Irak 88

Volgens de voormalige pro-Israel correspondent van de Volkskrant in Israel, Ferry Biedermann, was er sprake van 'Vreugde in Irak over dood Zarqawi.' Hoe Ferry dat weet is moeilijk te zeggen. Bekend is dat journalisten in Irak niet vrij kunnen reizen, laat staan overal op straat kunnen polsen wat de stemming is. Desondanks beweren ook andere commerciele media dit. Ze praten en schrijven het elkaar na. Zie:
http://www.volkskrant.nl/buitenland/
article318070.ece/Vreugde_in_Irak_over_dood_Zarqawi
De onafhankelijke Amerikaanse news dissector Danny Schechter maakte me via email attent op een Irakese bron die wel op straat komt en heel wat sceptischer klinkt: 'Zarqawi.
So "Zarqawi" is finally dead. It was an interesting piece of news that greeted us yesterday morning (or was it the day before? I've lost track of time…). I didn't bother with the pictures and film they showed of him because I, personally, have been saturated with images of broken, bleeding bodies.The reactions have been different. There's a general consensus amongst family and friends that he won't be missed, whoever he is. There is also doubt- who was he really? Did he even exist? Was he truly the huge terror the Americans made him out to be? When did he actually die? People swear he was dead back in 2003… The timing is extremely suspicious: just when people were getting really fed up with the useless Iraqi government, Zarqawi is killed and Maliki is hailed the victorious leader of the occupied world! (And no- Iraqis aren't celebrating in the streets- worries over electricity, water, death squads, tests, corpses and extremists in high places prevail right now.)
…
How do I feel? To hell with Zarqawi (or Zayrkawi as Bush calls him). He was an American creation- he came along with them- they don't need him anymore, apparently. His influence was greatly exaggerated but he was the justification for every single family they killed through military strikes and troops. It was WMD at first, then it was Saddam, then it was Zarqawi. Who will it be now? Who will be the new excuse for killing and detaining Iraqis? Or is it that an excuse is no longer needed- they have freedom to do what they want. The slaughter in Haditha months ago proved that. "They don't need him anymore," our elderly neighbor waved the news away like he was shooing flies, "They have fifty Zarqawis in government."So now that Zarqawi is dead, and because according to Bush and our Iraqi puppets he was behind so much of Iraq's misery- things should get better, right? The car bombs should lessen, the ethnic cleansing will come to a halt, military strikes and sieges will die down… That's what we were promised, wasn't it? That sounds good to me. Now- who do they have to kill to stop the Ministry of Interior death squads, and trigger-happy foreign troops?' Lees verder:
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/
2006_06_01_riverbendblog_archive.html#114988627694074375

De midden-oosten correspondent Robert Fisk noemt het werk van mensen als Biedermann hotel journalistiek. Vanuit je hotel doe je net of je overal ter plaatse aanwezig bent, terwijl je intussen net zoveel weet als iemand die het internet bezoekt.