(Iraqi) Media mogul accused of running Saudi-funded propaganda campaign

[kuozzman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1398659,00.html

Iraq's first independent media mogul has been running his empire with millions of pounds secretly provided by the Saudi regime, according to allegations made in the high court in London.
Based on documents lodged with the court, Saad Al-Bazzaz - dubbed the Rupert Murdoch of Iraq - was alleged to have received the money for the launch of his newspaper Azzaman, which is now the most widely read daily in Iraq. Mr Bazzaz also controls Iraq's first private satellite TV channel.

The papers emerged during a libel action in which Mr Bazzaz, a former exile in London, was accused of running a sophisticated covert propaganda operation funded by Saudi Arabian intelligence.

Mr Bazzaz's lawyers disputed the provenance of some of the documents.

In the high court yesterday his lawyers accepted that Azzaman had seriously libelled a wife of the emir of Qatar, Sheikha Mouza, in a number of untrue articles published in 2001. The paper and Mr Bazzaz agreed to pay £10,000 in damages and £500,000 in costs to her solicitors, Carter-Ruck.

[cliss]

1. Love the name....Bazzaz

Sounds like 'pizazz', or 'bazzap', 'zzzap' from Spiderman comics.:smoke:

Also love the newspaper name: Azzaman. Those double z's just sparkle with pizzaz.

Seriously though, there is nothing new about Saudi Arabia funding groups of its own choosing. I have written many posts about how I believe our #1 enemy is Saudi Arabia. The first place is shared by Pakistan, who we consider to be our "friend".

And this is precisely why Bush will never succeed in Iraq. There are 1.5 billion muslims in the world. (we're a little outnumbered there - we represent 3.8% of the world's population - a little skewed).

The Bush administration doesn't understand that our "best buddy" Saudi Arabia is actively seeking our downfall. Fools.