Iraqi journalists fear killers and the state

It isn't easy being a journalist in Iraq. Consider how it was under the control of Saddam Hussein. Absolutely no freedom of speech. But George Bush changed that! Sure he did. He went in and "liberated" the people so they found freedom. That's what he tells us. So why aren't the journalists happy about having those cherished freedoms guaranteed in the US Constitution? Maybe because they don't have it.

The Bush central planners helped install a new government in Iraq. It is one that sympathizes with the terrorists in ways that Saddam didn't. He saw them as a threat to himself so he kept them under control. Bush can't keep anything under control. He is inept and what is scary is he surrounds himself by inept bureaucrats like himself but ones who have no freedom to challenge the opinions he holds, which he seems to think come from God himself. So we got an Islamist theocratic regime installed in Iraq at the cost of billions of dollars and thousands of American lives. Thanks George. Another bang up job like that Katrina relief effort you led.

Iraq is now run by George Bush clones. Inept, small minded bureaucrats with a God complex. And they control the laws. So it is a crime in Iraq for any journalist to "publicly insult" any government official. What this means is that if you report on a corrupt act committed by a corrupt official that official can have you arrested for insulting him. George must salivate when he hears about this.

In the last year the American controlled regime has arrested a dozen journalists for daring to report what they see. Not only have journalists been arrested but news offices have been shut down by the state because of their reports. (Isn't this a plank in the platform of the Republican Party?)Even the US is doing its part to harass journalists. Bilal Hussein was a photographer for Associated Press. He photographed members of the insurgency in Anbar Province. That was enough for the dictators in DC. He was arrested and has been held for five months without any charges being pressed against him. No doubt he's a prime candidate for the new American virtue: waterboarding and other forms of torture. And to think we fought Hitler. Perhaps it was only to get hold of his manual on how to run a country?

The government is particularly hard any journalist who reports news that disputes the Bush claim that things are just going great in Iraq. If an attack takes place and people are killed journalists who try to cover the scene are attacked by the police. Cameras are smashed and digital memory cards destroyed. Seventy news organizations have caved in and signed a pledge to "disseminate news in a way that harmonizes with Iraq's interests." On government paid journalist from the state-owned Iraqi Media Network says: "It is the right of the Iraqi government, as it combats terrorism, to silence any voice that tries to harm the national unity." I think he took that out one of King George's speeches.