Two bits of good news

[stormraiser]

The first is from the BBC

Al-Jazeera halts Iraq broadcasts

The Arabic news channel al-Jazeera says it is suspending its reports from Iraq in protest after Baghdad banned two of its correspondents from working there. The station said the Iraqi Information Ministry had barred Diyar al-Omari - an Iraqi - from reporting, and ordered correspondent Tayseer Alouni to leave the country.
The channel's editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Helal, told the BBC that the Iraqis had given no reasons for their action, which he called sudden and unjustified
Al-Jazeera says it will continue to transmit images from its offices in Baghdad, Basra and Mosul.
The station interrupted a regular broadcast to make its announcement.
They cannot dictate to us who can and cannot work

Its eight correspondents will remain in Iraq until the Iraqis clarify their decision, Mr Helal said, adding that it was not the first time the Iraqi authorities had tried to ban its journalists.
"We faced lots of things like that before from the Iraqi Government and from other governments in the Arab region, because this is a way they think," Mr Helal told the BBC.
"They think the can impose some conditions on al-Jazeera or they think they can change the reporters, they can put their own criteria on our work."
The Qatar-based satellite broadcaster is one of the most influential voices in the Arab world. It says it has 35 million viewers.
The US and UK have accused the station of bias and criticised it for airing pictures of dead Western troops.
Al-Jazeera's new English-language website has suffered a number of denial-of-service attacks since the war began, in which hackers flooded the site with junk messages.
Visitors were also redirected to web pages with pro-US messages or pornography.
Iraq expelled correspondents for the US cable news broadcaster CNN last week.

[stormraiser]

is from htp://www.washingtonpost.com

U.S. - Najaf Cleric Urges Iraqis Not to Hinder Troops
Thursday, Apr 03, 2003; 8:06 AM
AS SAYLIYA CAMP, Qatar - A U.S. commander in the Gulf said on Thursday that a prominent Shi'ite Muslim cleric in the holy city of Najaf had issued an edict urging Iraqis to remain calm and not to hinder U.S. invading forces. "A prominent cleric, Grand Ayatollah Sistani, who had been placed under house arrest by the regime for a considerable period of time, issued a fatwa," Brigadier General Vincent Brooks told a news conference in Qatar.
"And it was done this morning, instructing the population to remain calm and to not interfere with coalition actions. We believe this is a very significant turning point and another indicator that the Iraqi regime is approaching its end."
A Reuters correspondent in Baghdad just one week ago saw a fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani still pinned to the door of a main Shi'ite mosque in the capital saying Iraqis would "stand together against any invasion."
- Reuters

[wx247]

Oops! Sorry to double post on you Stormraiser. My apologies!

Garrett

[stormraiser]

No problem, Garrett. Great minds think alike

Oops! Sorry to double post on you Stormraiser. My apologies!

Garrett

[Stephanie]

I had heard about the Al-Jazeera being banned from Baghdad, but the second article was a new one for me. I wonder what that cleric's motivation for that was? Very interesting!