Actually, Angel Oliver North knew and he did speak up about bin Laden and this information was thrown to the curb by our government

Sure would like to know what else OLIVER NORTH knew...like he knew he was running cocaine for the repubs off of John Hulls airstrip in Costa Rica and dovetailed into trading arms for hostages with IRAN behind the scenes...paybacks are HELL...now about this news outlet...who do you think was designed to BLOWBACK our propaganda we paid for...radio free mesopotamia?????

I'm sure the Al Hurra execs were expert in their knowledge of Arabian horses, though.

Heckuva job.

@ DKM:

That Oliver North / Bin Laden thing was a hoax, go look it up on Snopes. AND...If Oliver North is your reference point for good government than we have problems.

@ Everyone:

Ron Paul can fix this mess. Ron Paul 2008!

Close it down, fire Blaya and throw away the key. We can use 65 million on better things.

John Weaver

Unbelievable!!! Charlie Gibson, Brian Ross, and anyone else connected to this story should be fired! I will not be watching ABC again. This is totally unAmerican. Why do you at ABC keep
'sleeping with the enemy"?

More of the same -- as a lifelong Republican -- I feel so betrayed!! Our country has lost it's rudder -- we're sadly adrift on a sea of chaos.

The executives and officials of Al Hurra cannot speak Arabic.
Which's bad enough. But for them not to be able to see
that the Iraqi flag has been aired upside down, and for a considerable
length of time is tragic.
This leads one to believes that these people are blind as well as
ignorant.
How would the Iraqis, Arabs & Muslims feel when they see that the words
("Allahu Akbar") "God is Great spread across the width of the Iraqi
Flag
is being inscribed in reverse? Not so great, to say the least.
Incidentally the Arabic text (reading: "Allahu Akbar") is a refrain
from the
Holly Quran uttered by over
one billion Muslims around the world, many times a day, when the
Moazzen
calls
the faithful for prayer.
Not to mention that they couldn't have chosen a worse moment for their
costly blunder! This has happened in December 2006. And right after
President Bush delivered one of his most important speeches on the
political
development in Iraq.

A picture of President Bush, appeared with the Iraqi Flag upside down
on the
Al-Hurra screen along with the main highlight of the speech!
It goes without saying that most of the viewers were offended.
A TV Network that was established to win us friends in the Muslim World
was
creating more enemies for us.
The lack of Arabic, written or spoken and the utter ignorance of the
cultural dynamic of the Middle East has proven to be an obstacle for
Alhurra
to perform it's task sufficiently .

Take the Art Director, who heads the graphic department, in Al Hurra
for
example.
This comedian does not write or speak Arabic. Why would they give him
such
sensitive position position given that Arabic is the liturgical
language of
Islam?
Worse he goes and appoint himself an Assistant that neither speak nor
write
Arabic!
Worse still the Assistant who lack basic graphical skills got the job
on the
compelling ground that his wife and the Art Director's wife are
childhood
fiends!!
With the current News & Art Directors Al-hurra decline is bound to
continue. They'll do all they can to keep their job as they don't stand
a
ghost of chance of, ever being employed by any other TV Networks.
Sadly it's the poor American Tax Payer who will end up footing the bill
for
these losers.

Amazing how many posts here wish to create a religious war out of what was nothing more than a series of lies to justify stealing the oil and land resources of a sovereign state.

Arabic culture and Islam are different things, as is American Culture and Christianity. The puppet masters on both sides are pimping the uninformed into following their agendas, most of these posts indicate that the pimps are successful. The inhumanities of Arabic culture, and mankind in general predate Islam, or any religion, the religion was given to mitigate the animal instincts. As usual however, they were co-opted by the pimps and used to focus the animal to serve the pimps' agendas.
Sad to see, most of the posters here are so used to being pimped, that they now invent their own reasons for invasion, as those stated by Bushco have long since been proven to be lies.

U.S. Government Gave Airtime to terrorists, Official Admits is the opening link for this discussion.
Now the question is nothing is absolute right or left or to that matter correct or wrong, especially when it comes to debatable issue. Interestingly this discussion is lingering thus far where the actual broadcast might not have been.
For freedom sake, What is wrong if the not-so western contents went on air?
Us tax $'s are never wasted, be it on Jerry Springer or Larry-K / Petter-Jenn.
You ought to see what you may-want to see and believe, As such the matter of disciplining/dismissal or not of the presenters is media policy of the respective company/ABC News.

As a side note;
1) Bringing in the issue of fired Arabic interpreters from forces will not do any good, logically these interpreters were professionally correct, as they knew, it is practically more comfortable and easy for westerners to understand Arabic from dorsal end (no periods required due to laws of inheritance.)
2) The idea of freedom fighters and Mujahideen’s to fight against USSR in Afghanistan was bought and supported. Now “Freedom” is all about tenderizing the remnant splinters and loose-change Mujahids. Let them not over run by cutting in to the Western culture with “ALQAIDA” name for “Learner’s first Book of alphabet”. These episodes have been in history and present times will soon be in history. It all depends which side of the glass you have looked at it.

All the best for health,happiness and prosperity. Hector

This is exactly what happens when you start hiring people on the basis of loyalty first and on the basis of expertise second. People, c'mon, the former head of FEMA knew nothing about emergencies, the people responsible for giving Bush his military "intelligence" couldn't even tell the difference between Shia's and Sunni's and mister Gonzales, the chief of justice wouldn't know justice if it bit him up the behind! He approved torture, Gitmo and illegal wiretapping, secret renditions, political firings....it all seems normal to Gonzales, our head of JUST-THIS! Words have lost all meaning in this world, thanks to Bush and his loyalists.

If at all did it really happen??If it did it was meant to happen. These are all stepping stones to a one world govt and monetary system.The plans have been known for generations to reach this point. I tell you what will happen next May 2008, you will be introduced to "The Real ID Act". Homeland Security says it's not a National ID Card. It is a card with A CHIP embedded in it.But they don't call it a National ID Card.Get in contact with you states motor vehicle dept or safety department and ask for information about it if you need proof.It's been passed into law. There is a web site. This is wrong and very dangerous to all of our freedoms we so blindly think we have. www.freedomtofascism.com check out the free video on the web thats explains there has never been a law on income tax. The Supreme Court ruled on Profit and Gains,not income.

I sure could use some that money to pay for my college tuition. Listen to George Washington's advice ya'll, stay out of foreign affairs...

www.bluehousecomics.com

To John, and everyone else who believes there was no law authorizing an income tax: You are mistaken. The 16th Ammendment to the Constitution of the United States of America explicitly states that Congress shall have the power to tax all incomes. Just because an authorizing bill was usually passed after an ammendment doesn't make it a requirement. None was passed for any ammendments after the tenth.

Did it ever occur to anyone that this station might have actually intended to help terrorist? Saying they didn't know due to a language barrier is just a cover.

Think about it. Without insurgents and terrorist there would be absolutely no reason for us to stay there...and everybody knows we ain't going nowhere now that we got our soldiers over that black gold.

So, they got caught promoting their own so-called "enemy". Good thing they had their excuses ready.

Good Morninggggg all you Fellow anti- American Terrorists in Downtown Baghdad!

The booosh administration predicts another Hot and Bloody morning today and if that isn't warm enough, they recommend FLYING the Iraqi Flag upside down to inflame more temperatures.

In traffic, we forsee bumper to bumper IUD's on your daily commute with Death on the Bagdad Airport road so keep your pedal to the metal and HIT that Gate at 98.

I'm with 'A rope leash' above. This admin isn't inept; everything has gone as planned. Remember, they've promoted "the long war", perpetual war, a perpetual war economy... which includes perpetual obscene defense contracts and kickbacks (the bone to the common folk is jobs in the industry). We've found out lately the opposition party is anything but, and all kinds of laws are now in place to stifle any dissent whatsoever.

It's like the War on Drugs, only we kill people now instead of locking them in a cage, and the profit margin is higher. Of course, eliminating drugs was never the intention, just as ending terrorism isn't.

Lots of well reasoned points.
It may be a bit simpler and sadly, somewhat more troubling.
Little Mr. Bush is unable to construct properly sequenced sentences. In itself trivial. Unless it indicates a damaged corpus colosum.
Just a layman's hunch. But my guess is that his sequencing of survival priorities for humanity is equally twisted.
"bomb bomb Iran..."
Regards
ed

I can’t believe that the airing of the controversial messages was not known to the executives and managers at Al Hurra.

Al Hurra is a sham and all the Arabs know that. It is pure propaganda and that should not be a surprise to anyone - propaganda is their only mission.

It is not conceivable that the air time given to anti-western voices was not known. Certainly the reporters and anchors speak Arabic and surely they know the network's propaganda mission - they know where their checks come from. I suspect that the airing of anti-western opinions on Al Hurra is a deliberate attempt to persuade the target viewers that the network is not always 100% pro-US and more subtly insert the propaganda.

Peace

Well, we can't make a big corporate bonus without a war, and we can't have a war unless we keep the supply of "terrorists" cranked up. Guess we'll just have to spend some tax dollars making "terrorists"...

Of course that is a very cynical outlook. Too bad it is the one that best fits the facts.