Iraqi cleric slams media war coverage

[cal04]

The secretary-general of al-Irshad and al-Fatwa Association in Iraq has accused world media of colluding with US-led occupation forces in imposing a media blackout on Iraqi resistance operations.
Shaikh Mahdi al-Sumaidaie accused the media of deliberately distorting the "honourable" image of Iraqi resistance, and sticking to the information and figures provided by the US authorities.

"I call on world media to stop twisting the news, and portraying Iraqi resistance actions as the mere killing of Iraqi citizens," he told Aljazeera.net. "If media provides one hour of honest coverage to what the Iraqi resistance are doing on a daily basis, I bet you the mothers and sisters of US soldiers in Iraq will pour into the streets of America screaming at Bush to pull the troops from Iraq," he said. He accused the US and its "traitor agents" of planning attacks against Iraqis and their religious sites, stressing that Iraqi resistance fighters attack only foreign military in the country.

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/12F048D0-893A-4DC4-AF97-4A779F160FFF.htm

[NJCher]

1. a couple points about this story

So the U.S. public affairs officer as much as admits this is true and this is their justification for it:

"It is something all armies do in war time. You do not want the enemy to know about your actual loss, and whether he was successful in the attack he carried out on your troops or not," he said.

Also, I don't understand this statement by the cleric:

"I call on world media to stop twisting the news, and portraying Iraqi resistance actions as the mere killing of Iraqi citizens," he told Aljazeera.net.

The U.S. media, at least, hardly ever talks about the deaths of Iraqi citizens.

The rest of the story corroborates what we are getting from many other various sources.


Cher