i thought the new government / acting government of iraq was all about the big D? i remember president bush telling me over and over that the people of iraq have an unprecendented amount of freedom. i remember president bush equating the freedom of protesters in britain to the freedom that is now possible in iraq.
granted, i gagged and flailed around like a wounded boy when he said these things. and my flailing was apparently not misguided, for it seems as though the current governing council in iraq has decided to shut down a television station for broadcasting an audio tape that is supposedly from saddam hussein:
The Iraqi Governing Council ordered the Arabic-language television network Al-Arabiya to shut down its operation in Baghdad on Monday, sending officials from the Interior Ministry to the network's headquarters to "seize their uplink and transmission equipment until further notice."
"This is in response to their broadcasting the full Saddam Hussein audiotape" released November 16, according to a spokesman for Jalal Talabani, the council's president.
apparently, reporting such news is considered, well, threatening.
mmm. the unmistakable smell of freedom.
(2003-11-25) note: cnn seems to have altered the original story that was in the link above. the information about shutting down al-arabiya is now buried in the middle of the article, after a big piece about setting up an elected government. why they modified the original article that appeared yesterday instead of posting a new article, i don't know.