In the Aftermath of the brutally barbaric killing of Nick Berg, the usual reactionary questions are being asked such as why Berg was in Iraq, why didn't the US-led coalition protect him, etc; but they are just part of the course and are not unexpected by me or many others. But while I was gonna write bout Bergs death as my main talking or maybe what should be called bitchin' point, I decided to do bit of a side story related to the incident at hand, i.e. the reaction in the middle-east over it. Now while the reaction in both the US and in Europe is important as well...it is the reaction in the middle-east among both its mainstream media and more importantly, the "Average Iraqi on the Street" opinion.

On Saturday, Berg's decapitated body was discovered in Baghdad and surprisingly or disgustingly the video taped beheading of Berg by al-Qaida's Iraqi group Ansar al-Islam was posted on one of Ansar's sites on Tuesday almost as a recruiting/marketing video and calling the act a reprisal for the alleged abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison. By early Wednesday, the world press and public outrage began to pickup the story & make their feelings known except for one key area, The Middle-East. While some Arab press commentors condemned the barbaric nature of the crime, they mostly were annoyed (if we can use that term) that the act would draw the spotlight away from the prison abuses....so much for balanced reporting.

"In normal circumstances, I could condem the slaughtering of the American, but we are living in abnormal circumstances. I cannot condem it now..", said Egyptian columist Nour al-Huda Zaki,a senior journalist for the Cario paper Al-Arabi, went on to add to which I find almost laughable, "The country that advocated human rights priciples is now violating them and taking us back to the dark ages." Wow, so when did the US begin forcing Honor killings, baning women from an education, blame the ills of their people on say France instead of looking to themselves for the root causes , and ignoring and not prosecuting those who are involved in abuses......go figure!

Some of Zaki's words ring true as across the Arab world, very few banner headlines or TV reports touched on Berg's death let alone even did major reports on it. But like everything there are exceptions...most notably Kuwait's Al-Siyassah daily which did run a story with the photo of Bergs severed head held by one of the masked cowards, and yes they are cowards...not dediacted..not freedom fighters but cowards and I'm being nice not using my usual colorful metaphors to describe them. But Al-Siyassah wasnt the only exception in Kuwait, as 5 of 7 Kuwaiti dailies published front-page major stories on it. Intrestingly enough....the two biggest pan-Arab TV networks, Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya, did brief segments showing some of the sickening video Tuesday and later on Wednesday...noticably absent was the actual beheading itself. "The news story itself is strong enough," said Jihad Ballot a spokesman for Al-Jazeera and he added, " To show the actual beheading is out of the realm of decency." Okay, so its fine to show dead bodies of US servicemen and women, insurgents waiting in hiding to attack coalition convoys and the attacks itself but the beheading is out of the question? when did Al-Jazeera discover journalistic ethics?? Arab TV stations have shown in the past their zeal in airing bloody pictures from wars more so than any in the West but they "draw" the line at showing the beheading. Frankly their excuse rings bit hollow because regardless of what is the general opinion in that region, airing this deploreable act would have serious consequences for al-Qaida.

Generally most publications such as Al Rai in Jordan, several English-language papers in United Arab Emirates,among others ran major stories without any pictures and no Iraqi one ran the stroy but that may very well be because the news broke late...lets see in a day or two whats printed there.....

I would finally add that in almost comical fashion, both Hezbollah and Hamas made statements against the act to which the general media ran on...too bad their statements were a tired rehash of blame US as monsters.....but I began thinking what were their reasons to come out against those who did this...quite simply it smells like a simple smokescreen as Hezbollah must have gotten a Damascus spank to do it as Syria has been put under increasing pressure and sanctions by the admin and as for Hamas....they have been a roadblock to peace between Israel and the Palestinians and blaming the US in any way gives them credibility points in the region......

Some other networks such as both state TV networks in Jordan and Kuwait at least used still photos in their reports of the story.
When those that use the alleged abuses in the Abu Ghraib prison as some rallying point that the US is being hypocritical, or as an excuse to main and murder, I would argue that those abuses are being investigated and those responsible will be prosecuted.....aside from Israel...how many nations in that region can say the same. None!