US embassy cable - 05BAGHDAD4411

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BAGHDAD 004411 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.0. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: OPRC, PREL, KPAO, EG, IZ, Media, Saddam Hussein 
SUBJECT:  AL-BAGHDADIYA TV:  IS THE FORMER IRAQI REGIME 
BROADCASTING FROM CAIRO? 
 
REF:  FBIS REPORT GMP20050731542001 OF 31 JUL 
 
LONDON FOR ARAB MEDIA UNIT 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
1.  (U)  This is a joint message with Embassy Amman and 
Embassy Cairo. 
 
2.  (U) Summary.  There are reports in Baghdad and Cairo 
that members of Saddam's family, or at least unreformed 
Saddam-era Ba'athists, may be using new satellite channel al- 
Baghdadiya as a Trojan Horse to re-enter Iraqi politics. 
The station's true backers and purpose still remain murky, 
but it is relying substantially on expatriate talent groomed 
under Saddam, who kept the media under the tight rein of his 
family.  While al-Baghdadiya's reporting on Iraq has been 
factual -- and critical of Saddam -- the channel's 
Ba'athist, anti-coalition themes bear close monitoring and 
evaluation.  End Summary. 
 
3.  (U)  Beginning September 12, 2005, Iraqi newshounds had 
a new option to track developments in their homeland, a 
Sunni-flavored broadcast, beamed from Cairo via NileSat to 
the Middle East and North Africa.  Programming on the new 
station - "Al-Baghdadiya" - is primarily entertainment 
(mostly Egyptian), together with news reporting of Iraqi 
politics and social issues.  Al-Baghdadidya's field 
correspondents (they have several across Iraq) come across 
as professional and polished.  The station's design graphics 
and presentation are sophisticated, but not on a par with 
other choices readily available to an Iraqi viewer: al- 
Iraqiya, Ash-Sharqiya, or al-Hurra.  The new station is well 
below al-Jazeera's standard for both production values and 
overall program variety. 
 
4.  (U) At its inauguration, Al-Baghdadiyah proclaimed that 
it would be a transparent window on Iraq to promote 
democracy:  "the Iraqi citizen has the right to know all. 
Let's take firm steps toward real democracy."   Despite its 
claim that "Al-Baghdadiya is yours, ask about it," there is 
scant information available on the station's ownership. 
 
Rumors of Links to Saddam's Family 
----------------------------------- 
 
5.  (SBU) Embassy PA staffers confirm that Muhsin Al-Ali and 
Faris Tuma al-Tamimi are the Al-Baghdadiya station managers 
in Cairo and Baghdad, respectively.  Al-Tamimi's office 
recently advised Embassy Baghdad PA staffers that he would 
meet with them upon his return from Cairo.  Iraqi contacts 
in both cities report that al-Ali and Al-Tamimi are wealthy 
Iraqis who moved to Cairo years ago, with Al Tamimi now 
commuting from there to Baghdad.  Some contacts allege that 
both have financial resources linked to their 
(former/current?) ties to the former regime.  Al-Ali, 
reportedly, was the General Manager of Media and TV in the 
Iraqi Ministry of Information and Culture under Saddam, and 
Al-Tamimi is also reported to have had close ties to senior 
Ba'athists. 
 
6.  (U) According to Embassy Cairo contacts, Arshad Tawfiq 
is another al-Baghdadiya manager in Cairo, and Taleb Abdoon 
is Cairo News Director.  Before liberation, Abdoon was the 
head of the Baghdad satellite channel; he left for Cairo as 
the regime was crumbling.  Tawfiq is a writer, a former 
Ba'ath Party official, and was Iraq's ambassador to Spain. 
Post-liberation, Tawfiq has called in pan-Arab media for 
national reconciliation and for "former Ba'athists, 
especially those who opposed former President Saddam 
Hussein, to review the party's ideology and organization and 
join the political process." 
 
7.  (SBU) Three fairly reliable contacts in Baghdad insist 
that the new channel does get some funding from Ragad Saddam 
Hussein (Saddam's daughter, who now lives in Amman) and from 
Aoun Hussein (involved with Uday Saddam Hussein's cigarette 
smuggling business during the embargo).  Other contacts in 
Egypt have said the station's real owner is Aoun Khashlouk 
(who could also be Aoun Hussein), a wealthy entrepreneur in 
Greece who reportedly exports cigarettes to the Middle East. 
Iraqis in both Egypt and Iraq have confirmed to us that many 
of al-Baghdadiya's announcers -- including Shamoon Mati and 
Khadanfar Abd Al-Majeed --formerly worked at Al-Shabab 
TV, owned by Uday. 
 
8.  (SBU) Whatever the true ownership, the new channel is 
clearly connected to the Iraqi daily newspaper Al-Furat, as 
both frequently cross-reference and recommend one another. 
Al-Furat is also believed to have links to former Iraqi 
Ba'ath Party officials.  Chief Editor Shakir al-Juburi was 
Paris correspondent for the al-Zaman newspaper and for Free 
Iraq Radio before 2003.  Neither Baghdad nor FBIS as yet 
know much about the identity of Al-Furat's owners -- beyond 
masthead claims that it is published by "Al-Furat Company 
for Advertising, Publishing, Distribution, and Printing." 
 
Anti-Saddam, Anti-Coalition, Pro-Ba'ath Message? 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
9.  (U) Al-Baghdadiya Director Tawfiq claimed at an 
inaugural event in Cairo last month that "the channel is 
financed purely by Iraqis," saying it "supports freedom" but 
opposes "dictatorship and occupation."  The day it first 
aired, the station showed footage of wounded Iraqis in 
hospitals, Saddam's statue toppling, and US soldiers, tanks, 
and warplanes, noting:  "We should stop the bloodshed.  The 
age of dictators is over; it's time to move beyond 
occupation."  The channel routinely refers to coalition 
forces in Iraq as occupiers and to victims of the coalition 
as "martyrs."  Iraqi militants are generally referred to as 
"armed men," not "terrorists" or insurgents.  The channel 
takes a hardline view of Israel, but does not devote much 
airtime to Arab-Israeli issues.  On October 12, it aired a 
program called "Egyptian Spy:  Agent 1001 Trains before His 
Mission to Israel." 
 
10.  (SBU) Al-Baghdadiya's message parallels old Ba'athist 
precepts, advocating Iraqi national unity and drawing 
speakers from all sects, ethnic groups, and religions.  It 
is also largely secular.  While airing Koran readings and 
sermon excerpts, it does not broadcast entire sermons, as 
some Iraqi channels do.  Sermon excerpts -- both Sunni and 
Shia -- highlight themes of national unity; many call on 
Iraqis to unite against the occupation.  The station gave 
coverage to Iraqi Islamic Party speakers airing concerns in 
the run-up to the constitutional referendum. 
 
Neutral Coverage of Saddam Trial 
-------------------------------- 
 
11.  (U) Al-Baghdadiya ran less live footage of Saddam's 
trial on October 19 than did other Iraqi stations, but 
carried the trial as the lead item in newscasts:  "Two years 
after his arrest, Saddam Hussein and seven others ... 
appeared before a special tribunal ... accused of crimes 
against humanity for killing over 140 men from the city of 
Al-Dujayl ... after a botched attempt to assassinate Saddam 
Hussein."  The station also aired varied reactions of Iraqi 
viewers:  "the trial should not be politicized;" "Saddam 
should not be tried while Iraq is still occupied;" "Saddam 
is still Iraq's President;" "the trial is the best thing 
that happened since the Americans came;" and "the death 
penalty is lenient compared to Saddam's tyranny." 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
12.  (SBU) Embassies contributing to this report will 
continue to monitor al-Baghdadiya.  It clearly has an anti- 
coalition, anti-Israel bias, but does not cross the line to 
incitement of violence.  Its news coverage is mostly 
factual.  Its secular programming and themes of national 
unity are wholly in keeping with Ba'athist norms, and there 
is an apparent effort to distance the station from the 
person of Saddam.  If Tawfiq's comments are an accurate 
guide, al-Baghdadiya is trying to revive old-school 
Ba'athist ideology to rally Iraq's secular Sunni community, 
while also tapping into strong anti-coalition sentiment 
among the Sunni populace. 
 
13.  (SBU) Rumors of Ragad's backing for the station may be 
just so much conspiracy theory from Baghdad's Shia/Kurd- 
dominant salons; facts likely will only emerge with time. 
It seems unlikely however, that she would defend her father 
in a post-trial interview on al-Jazeera while giving money 
to a station that labels him a dictator. 
 
14.  (SBU) It is also difficult to evaluate the objectives 
of the many exiled Ba'athists who have been reported to be 
linked to the new station, because their ideologies may be 
as disparate as their geographic distribution, and because 
Iraqis are so polarized on the issue of de-Ba'athification. 
One liberal intellectual told us that all Ba'athists have 
jettisoned Saddam publicly by now, and that al-Baghdadidya's 
overall theme masks a pan-Arab agenda out of synch with a 
"positive democratic future for Iraq."  Shia and Kurdish 
contacts, and a few other non-sectarian ones, say that they 
largely ignore the channel or scorn it as "Ba'athist," while 
Sunni opinion is extremely difficult to gauge.  As with so 
many things Iraqi:  what you believe depends on who you are 
and where you come from.  Al-Baghdadiya is just the latest, 
but perhaps most interesting, manifestation of Iraq's wide 
open media scene. 
 
Satterfield