A satellite channel run by Iraqi insurgents that broadcasts graphic scenes of the conflict may soon reach Europe, writes Mary Fitzgerald
The face of actor Anthony Quinn, bearded and in Bedouin dress, looms into view. Cut from a hugely popular 1980s film, the clip is instantly recognisable to an Arab audience. He is playing Omar Mukhtar, a desert folk hero who fought against the Italian occupation of Libya. "We will not give up," he says. "We will win or die." A jingle starts up and the picture fades, leaving a slogan: "Al-Zawraa - Victory or Death!" This is the TV face of the Iraqi insurgency, a 24-hour satellite channel that beams grisly footage glorifying car bombings, mortar strikes and sniper attacks to millions of homes in Iraq and throughout the Middle East. Against a soundtrack that includes Saddam-era martial music, Koranic recitations and Islamic religious songs known as nasheeds, grainy videos of masked insurgents preparing and firing mortars, rockets and AK-47s play on a constant loop, interspersed with slow-motion images of dead women and children, their bodies mutilated and bloody. A moustachioed presenter dressed in fatigues pops up to rail against the US, followed by scenes from Abu Ghraib, images of grieving families and shots of entire districts in rubble.
One much-repeated sequence celebrates the exploits of Juba, the so-called Baghdad Sniper. Viewers watch as the camera focuses on unsuspecting US soldiers caught in the sniper's crosshairs seconds before they are shot dead. A man identified as the commander of the "Baghdad sniper brigade", his face blanked out, later gloats about the assassinations in Arabic as English subtitles appear on the screen.
"The enemy must know there are hundreds of Jubas," he warns. Another montage pays homage to Saddam Hussein, splicing scenes from his execution with images from his decades in power. The voiceover veers between mawkish sentimentality and hysterical grief: "He came like a lion to his execution . . . He gave his soul for Iraq . . . The Euphrates and Tigris cried when you died, Saddam." Every day the station disputes US casualty figures. The death toll, one announcer trilled, is closer to "30,000 miserable, poor nobodies who you have convinced that they will win a scholarship after a tiny tour in a little place called Iraq". It's a crudely potent propaganda mix that attracts viewers in cafes, shops and private homes across the region. As a result, Al-Zawraa has caused consternation among officials in Baghdad and Washington, with attempts to shut down the renegade channel failing up to now.
Al-Zawraa - an ancient name for Baghdad - was launched after Saddam's fall by Mishaan Al-Jabouri, a Sunni member of Iraq's national assembly who fled to Syria last year after the Iraqi government charged him with embezzling money from a US-financed project to protect oil pipelines in his home province of Salahuddin in northern Iraq. Initially mixing Arabic pop videos and light entertainment with hardline Sunni diatribes, the channel's Baghdad headquarters were shut down for "inciting hatred and violence" the day Saddam Hussein was sentenced to death. Iraqi authorities raided the premises after Al-Zawraa slammed the verdict in its broadcasts. A month later, the station resurfaced on Nilesat, an Egyptian satellite network, with content far more graphic and violent than before.
In a telephone interview from Syria, Al-Jabouri told The Irish Times he had secured a deal with a European satellite company to broadcast Al-Zawraa beyond the Middle East. He refused to name the company, adding that the channel would also be available to view on the internet within the next week. He plans to introduce more English language narration and subtitles to reach a wider audience. "Soon the whole world will be able to watch Al-Zawraa and see what the Americans are doing to my country. They invaded Iraq and then gave it to the Iranian militias," he said. "We are showing the Iraqi resistance to the US occupation because we want to increase a sense of patriotism among Iraqis."
THE CHANNEL OPERATES on a makeshift basis, with material shot on video cameras and mobile phones and then fed outside Iraq for transmission, according to Al-Jabouri. Syrian authorities will not allow him set up studios in Damascus, where he now lives. Much of the station's footage of attacks on US troops and behind-the-scenes videos showing fighters training carry the logo of the Islamic Army of Iraq, a key Sunni insurgent group dominated by former Baathists. Al-Jabouri says he draws the line at broadcasting anything to do with al-Qaeda's activities in Iraq. "Al-Qaeda is a danger to the whole world. We are against that. We are not al-Qaeda, we are simply the Iraqi resistance," he explains.
Along with its anti-American programming, critics of the channel have pointed out Al-Zawraa's unequivocal line on the Shia-led Iraqi government, which it accuses of being a front for Iran. In one sequence, Shia Iraqi leaders - including prime minister Nouri al-Maliki - appear with the Iranian flag superimposed over their faces. Gruesome footage of alleged Sunni victims of Shia militias is juxtaposed with provocative messages scrolling on a ticker at the bottom of the screen. One reads: "Thieves and killers rule in Iraq." Another: "The natural place for criminals and thieves is with the mafia of Muqtada al-Sadr," a reference to the Shia militia leader.
Al-Jabouri denies his channel is fomenting anti-Shia feeling. "We are against the Iranian political plan in Iraq," he says. "We might be anti-Safawi but we are not anti-Shia," a reference to the Persian Safavid dynasty that ruled Baghdad in the late 16th century. The term "Safawi" has gained currency among Sunni Arabs as a slur to describe the current Shia-dominated establishment in Iraq.
US and Iraqi officials have leaned on Nilesat to cancel its contract with Al-Zawraa. So far, however, the company has refused and the Egyptian government has brushed aside requests to intervene. Some analysts see this as a sign that predominantly Sunni Egypt may be taking a stand as tensions rise between Sunnis and Shia in the region.
"The channel really plays into that Sunni/Shia split and reinforces the growing animosity between the two," says Lawrence Pintak, director of the American University in Cairo's television journalism programme. "The way Egypt has reacted reflects the extent that Arab governments are playing that game too."
Meanwhile, it appears Al-Zawraa's popularity is extending beyond what Al-Jabouri says is its core audience of young Arabs, mostly males between the ages of 16 and 30. "I personally find it very disturbing," says Muna, a twentysomething Iraqi woman now living in Amman, the capital of Jordan. "But you would be surprised at how many westernised, upscale Iraqis of all ages are watching it. These are people who wouldn't go as far as supporting the insurgency financially, but they watch it almost out of a sense of patriotic duty."