MUST READ: REGISTER'S LAST HURRAH?

Register's Last Hurrah?
Our taxpayer-financed Arabic network was set up to counter Al-Jazeera, not echo it.
BY JOEL MOWBRAY

To understand the challenge faced by Al-Hurra, the U.S. taxpayer-financed Arabic TV network, consider the case of Yasser Thabet. For years, Mr. Thabet has been a leading figure in shaping news coverage in the region. Whereas fawning over terrorists would be career suicide in the United States, Mr. Thabet, formerly a broadcast editor at Al-Jazeera, did just that--and promptly landed a top position at a major Arab media outlet.

Last summer, Mr. Thabet wrote a loving tribute on his personal Web site to Soha Bechara, a woman who attempted to assassinate a general of the main anti-Hezbollah forces, the South Lebanese Army. Calling her "a living symbol of Lebanese resistance," he encouraged "those who are unfairly and unjustly detained in our Arab World" to take solace from her example, including Tayssir Allouni, the former Al-Jazeera reporter who was convicted by a Spanish court in 2005 of passing money between al Qaeda and an affiliated cell in Spain.

After the execution of Saddam Hussein, Mr. Thabet unleashed a vitriolic attack on Iraqi Shiites, whom he called "a group of murderers." Lamenting that "the execution of Saddam was a political and historical mistake," Mr. Thabet wrote fondly about how the "corpse" of Saddam had managed "to incite its people to retaliate and resist."

A few months later, in March of this year, Mr. Thabet was hired as chief editor of news by Al-Hurra. His employment is just one of a number of recent controversies surrounding the network since the appointment of longtime CNN producer Larry Register as its news director last November.

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Mr. Register still seems to be toeing the PLO party line. Last Month, on May 15, Al-Hurra's onscreen ticker referred to the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948 as "al Naqba," which in Arabic means "the Catastrophe." When Mr. Register was informed of this--that in effect Al-Hurra was taking a pro-Palestinian position absolutely not shared by the U.S. government that funds the network--he said to employees in the newsroom that it was appropriate, since it's the term used by Arabs. The ticker was eventually changed, but only after an hour had passed.

Mr. Register has assured Congress that he is committed to fair coverage of Israel. Yet those assurances should be considered alongside his view of the Feb. 9 riots that occurred just outside the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem. Despite widespread agreement in the Western media that the riots were started by Muslims, Mr. Register was convinced that Israel was the instigator--and he was determined to catch the Jewish state in the act the following Friday. He wrote an email to Al-Hurra staff saying that he wanted a satellite truck "in place to get people turned away from prayers . . . if the Israelis do this again."

Muslim men under 45 had been turned away from the mosque on Feb. 9--in order to limit the scope of violent riots that Palestinians had already hinted were coming. But so too were Jews, praying at the nearby Western Wall, removed from the area.

This week, the House panel responsible for funding the State Department and all international broadcasters takes up its fiscal year 2008 spending bill. Nine of the 13 members of the Appropriations subcommittee on Foreign Operations have already demanded that Mr.
Register's employment be terminated, and now they have an opportunity to hand State and the BBG an ultimatum.

So Mr. Register's defenders should ask themselves: Is it worth risking millions to save someone with so dubious a track record?


Pertinent Links:

1) Register's Last Hurrah?