Good and bad news from Germany and the Royal stunt

by Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury
July 14, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/866/good-and-bad-news-from-germany-and-the-royal-stunt

First of all here is the good news! Germany has banned the Frankfurt-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief [IHH] because it "fights against Israel's right to exist."

According to the Interior Ministry, the German-based IHH, this ostensibly split from the Turkish IHH, funneled money to mega-terrorist group Hamas.

Maiziere, a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, said that IHH "knowingly and deliberately supports organizations that either are under Hamas control or support Hamas themselves.

"The cynical behavior of the IHH is even expressed in its name, International Humanitarian Aid Organization. It exploits the helpfulness of well-meaning donors in order ultimately to support a terrorist organization with money donated for supposedly good causes."

The Interior Ministry had banned three pro-Hamas organizations since 2002, including al-Aqsa e.V. and YATIM-Kinderhilfe e.V., because of their financial support for the terrorist group.

And now, bad news! Executives from two public TV channels in Germany last week hosted Ezzatollah Zarghami, the president of 'Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting' [IRIB], who allegedly has ties to the Revolutionary Guard. On July 4, 2009, Zarghami told the press that the videos of Neda Agha Soltan's death during the 2009 Iranian election protests were all fake and were produced by BBC and CNN. Zarghami has been the head of IRIB, the corporation controlling Iranian national radio and television broadcasting, since 2004. His predecessor was Ali Larijani, now speaker of the Iranian parliament. The state-controlled Iranian Press-TV wrote last week that "The German ZDF and ARDTV had invited Zarghami to Germany, where they made their request for stronger ties."

IRIB's German-language Web site contains a report from last Wednesday in which Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei describes "Zionism as the new form of Fascism."

While inviting Iran's controversial figures on public TV channels, there is also specific information on growing economic relations between Berlin and Tehran. In the first four months of 2010, trade between Iran and Germany totaled nearly $1.8 billion, up 20% from the same period last year, according to the German-Iranian Chamber of Commerce in Hamburg. Trade with Iran is especially sensitive given the Holocaust and Germany's post- World War II commitment to the state of Israel. Since first winning election, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly predicted the "demise of Israel" or threatened to "wipe off Israel from the global map".

Even as some Western businesses withdrew from Iran in recent years, German industry quietly expanded business ties with it, remaining in a potentially lucrative market where it can offer its specialized machinery without competition from the United States. In recent years, Washington has urged the world to give up trade with Iran as a way of pressuring it to curtail its nuclear program. In contrast to an American political consensus against trade with Iran, high-profile German politicians and industrialists regularly advocate business with the Iran. Germany sold US$ 4.5 billion worth of goods to Iran last year. Moreover, as major firms such as Siemens or Daimler buckle under political pressure and wind down business ties with Iran, their subcontractors and suppliers are making side deals with Iranian companies. Other big German companies, including Munich-based pharmaceutical giant Bayer, are continuing to sell Iran everything from blood pressure medicine to foam for mattresses.

And now the news about Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal's stunt. According to information published in Arab media, has announced plans to launch a 24-hour Arabic-language news channel in partnership with Rupert Murdoch's Fox network. Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, former editor in chief of Alwatan newspaper and a media adviser to Prince Turki Al-Faisal at Saudi embassies in London and Washington D.C., will head the station. Prince Alwaleed's new channel will compete for Arab viewers with well-established networks Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera. He did not name the channel, which will build a network of Arab correspondents.

Now, here I would like to draw the attention of my readers to the statement made by the Prince about the goal of this channel. He said, this channel will compete with Al Arabia and Al Jazeera. I am sure, my readers are aware of the editorial nature of both the channels. There should not be any doubt to ascertain that this new channel, funded and assisted by Rupert Murdock will give the Arab viewers an extended version of Jihadism. Nothing else! Mr. Murdock is a businessman, while Alwaleed will also not love losing money in this venture. So, naturally, they will do everything required for grabbing higher segment of Arab viewers.

Finally, people would ask, why the Prince has appointed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi as the head of this channel, who earlier clashed with Saudi authorities over religious police and women's rights and resigned from the post of editor of Al Wataan newspaper earlier this year over an editorial questioning Salafism, a form of Islam at the heart of the conservative state. Here is the answer! Prince Al Waleed has picked Khashoggi to buy the confidence of the West by showing that, the head of the proposed TV channel is someone, who even criticized the present rulers in Saudi Arabia. But, it is obviously understood by everyone that, the King of Saudi Arabia would never consent offering such important post to Khashoggi, unless he was not ready to abide by the rules set by the authoritarian Wahhabi rule in Saudi Arabia. Mr. Khashoggi's appointment is just a clean stunt. Nothing else!

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