of a propaganda machine.
Narration:
On March 13, 2000 Uday had a meeting with the managing director of Al-jazeera in his office at the headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. This was not the first meeting between the two, as the dialogue seems to suggest, but the follow up to a previous one that had positive results. Indeed, the directives and advice that Uday seems to have offered during that initial meeting appear to have been implemented resulting in the hiring of new faces by the station such as Ahmed Mansour, or "that lad, Mansour" as Uday refers to him.
-Uday: During your last visit here along with your colleagues we talked about a number of issues and it does appear that you indeed were listening to what I was saying since changes took place and new faces came onboard now such as that lad , Mansour.I'm not sure Mansour who.
Narration:
Uday started by commenting on an episode of "The opposite direction" news magazine then he alluded to what the director of Al-jazeera, Mohammed Jacem Al-ali had told him on a previous occasion , namely that "Al-Jazeera is your channel" and that therefore "Uday had the right to express his views about it".
-Uday: Regarding "The opposite direction" well, there was a sort of slight misunderstanding [In English in the original] there. As you may know it was reported to me by some that Mohammed Jacem said "Al-jazeera is our station both figuratively and literally" as the expression goes, so It is important that I share with you my observations about the station.
Commentary by jalel el-Machata, Iraqi media and politics figure:
The integrity of the media is completely predicated on its independence, so for the media to be independent it has to be free from government and its influence, money and its temptations, tribal and nationalistic affinities etc.In other words the sine qua non prerequisites for the integrity of the media are its independence and its objectivity. Numerous factors, however, can undermine the integrity of the media. First: Money. The media can be said to have integrity if is biased in favor of the funding party.
Narration:
The visit of Mr. Jacem had one purpose: to listen to the remarks and directives of Uday as evidenced by the following exchange.
-MJA: I am here in fact to relay to you the greetings of Sheikh Hamad bin Thamir, chairman of the board, and who will soon be coming to visit you, God willing. He's looking forward to meeting you here in Baghdad. As for myself, I am only here to listen to your ideas and register your observations, sir, may Allah prolong your life.
Narration:
Such exchanges normally take place "in chambers". On TV however, when Al-jazeera invokes the "news coverage" concept, it is clear that the way it covers the news takes into account its allegiances.
Commentary by Jalel el-Machta, Iraqi media and politics figure:
There is another important factor behind the lack of integrity in the media which is ignorance. Indeed, ignorance of what the "facts" mean and ignorance of the ways in which they could be packaged can lead to the undermining of the media's integrity. There is also, of course, bias grounded in ideology or self-interest. Such bias is illustrated in the way a few Arab satellite TVs report the news, for example: when a car bomb is detonated in front of the green zone some outlets report this news and add " in the close vicinity of the American embassy" which is meant to suggest that the US embassy was the intended target of the operation and therefore it is part of the legitimate resistance to the occupation. However, if one wanted to report this news item objectively one would have to say that this explosion targeted civilian cars and resulted in civilian casualties. Another example: A few days ago we heard about the bombing of a ten-truck convoy that was carrying food. How was the news reported to us? Well, we were told that the bombing occurred indeed but that the convoy "in the estimation of an eye witness, could possibly be carrying food for the Americans". This reflects a total lack of integrity and utter disregard for the truth.
Narration:
Uday gave his directives to the director of Al-jazeera based on the strong relationship between them and which is as old as the station itself.
-Uday: if I feel comfortable talking to you this way it is because of our three year old relationship. But it is true that one can tell the mettle of a human being from his demeanor and the way he walks. This message of course is not meant for you but the other members of the board.
Narration:
Right from the outset Uday wanted to get to the aspects of success and those of failure as soon as possible.
-Uday: Mr. Jacem. (Correcting himself) Sorry, Mohammed, if we are to get a grip on the issue as a whole we must agree on an understanding of what success means. Then, defining the objective will become a very easy task. And when that is accomplished we can go back and improve the initial steps that we took at the outset.
Narration:
Uday's interest in Al-jazeera is not confined to the news aspect of the station but reaches also into the managerial side of the operation. In this regard Uday is of the opinion the station's management has suffered a set back brought about by the board of directors and his opinion things would have been much better had the management been simply left entirely in the hands of Mr. Mohammed Jacem Al-ali.
-Uday: In my personal opinion if all the managerial responsibilities were left to you, just as things were at the inception of the station as opposed to what happened during the subsequent period in which a board of directors was set up and other people were given responsibilities etc, etc., this station would be enjoying a faster pace of growth right now.
Narration:
And just as easily as he scolds Al-jazeera, Uday makes no bones about poking fun at the state of Qatar itself because of its size and the size of its population; hence his understanding of Qatar's (and al-jazeera's) attempts at walking on many straight ropes at the same time.
-Uday: You live in Qatar and you know this but one a Sheikh came to visit from Qatar and I took him to see the "People's Stadium". When we got in there he looked at the bleachers and asked about their capacity, 50 thousand I told him and up to 70 thousand if they're standing tightly, shoulder to shoulder. His reaction was so striking that I shared with the other guys. He said "brother Uday don't be too hard on us because, you see, our total population could fit into this stadium so when you see us oscillating from right to left that's because we are merely trying to hold our balance as we move between tight ropes"
Narration:
But the director is not saddened in the least by these words; on the contrary he hastens to express his satisfaction and gratitude for the support that Uday has been extending both to him personally and and to Al-Jazeera. This support, according to the director, is the real reason behind the station's success.
-MJA: First of all, sir, I would like to express to you my unequivocal thanks for the precious trust that you put in me so that I was able to play a role at Al-jazeera, indeed I can even say that without your kind cooperation with us and your support my mission would have failed. My mission at al-jazeera is to serve Iraq, the country that has had so much to do with the success of the station. Indeed, in this regard the lion's share of the credit goes to you personally sir, yet we would be remiss not to mention our colleagues here who constantly strive to implement your directive while they lent us their unremitting.
The transcript is interesting, enlightening and, I must admit, a bit sickening. It's longish and I have no other place to post it, so please bear with me as I post it here. My thanks to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, not only for sending the transcript my way but for his fine work in keeping the rest of us informed.
If you're interested in following more of Gartenstein-Ross's work, check out the Counter-Terrorism Blog where he has become a contributor.
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TRANSCRIPT:
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Things from Uday
Part one: "The magnanimity of Uday"
-Uday: They brought you from Basra, right?
-Abdelamir Ahmad (AA), father of Iraqi Olympic weightlifting champion and political asylum seeker: Yes
-Uday: Now tell me, what's this new move?
-AA: What move sir?
-Uday: Well, your son is now a fugitive and he's badmouthing the government and Saddam Hussein
-AA: He talks about the government?
-Uday: About the government and about the rest of us too.
Narration:
At the end of July 1996, the weightlifter Raed Abdulameer Khdhaier carried the Iraqi flag during the opening ceremony of the Atlanta, USA Olympic Games. At the same time Raed was preparing to make a move that was as bold as it was uncertain.
-Raed Abdulameer: In 1995 I participated in the world weightlifting championship that was successfully organized in china. At that time I contemplated seeking asylum but I didn't have a chance to do it. As you know the situation in china left a lot to be desired; besides I was staying at the Iraqi embassy which as everyone knows is staffed with pawns of the regime and members of the secret police who prepared a daily report on the activities of our delegation in china. So I feared that if I expressed any intention to defect I would be not just turned down but also handed over to the Iraqi embassy and later tried. So I decided then that I had better wait for the upcoming Olympic Games which turned out to be a truly historic event given the participation of over 197 countries. And I thought to myself, God willing, when I get there and if an opportunity should present itself I will ask for political asylum knowing that, with regard to my folks back home, neither my father nor my mother had any idea that I was going to do so. I managed to contact my wife and organize her travel to Kirkuk as a first step to getting out of the country. On the same day she got there I gave a press conference in which I announced that I was seeking political asylum. The rest of the delegation was flabbergasted to see that one day I was lionized by the Iraqi media as the foremost athlete, the standard-bearer of our national pride, the personal representative of the President and the next day I was on TV asking for political asylum.
Narration:
This decision had a devastating effect on the Iraqi leadership and especially on Uday who chaired the Iraqi Olympic Committee. So the first thing Uday did was to meet with the IOC members.
-IOC Member # 1: Dr. Sadek!? Of course it's not reasonable to compare Dr. Sadek with Anmar. There is no commonality between the two men. We are all on the side of Dr.Sadek and those present before you here today, M'hammed, ghazi Dr. Raafaa and myself assume fully our responsibility in this regard. Everyone thought it's not befitting Dr. Sadek to play such a tiny role especially that he is Dean of a faculty and we all collectively, thought he should be afforded a shot at a bigger mission. However nobody asked me personally what I thought about it because I might have had a different opinion. Yet I consulted with Dr.Ali, I went to his office and asked him, (pointing to Dr.Ali) isn't that right?
-Unidentified off-camera voice: We consulted with Dr. Ali on another matter.
-IOC member # 1: No Dr., as soon as I heard from you I went to the office to meet him personally and he asked me to take him off this trip and told me that he didn't want Dr. Sadek to go either, because he judged the mission to be beneath his stature.
-IOC member# 2: This line of justification makes total sense and I of course stand by it, however and with all due respect, what we are talking about here is an event that takes place every four years and those who participate in it should have a certain political, patriotic background in addition to familiarity with delegations from other Arab countries coupled with a technical savvy when it comes to dealing with athletes. In other words we should send people who feel comfortable going right into the housing quarters of the athletes and talking to them. Of course majority decisions must be respected and I certainly abide by them but this was not the correct one. And before they even remitted the final report to you I talked to each and every one of them and told them all the same thing. When I talked to Raafaa finally he suggested that I express my thoughts "in a letter to you, professor"(addressing Uday).
-IOC member # 3: The nature of the administrator or his job is what led to Anmar being sent with this delegation and not the Dr.[Sadek]; and as it was said before there is no comparison between Dr. Sadek and professor Anmar.
-Uday: Why are we recycling the same thoughts over and over again? If you have anything new to add go ahead and say it but what you just said has already been voiced by Hichem.
-IOC member # 3: What is new is that, and I'm not here defending the executive bureau or the committee, the mistake is due to..
-Uday: This is what I will be investigating because the committee is saying that this guy is not a candidate and that's what was in their report to me.
-IOC member # 3 (off camera): He was their alternate candidate.
-Uday: well, I'll look into all that if this turns out to be true then that means that the committee has had no hand in this. Now is there anything new for us to hear?...Brigadier General (BG).
-BG: With your kind permission sir, the truth is that, like the rest of my colleagues in the organization, I feel sorry for what happened. This is not a pleasant situation and I frankly feel embarrassed because of it.
Narration:
Only one day after he had asked for asylum, Uday ordered that the whole family of the weightlifter be brought to Baghdad. On August 1, 1996 the family was officially arrested and transferred from Basra to Baghdad.
-Leila Salah Hassoun, Raed's Mother (RM): we didn't know he had asked for asylum and around five o'clock in the morning I heard noise coming from the garden so I went down to check it out. I met Abdelbaki who explained to me that Mr. Uday wanted to honor us and extend his hospitality to us in recognition of Raed's athletic accomplishments. I told him why doesn't he invite Raed's wife instead, after all she's closer to him than any of us. He said no no, he wants you and his father not his wife. They gave us no time to prepare ourselves or even put on some appropriate clothes. At that moment I was told there was a phone call for me from America, from Raed, so I hurried over to get it. He [Raed] asked me to tell Mohammed and Ammar to leave and go north. Then I heard someone running towards me so I hang up. He asked me what the call was about and I told him that the communication was bad and that I couldn't hear anything. As I came out I found a real armada of all sorts of vehicles and armed people there, even Lieutenant Ahmed in his car. We were surrounded from all directions. I said my God what do they want from us this early in the morning. The front yard gate was made of flimsy pieces of wood so they easily pushed it open and came right into the house without any regard for our privacy. I didn't even have a head scarf on so I grabbed one from the neighbor's. They went upstairs and brought my fifth-grade daughter and her two other brothers down.
Narration:
Uday kept pressing for information about the whereabouts of the fugitive athlete's wife saying that the security forces had been looking for her without success.
-Uday: Where's his wife now?
-Raed's father: She's in Baghdad, sir.
-Uday: Where? Security forces are looking for her but they can't find her.
Narration:
This athlete wouldn't have embarked on such an enterprise if he had thought it could put his family in danger. Indeed, he learned about an important fact that he knew would shield, for a while, his family from any retaliatory action.
-Raed: What I know is that the guarantor is the person ultimately responsible for the individual who travels outside Iraq. In my case the guarantor was Uday. So there wasn't much he could do. Besides all the training camps I have attended throughout my life as an athlete were mostly organized in Baghdad and while my family lived in Basra my wife's folks were from Baghdad so I was always traveling back and forth between the two cities. More importantly my family wasn't even aware that that I had traveled abroad. Therefore, while I feared that he might hold them accountable I was sure he didn't have much leverage with them since he was himself my guarantor. Had my father been my guarantor Uday wouldn't think twice about killing him in front of his family. But he knew the mistake was his own and no one else's. Normally any member of any delegation that travels outside Iraq must have a family member, either a wife, a brother or a father, who would be a guarantor of his/her return to the country and if they don't return to Iraq the guarantor would be held accountable.
-Raed's mother (looking emaciated): Her folks? I know where they are sir; they live in "Essaidya".
-Uday: You don't look like you are from Basra. Are you from "al-amara"? , "el-nassirya"?
-Raed's father (off camera): We belong to the "awled amer" tribe, from Basra. Basra, we are originally from Basra.
-Uday: Take their names and check them out.
(A new frame with Uday addressing the family of Raed)
-Uday: The filthiness of his behavior surely is the result of the filthy ways in which he was raised at home.
(A new frame)
-Uday: "Asking for political asylum".what do you call that, pride?
-Raed's father: No sir, it's wrong.
-Uday: No! it's shameful. It's wrong for him but shameful for you. Isn't this the definition of filthiness? Is there anything filthier than this?
Narration:
Then Uday dismissed the cameraman and every one else so he could talk to the family in total privacy and of course, off the record.
-Raed's mother: He ordered the recording of the meeting stopped and told us that he was giving us a last chance to contact Raed.
-Raed's father: He told us if we can't succeed in talking to him [Raed] he would behead the three of us.
-Raed's mother: But for now, he said, take them all into custody. The kids and their father put their T-shirts over their heads and I and my daughter were made to sit in the back of the car.
-Raed's father: we left the headquarters to be taken to General security
Narration:
The whole family was locked up for 16 days in Baghdad's general security jail in appallingly inhumane conditions.
-Raed's mother: Me and the little girls were put in one area and the father and the boys in another area, I am not sure where. They put us in a miniscule room with a tiny opening in the door. Very scary. There were no facilities besides a metal platform. The food consisted in an awful soup that was served in the same utensil we used for our ablutions. We hardly drunk any water either, it was disgusting.
Narration:
Three days into their detention Uday managed to find Raed's wife and sent Raed's mother along with security forces in order to bring her to prison.
-Raed's mother: Three days into our detention she was found and I was taken in a car to go get her. When I got to "el-saiddya" she was not there but her father said he would bring her to us. He said she had gone to Karbala to visit with the family. Sure enough, in the afternoon her father brought her. She's a nice beautiful girl and we feared for her from those guys.
Narration:
After a period of incarceration Raed's wife was released from prison and fired from her job as a teacher. In the meantime Raed had put together a plan to whisk his wife out of Iraq and into Amman with a forged passport.
-Raed: After those events I learned that my wife was released from prison and was fired from her job as a teacher, so was my mother who also was a teacher. I started thinking about ways to get them out of there with fake passports, except for the photograph which had to be authentic. So I made contacts with some close friends I know over there in Basra and one of them said perhaps he could help and he offered to issue a passport with his wife's name and my wife's picture. We all so agreed and a passport was issued for my wife who made it to Amman.
-Raed's mother: He told us we were traitors of the party and of the revolution and we were under surveillance around the clock. No 24 hours passed without somebody knocking on our door, then there was the "mokhabarat" [Infamous Internal security].
-Raed's father: They took us to Baghdad three times. It was during Ramadan and we never even had an opportunity to break our fast.
Narration:
This ordeal continued for seven years and all the way until one week before the beginning of the war in Iraq.
-Raed's mother: The war began on March 20, on the 7th I had to report to them for a "meeting". It was too much we couldn't take it anymore. I told my husband you either get rid of them or get rid of us. We came to hate our lives.
(Frame showing Uday in a wet suit and on a jet-ski)
(Closing frame with the sentence "The magnanimity of Uday")
(Frame of fast-cascading short footage from this documentary and other operating room scenes)
Part Two: "Kissing is allowed"
-Uday (off camera): Welcome Mrs. Hamida
-Hamida Naanaa (HN): Hello to you too, the dear son of the dear and the precious son of the precious. Hello, is kissing allowed?
-Uday: Certainly
Narration:
The oil coupons that the Saddam regime used to hand out to some Arab media figures in return for supporting his regime were of two kinds: Silver coupons, entitling their holders to a maximum of 9 million barrels of oil and Gold coupons for amounts in excess of that bar. The Syrian writer Hamida Naana is among those on whom the Golden coupon had been bestowed.
-Fallah Mich'al (FM) Editor in Chief of Assabah: I used to observe closely the Arab delegations as they streamed into Baghdad. They were for the most part special guests of ministers, high ranking officials and other personalities at the top of regime's pyramid. Saddam and the symbols of his regime had a predilection for dealing with the Arab media. This was the expression of a deep seated (and vastly known) complex that made them a great deal more generous to the lousiest Arab media personality than they ever would be towards his more competent Iraqi counterpart. This attitude exemplified the oppressive way in which the regime dealt with people in the media and the arts in this country. These Arab delegations would arrive to Baghdad according to specific schedules and would represent institution or individuals with interests tied to the fascist regime. These relationships were sustained through oil coupons, domestic investments, gifts and all manner of other private transactions.
Narration:
Hamida Naanaa was well known for her fierce defense of the Saddam regime in the media and especially in her Paris-published magazine "Arab Accord".
-Uday: (As he leafs through the magazine) Excellent quality!
-Hamida: Let me tell you about the trick we had to resort to. Well, after Iraqi media outlets were shut down in France it became difficult for us to publish anything in France. I mean just when we began to make a profit.
Narration:
During that profit-seeking visit to Baghdad Hamida offered to write a book on Saddam but Saddam turned down her offer on account that she had passed him up as her first choice when she wrote a book about Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Salah. She decided then to settle for a biography of Tarek Aziz which appeared in the year 2000 under the title Tarek Aziz, a man and a cause. However, her most effective efforts to defend the Saddam regime were made on TV and in the press.
-Uday: God willing the 7th issue will be just as good. Well by then 7 months will have elapsed.
-Hamida: Well, for the 7th issue I looked for a picture of your father in my personal archives. It was not easy because I wanted a picture in which he would look victorious or smiling.
-Uday: True, this is a picture.
-Hamida: Could you date it...
-Uday: I would say 1985.
-Hamida: From the days of "Al-Quadissiya" [the Iran/Iraq war], perhaps?
-Uday:..!
-Hamida: I suffered a great deal to find it.
-Uday: If you had asked we would have helped you.
-Fallah Mich'al: In reality the meaning of the oil coupons that were handed out by the regime and more precisely by its top cadres is clear to all. These were bribes that were paid to media figures, politicians, ministers and other influential people in important positions in neighboring countries and, indeed, across the world. In this regard Hamida Naanaa was only one name on a long list of other names.
Narration:
During the unfolding of the oil coupons scandal, subsequent to the fall of the regime in Iraq, Hamida Naanaa's name was found on documents listing those who took millions of barrels of oil in return for services rendered to Saddam Hussein. Hamida Naanaa has denied ever receiving such favors but a year after the story broke, copies of the original coupons were found in Baghdad and one of them, a Golden one, was made to Hamida Naanaa.
-Fallah Mich'al: The document which we published and which had Hamida Naanaa's name on it is one of many others that we gave consideration to here at Assabah.
Narration:
Among the documents that were handed to the United Nations in the context of its investigation of Iraq's oil-for-food program, and in which 21billion dollars have gone missing is, a coupon in the name of Hamida Naanaa along with a document signed by Taha Yassine Ramadhan and in which he orders an increase of her quota by one million barrels.
-Hamida Naanaa: As you mentioned in your beautiful and sweet letter to me.
-Uday: I just want to hear your views please.
-Hamida: God! I was so always looking forward to seeing you
-Uday (addressing someone hidden from the camera and to his left): sit down here, Jawad.
-Hamida: When your magazine "babel" was published I was very happy you know. I liked the format a lot and the manner in which it was published and everything else about it. It has a lot of character especially when it is read abroad. It is the Iraqi publication we are most curious about; we all want to know what "babel" is saying. We were very happy to see it come to the world and are even happier to see it stand on its feet. We are just delighted with it, and as true as your life is dear to me, if I had the means I would publish a magazine like "babel".
Narration:
Hamida's admiration for "babel", a magazine that was published by Uday, has evolved into an admiration of Uday as a person so she expresses her deep consternation at the news of the assassination attempt that was perpetrated against him in 1996 and which caused him serious injuries.
-Hamida: we got worried about you, you know.
-Uday: Thank you.
-Hamida: I just lost it when heard the news
-Uday: God bless you
Narration:
To see a prominent media personality who claims to be a defender of Arab national rights in this situation is surely disturbing to the Arab conscience and spirit alike.
-Fallah Mich'al: The Iraqi and the Arabs are well aware of the record breaking performance of the Iraqi dictatorship when it comes to bribes and the amounts thereof. For while other regimes dole out watches and other such small personal items, the Iraqi regime under Saddam dilapidated the resources of all the Iraqi people including the children, the weak, women, the elderly and the downtrodden simply to luster its political image. He squandered the people's wealth just to maintain itself in power. This is surely disconcerting for every honest human being in general not just Arabs, it should also be shocking to those who benefited wrongly from the past regime at the expense of the suffering and pain of the Iraqi people, never mind at the expense of the truth.
Narration:
Hamida's fascination with the personality and activities of Uday made her sit there and listen to him as he dispenses lessons and advice and, unabashedly, spews eternal wisdom such as "everyone has a price".
-Uday: It is true that everyone has a price but not necessarily in money
Narration:
(Reading a document shown on the screen)
To: Your Excellency minister of oil resources,
Subject: Approval of crude oil contracts.
Sir,
Based on the appropriations statement for the period number 13, dated November 9th 2002, on the approval of his Excellency deputy-President Taha Yassine Ramadhan and as per our phone conversation of November 21, 2002 regarding the increase of Mrs. Hamida Naanaa's quota by one million barrels, kindly proceed as follows:
Name of the company: Devon Petroleum Ltd
Beneficiary: Hamida Naanaa
Oil type: Basra light
Destination: North America and the Far-East
Price: According to destination
Approximate value: 42 million Euros, based on $31/ barrel
Part Three: "It is your TV station both figuratively and literally"
-Mohammed Jacem Al-ali (MJA): Assalamu -alaykum.
Narration:
Name: Mohammed Jacem Al-ali
Dob: 1954 in Doha
Nationality: Qatari
Job title: managing director of Al-jazeera satellite TV since its inception in 1996 and until the fall of the Saddam regime
-MJA: Hello, hello, good to see you
-Uday: As you can see I'm not wearing a tie today I am civilian, so to speak.
-MJA: How are you? Fine I hope.How is your health?
-Uday: Fine thank you. (Greeting another guest) Welcome Shamel
Narration:
What many observers find interesting about Al-jazeera is that it seems to share with the previous regime in Iraq the same feelings of enmity towards the same parties. The question is: Was this mere coincidence? But if it was so, how can we account for this chance meeting-of-the minds lasting this long, eight years to be precise? The elements of the "coincidence" premise began to crumble immediately following the fall of the regime in Iraq and when the ground started to shake under the feet of Al-jazeera's board of directors as news of financial scandals, shady dealings and secret communications with the fallen regime started to emerge.
(On the screen appears a picture of two men with the caption: Faysal Alkacem with Zeid Mohieddine, Station manager of Iraqi intelligence in Doha)
This is what prompted the decision makers at Al-jazeera to bring a new managing director in an effort to preempt the fallout of the events.
-MJA: Thanks to God our mission here has been successful. Indeed, yesterday we met with the information minister and the commerce minister and we had a succession of other activities which will have, Inshallah, beneficial results for both parties.
-Uday: Good, good, and it's nice to see you after this relatively long period of time, about a year I think, right?
Commentary by Jalel el-Machta, Iraqi media and politics figure:
Integrity in the media means the ability to report the facts as they are and to allow the reader, the listener or the viewer to accede to as many perspectives as possible of these facts. In other words Integrity requires that we completely divorce the fact, the truth or the news item from the opinion and the commentary. Any overlap of these two aspects constitutes a deliberate effort to slant the news-consumer's leaning in a particular direction. That is simply unacceptable in a media that seeks to be free, independent, and not the instrument of a propaganda machine.
Narration:
On March 13, 2000 Uday had a meeting with the managing director of Al-jazeera in his office at the headquarters of the Iraqi Olympic Committee. This was not the first meeting between the two, as the dialogue seems to suggest, but the follow up to a previous one that had positive results. Indeed, the directives and advice that Uday seems to have offered during that initial meeting appear to have been implemented resulting in the hiring of new faces by the station such as Ahmed Mansour, or "that lad, Mansour" as Uday refers to him.
-Uday: During your last visit here along with your colleagues we talked about a number of issues and it does appear that you indeed were listening to what I was saying since changes took place and new faces came onboard now such as that lad , Mansour.I'm not sure Mansour who.
Narration:
Uday started by commenting on an episode of "The opposite direction" news magazine then he alluded to what the director of Al-jazeera, Mohammed Jacem Al-ali had told him on a previous occasion , namely that "Al-Jazeera is your channel" and that therefore "Uday had the right to express his views about it".
-Uday: Regarding "The opposite direction" well, there was a sort of slight misunderstanding [In English in the original] there. As you may know it was reported to me by some that Mohammed Jacem said "Al-jazeera is our station both figuratively and literally" as the expression goes, so It is important that I share with you my observations about the station.
Commentary by jalel el-Machata, Iraqi media and politics figure:
The integrity of the media is completely predicated on its independence, so for the media to be independent it has to be free from government and its influence, money and its temptations, tribal and nationalistic affinities etc.In other words the sine qua non prerequisites for the integrity of the media are its independence and its objectivity. Numerous factors, however, can undermine the integrity of the media. First: Money. The media can be said to have integrity if is biased in favor of the funding party.
Narration:
The visit of Mr. Jacem had one purpose: to listen to the remarks and directives of Uday as evidenced by the following exchange.
-MJA: I am here in fact to relay to you the greetings of Sheikh Hamad bin Thamir, chairman of the board, and who will soon be coming to visit you, God willing. He's looking forward to meeting you here in Baghdad. As for myself, I am only here to listen to your ideas and register your observations, sir, may Allah prolong your life.
Narration:
Such exchanges normally take place "in chambers". On TV however, when Al-jazeera invokes the "news coverage" concept, it is clear that the way it covers the news takes into account its allegiances.
Commentary by Jalel el-Machta, Iraqi media and politics figure:
There is another important factor behind the lack of integrity in the media which is ignorance. Indeed, ignorance of what the "facts" mean and ignorance of the ways in which they could be packaged can lead to the undermining of the media's integrity. There is also, of course, bias grounded in ideology or self-interest. Such bias is illustrated in the way a few Arab satellite TVs report the news, for example: when a car bomb is detonated in front of the green zone some outlets report this news and add " in the close vicinity of the American embassy" which is meant to suggest that the US embassy was the intended target of the operation and therefore it is part of the legitimate resistance to the occupation. However, if one wanted to report this news item objectively one would have to say that this explosion targeted civilian cars and resulted in civilian casualties. Another example: A few days ago we heard about the bombing of a ten-truck convoy that was carrying food. How was the news reported to us? Well, we were told that the bombing occurred indeed but that the convoy "in the estimation of an eye witness, could possibly be carrying food for the Americans". This reflects a total lack of integrity and utter disregard for the truth.
Narration:
Uday gave his directives to the director of Al-jazeera based on the strong relationship between them and which is as old as the station itself.
-Uday: if I feel comfortable talking to you this way it is because of our three year old relationship. But it is true that one can tell the mettle of a human being from his demeanor and the way he walks. This message of course is not meant for you but the other members of the board.
Narration:
Right from the outset Uday wanted to get to the aspects of success and those of failure as soon as possible.
-Uday: Mr. Jacem. (Correcting himself) Sorry, Mohammed, if we are to get a grip on the issue as a whole we must agree on an understanding of what success means. Then, defining the objective will become a very easy task. And when that is accomplished we can go back and improve the initial steps that we took at the outset.
Narration:
Uday's interest in Al-jazeera is not confined to the news aspect of the station but reaches also into the managerial side of the operation. In this regard Uday is of the opinion the station's management has suffered a set back brought about by the board of directors and his opinion things would have been much better had the management been simply left entirely in the hands of Mr. Mohammed Jacem Al-ali.
-Uday: In my personal opinion if all the managerial responsibilities were left to you, just as things were at the inception of the station as opposed to what happened during the subsequent period in which a board of directors was set up and other people were given responsibilities etc, etc., this station would be enjoying a faster pace of growth right now.
Narration:
And just as easily as he scolds Al-jazeera, Uday makes no bones about poking fun at the state of Qatar itself because of its size and the size of its population; hence his understanding of Qatar's (and al-jazeera's) attempts at walking on many straight ropes at the same time.
-Uday: You live in Qatar and you know this but one a Sheikh came to visit from Qatar and I took him to see the "People's Stadium". When we got in there he looked at the bleachers and asked about their capacity, 50 thousand I told him and up to 70 thousand if they're standing tightly, shoulder to shoulder. His reaction was so striking that I shared with the other guys. He said "brother Uday don't be too hard on us because, you see, our total population could fit into this stadium so when you see us oscillating from right to left that's because we are merely trying to hold our balance as we move between tight ropes"
Narration:
But the director is not saddened in the least by these words; on the contrary he hastens to express his satisfaction and gratitude for the support that Uday has been extending both to him personally and and to Al-Jazeera. This support, according to the director, is the real reason behind the station's success.
-MJA: First of all, sir, I would like to express to you my unequivocal thanks for the precious trust that you put in me so that I was able to play a role at Al-jazeera, indeed I can even say that without your kind cooperation with us and your support my mission would have failed. My mission at al-jazeera is to serve Iraq, the country that has had so much to do with the success of the station. Indeed, in this regard the lion's share of the credit goes to you personally sir, yet we would be remiss not to mention our colleagues here who constantly strive to implement your directive while they lent us their unremitting.
Comments
Reminds me of nothing so much as all the 1930's accounts of people who used to fawn over Hitler and Stalin, and the other Nazi/Commie bosses