Beleaguered Iraqis besieged by propaganda from all sides

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraqis, still stunned Saturday by sectarian violence that killed more than 200 people in four days, find themselves under a propaganda bombardment from all sides as the Americans and the Iraqi government duel insurgents for the hearts and minds of a battered people.

The most recent broadside showed up in al-Mutammar, a secular daily newspaper, as an anonymous paid advertisement denouncing al-Qaida in Iraq as “followers of the devil.”

In language aimed at Arab sensitivities to family and tribe, the ad denounces al-Qaida in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi and his mentor, Osama bin Laden, as men who strayed from Islam and their Arab roots.

“There are two things in this world that warrant the direst of punishments: arrogance and cruelty against members of the same family,” read the ad in Saturday’s edition of al-Mutammar.

“Arrogance leads them (al-Zarqawi and bin Laden) to believe they are above the law, that they can decide what Islam is … as if they were princes and judges.

“But where is the humility … which the prophet, peace be upon him, embodied.”

The anti-al-Qaida diatribe was just the latest salvo in a media battle in which insurgents have used the Internet to show brutal hostage beheadings and to declare war on Iraq’s Shiite majority, U.S. forces and the American-backed government.

For its part, the government routinely televises interrogations in which alleged insurgents confess their brutal crimes while encouraging citizens to call anonymous tip lines to report insurgent activities.

In an interrogation televised Saturday, a Libyan arrested for plotting to blow up his car in an attack on day laborers in northern Baghdad gave a detailed account of his trip to Iraq through Syria.

Musab Aqil al-Khayal, a 19-year-old with a black eye, told Iraqi authorities he was from Benghazi, Libya.

“Big bombs were put in my car, and I was supposed to pull the pin out of the bomb,” he said in the aired confession. He said his hand was broken when his colleague successfully blew up his own vehicle Wednesday, killing at least 112 people.

He was arrested before he could detonate his car bomb, al-Khayal said.

“I was duped,” he said, referring to his militant handlers. “Those dogs fooled me.”

For their part, the Americans just as routinely say the security situation steadily improves and will be better still as Iraqi political institutions take root. Reporters have been flooded with good news of schools opened after U.S. military refurbishment, water systems repaired and al-Qaida leaders captured.

Saturday’s ad was different from the norm, however, because it could not be definitely linked to anyone, although it was most prominently displayed in the newspaper of Ahmed Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress – a largely Shiite political organization.

Basim al-Sheikh, editor-in-chief of the independent daily Ad-Dustour and a media analyst, viewed the anti-al-Qaida broadside with skepticism, saying he believed it was most likely the work of the government or a pro-government political group.

The sponsor chose anonymity, he speculated, because Iraqis have a nearly genetic mistrust of officialdom after decades of tyrannical governments. He predicted the attack would have little effect.

“This style of paid advertisement won’t have much resonance with the Iraqi people, unlike stories that detail, through description and death tolls, clear images of the attacks,” al-Sheikh said.

Nevertheless, he said, the ad was “clearly timed to coincide with the march toward political progress and to … discredit those against the process.”