WHY AL ARIBIYA WAS BANNED

We've discussed this subject at least twice. The latest post on this is here.

But now we hear it directly from the Iraqi Governing Council.

Aiding and abetting terrorism. Wish I'd said that.

On November 23, I took an important step in protecting the fledgling democracy we are nurturing in Iraq. On behalf of Iraq's Governing Council, I temporarily banned the Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya from using satellite uplink facilities to transmit news reports from its Baghdad bureau.

Since then I have heard a hundred variants on this question: "How can you claim to be promoting democracy while stifling a free press?" The answer is quite simple.

We are not acting against legitimate and objective journalistic activities. We are taking steps to prevent psychological warfare and, more serious, incitement to murder. No country would do less. Further, while we have banned the station from broadcasting footage from Baghdad, we have not stopped it from continuing to gather news in Iraq. What sparked this action?

Al Arabiya's conscious decision to break Iraqi law and the breaking of its own solemn promise not to promote violence in our country.

On November 16 Al Arabiya broadcast what it claimed was an audio tape by Saddam Hussain. Saddam's horrible legacy, including responsibility for the needless deaths of millions of my countrymen, torture, executions and the virtual destruction of Iraq's economy, is well known. And what did he say? He called for the extermination of the Governing Council and of the coalition forces that liberated us and are now helping us reconstruct our country.

Saddam is a fugitive from justice, wanted for crimes of genocide. Yet Al Arabiya sees fit to allow him an open microphone to broadcast his calls for terrorism. Some may ask: Didn't other media report on the same tape?

Yes, other media - including Arab satellite channels - did report on the tape. But Al Arabiya aired the tape in its entirety, a full 17 minutes, while others broadcast only excerpts.

And it was Al Arabiya that made the initial choice to air the tape; the rest of the media only followed. Saddam is seeking to stoke fear among Iraqis who embrace a democratic future. He calls for the murder of my colleagues in the Governing Council, people who are committed to a future democratic Iraq respectful of human rights. He wants coalition forces slaughtered because they dared depose him.

More ominously, he attempts to incite violence in the name of religion, calling for "jihad" and thus encouraging Al Qaida and other terrorist groups to carry out suicide attacks against our friends in the Red Cross, the United Nations and among our coalition allies.

That is not journalism; that is aiding, abetting and encouraging criminal terrorist activity. We, in turn, are exercising one of the few prerogatives we have: denying Al Arabiya use of our airwaves to broadcast reports from Baghdad.