>> MEDIA NOTES...

...BOOTSTRAP?
Iraq Gets TV Update with 'Idol' Clone
http://www.npr.org/rundowns/segment.php?wfId=1622861
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from All Things Considered, Wednesday, January 28, 2004
With Iraqia, the American-funded TV channel in Iraq, struggling to compete with more polished -- and controversial -- Arab satellite channels, a U.S. Army "psy-ops" team has helped the regional network in Mosul to air Talents, a take-off on American Idol. The program shows signs of success. NPR's Anne Garrels reports.
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...MEANWHILE...
http://www.wnyc.org/onthemedia/
Profitable Occupation
This month, the Pentagon contracted an American company, Harris Corp., to run the much-criticized Iraqi Media Network, now called al-Iraqiya. Harris Corp.'s partner will be the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation International. It's not surprising that the respected and well-rounded LBCI was chosen for the project. But some have wondered why an Arab media outlet would cooperate with the reconstruction effort in Iraq, considering how much that effort is scorned by much of the Arab public. Brooke speaks with Michael Young, opinion editor of the Daily Star in Beirut.
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http://www.theworld.org/latesteditions/20040127.shtml
Palestinian collaboration report (4:00)
Vigilante justice is on the rise in Palestinian towns in the West Bank. Militant groups have become judge, jury and executioner of people they consider to be traitors. And the Palestinian Authority has so far been unable to stop them. The World's Aaron Schachter has the story.



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>> AHEM...

washingtonpost.com
Ad Agency Is Sought To Pitch Elections
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 28, 2004; Page A17
The U.S.-led Coalition Provisional Authority in Baghdad wants to hire an advertising agency to sell the Iraqi public on its plans for a new democratic government, even as U.S. officials and Iraqi leaders struggle to decide whether that government should be formed through elections, caucuses or some combination.
The occupation authority invited advertising agencies with Middle East experience to "prepare a proposal for planning, developing and executing a full communications plan in support of the Iraq electoral process." Bidders were given six days to formulate their programs, and their proposals were due today.
The bid solicitation said the winning agency should be prepared to educate the Iraqi people on the "caucus/electoral process leading to a democratically elected government in Iraq" and should devise a campaign to "inform and educate the Iraqi people about the transition to sovereignty."
The bidders will have to take into consideration the unsettled nature of the situation. The U.S. and the Iraqi Governing Council agreed on Nov. 15 that a new government would be chosen through a system of 18 regional caucuses by June 30, when the U.S. would relinquish political authority. But Iraq's top Shiite cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, is demanding instead that the new government be created through elections, which the United States has said cannot be done by the end of June deadline.
Yesterday, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan agreed to a U.S. request to mediate the dispute by sending a team to Iraq to decide whether popular elections are possible or whether some other compromise is possible.
The Coalition Provisional Authority's solicitation said the winning agency will have to conduct a "major, time-compressed advertising campaign" to promote the caucuses, or elections, that will allow the United States to transfer sovereignty at the end of June.
The request for proposals said the winning agency is to develop a "branding" symbol and slogan for the transition along with "informational campaign products," including tapes for use in radio and television advertisements.
The plan is to "educate the Iraqi population in a non-propaganda style about the electoral process," said the occupation authority's request. Once the transition takes place, the campaign "is to quickly motivate the Iraqi people to express a positive attitude and participate in the process in order to make it a successful initiative."
The occupation authority expects the campaign to last from six months to a year. After the turnover of sovereignty, the successful ad agency would work under the direction of the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad "or any successor organization to [the occupation authority] as necessary or required."
Because the proposals will be evaluated by U.S. officials, any Arabic language materials submitted as examples "must include English translation," the request said.
Laurie Pierce, the contracting officer in Baghdad, said in a telephone interview that the bidding is "open to anybody," not just U.S. firms.
Judith Kipper, director of the Council on Foreign Relations Middle East program, said she would be "appalled" if Iraqis were not chosen to handle the election advertising campaign. "We are still looking at Iraq through American eyes," Kipper said. "This is not public relation to be done by outsiders. Professional Iraqis understand the culture and what will work."
She pointed to the recent award of a $96 million contract for running Iraq's former government-owned radio and television networks and national newspaper to Harris Corp., a U.S. electronic equipment company, that turned over running the networks to a Lebanese company and the newspaper to a Kuwaiti company. "We are still not seeing any Iraqis running their own things," she said.
A previous occupation authority advertising campaign, to promote the reintroduction of Saddam Hussein's Iraq radio and television stations and national newspaper, was won by J. Walter Thompson, a major U.S. advertising agency that did the work out of its Beirut office. The $890,000 campaign included ads on television, banners, some of which were hung from Baghdad buildings, and placards on buses in the capital city

? 2004 The Washington Post Company
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AP: U.S. in No Rush to Privatize Iraq Oil
By BRUCE STANLEY
AP Business Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) -- The privatization of Iraq's state-run oil industry has faded as a priority for U.S. officials advising the Iraqi Oil Ministry, despite enthusiastic support for the idea among some American conservatives in the months leading up to the war.
Iraqi opposition to privatization, together with the Oil Ministry's success in ratcheting up its production of crude - to more than 2.3 million barrels a day from almost nothing last June, has eased the pressure for a radical restructuring of Iraq's most important industry.
However, Iraqi oil officials are eager to cooperate with foreign companies to find and exploit new sources of crude, and they hope by this autumn to announce their first rules for foreign investment.
U.S. oil advisers and their Iraqi counterparts, speaking to The Associated Press in recent interviews, said they are focusing for now on the immediate goals of boosting Iraq's crude output to prewar levels and securing its oil facilities and pipelines against sabotage.
Oil is Iraq's most valuable export, and Iraqis need to produce all they can of it to rebuild their country. Wars, mismanagement and 12 years of U.N. sanctions devastated the economy, and looters pillaged much of what was left after Saddam Hussein's ouster last April. Iraq, once home to the Arab world's largest middle class, now has no national phone network. Its hospitals lack medicines, and the capital, Baghdad, suffers lengthy power outages each day.
U.S.-led occupation forces plan to transfer political control to the Iraqis on June 30. Iraqis must move gradually after that if they decide to dismember and sell off their petroleum industry, said Robert McKee, the U.S.-appointed senior adviser to the Oil Ministry
"They have to be realistic. It's probably unlikely that they are, on Day One, going to privatize the oil industry. They may get to that eventually, but I think they'll have to begin with a state-controlled industry. That makes the most sense" he said.
An eventual sell-off of oil assets would most likely be confined to "downstream" businesses such as refining and distribution, he added, echoing earlier comments from Iraq's Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr al-Uloum.
Before and immediately after the war, some conservative American analysts and Bush administration members advocated privatization of the entire Iraqi oil industry. They argued that independent companies could run the industry more efficiently than any government and could better attract investment.
"Even the U.S. has lost interest, mainly because the Iraqis themselves are so 'anti.' It's a nationalistic thing," Leo Drollas, chief economist at the Center for Global Energy Studies, said from the center's London office.
Iraqi oil officials have debated among themselves whether to transform their centralized industry into a Western-style mosaic of firms, said Thamer al-Ghadban, a senior adviser at the Oil Ministry. For now, the consensus is clear.
"There is no policy to privatize the Iraqi industry," al-Ghadban said.
Iraq exported an average of 1.54 million barrels a day in December. After resuming crude production last June, it generated $5 billion earnings in oil sales by the end of December.
All oil income goes into the Development Fund for Iraq - coffers controlled by the Coalition Provisional Authority. Although the money goes toward Iraq's overall reconstruction, McKee said the authority has plowed very little of it back into the oil industry.
Iraq pumped about 2.5 million barrels daily on the eve of the U.S.-led invasion. The ministry wants to increase Iraq's crude production capacity to 2.8 million barrels a day by the end of March and 3 million barrels by the end of this year.
"We could do more than that if we had access through Turkey, but because of the security issues we now have unused production capacity in the North of about 400,000 barrels per day," al-Ghadban said.
Because mature oil fields in southern Iraq are already producing at close to their capacity, the quickest way to boost the country's output would be to exploit the oil wealth trapped in fields near the northern city of Kirkuk.
Sabotage attacks last year forced the closure of the pipeline that normally carries crude from Kirkuk to the Mediterranean port of Ceyhan, Turkey.
The Oil Ministry, supported by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and a private British firm - Erinys International Ltd., is training guards to protect its pipelines. Shipments through the pipeline to Turkey could resume within weeks or even days, said Manaa al-Obaydi, deputy general director for Iraq's North Oil Co.
Newer oil fields in southern Iraq will take more time to develop, but they have enough potential to "make any oil man's mouth water," McKee said.
Attracting foreign oil investors to Iraq shouldn't be difficult. The country holds the second-biggest proven crude reserves after Saudi Arabia and has only developed 15 of its 73 identified oil fields. Former oil minister Isaam Al-Chalabi has estimated that these undeveloped fields could one day contribute an additional 4.7 million barrels to Iraq's daily output, according to the Middle East Economic Survey.
The Oil Ministry aims to integrate overseas investors into its development plans but must first establish laws to protect their interests.
"Everyone is waiting to see what the rules will be when the Iraqis take over," said Falah al-Khawaja, the ministry's commercial manager. "I think the picture will take shape in the autumn of this year."
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Jordan, Bulgaria Probe Saddam Bribe Claim
By JAMAL HALABY
Associated Press Writer
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Jordan and Bulgaria announced Wednesday they were investigating allegations prominent citizens were involved in a scam involving illicit sales of Iraqi oil in exchange for political support of Saddam Hussein while he was Iraq's leader.
And in Egypt, activist Mamdouh el-Sheik said he would ask his country's prosecutor-general to reopen an investigation on the involvement of Egyptians after reports about alleged kickbacks.
An Iraqi newspaper, one of dozens of new dailies that have begun publishing in that country since Saddam's ouster last April, reported the alleged bribes this week. Members of the new provisional Iraqi government and opponents of Saddam have since distributed a list of the accused, based on documents from the Iraqi Oil Ministry.
About 270 former Cabinet officials, legislators, political activists and journalists from more than 46 countries are on the list, suspected of profiting from Iraqi oil sales that Saddam allegedly offered them in exchange for cultivating political and popular support in their countries.
The list gives the names of 14 Amman-based firms and Jordanian citizens, including former government officials and legislators.
"The issue is under follow-up, and we are seeking to verify if some people have acquired (Iraqi) graft," Mohammad al-Halaiqa, a deputy prime minister and minister of trade and industry, told Jordan's parliament in response to an inquiry by deputy Saad Hayel Srour on the alleged bribes. Srour demanded an immediate government investigation.
Al-Halaiqa said the Cabinet discussed the alleged Jordanian involvement in the Iraqi bribes at a meeting late Tuesday. Finance Minister Mohammad Abu-Hammore "was given clear instructions to follow up on this issue and collect any dues to the Treasury," he added.
The Baghdad list also says the Bulgarian Socialist Party had sold 12 million barrels of Iraqi oil.
Bulgarian President Georgi Parvanov said the charge that his Socialist Party received money from Iraq was "ill-advised black humor," but he ordered an inquiry into the accusation, his office said Wednesday.
The party leader, Sergei Stanishev, told journalists in Bulgaria on Wednesday: "Not a cent from Iraq has been received at our party headquarters."
"The Socialist Party leadership has not negotiated such economic projects with the Baath party. We have not authorized anyone to hold such talks," Stanishev said. He said his party wanted the matter to be cleared up.
Eleven Egyptians or Egyptian companies are also on the Baghdad list, including the son of a former Egyptian president, businessmen, members of parliament and journalists.
Egyptian activist Mamdouh el-Sheik filed suit in May 2003 against several Egyptian politicians and journalists, accusing them of accepting bribes from Saddam, saying it violates Egyptian laws bans lobbying for foreign countries.
"This list will certainly back the charges against these people, who have violated our laws. I hope that the prosecutor-general will allow the case to proceed," el-Sheik told The Associated Press in Cairo.
One of the Jordanians accused, former parliament member Toujan Faisal, denied to the AP on Tuesday that she accepted bribes or participated in illicit deals. She said, however, that she had served as an intermediary between the Iraqi government and an Amman-based oil dealer.
The U.N. oil-for-food program, which had allowed the Saddam regime to sell limited quantities of oil to raise funds to help the Iraqi population, ended three months ago.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
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Arabs, Westerners Deny Bribe Allegations
By JAMAL HALABY
Associated Press Writer
AMMAN, Jordan (AP) -- Arabs and Westerners accused by Iraqis of receiving Iraqi oil proceeds in exchange for supporting Saddam Hussein denied Tuesday they had accepted bribes or participated in illicit deals.
The accusations surfaced this week in a report by one of the dozens of new newspapers that have begun publishing in Iraq since Saddam was ousted last March. Since, members of the new provisional Iraqi government and Saddam opponents have distributed a list of the accused, based on documents from the Iraqi Oil Ministry.
About 270 former Cabinet officials, legislators, political activists and journalists from 46 countries are on the list, suspected of profiting from Iraqi oil sales that Saddam had allegedly offered them in exchange for cultivating political and popular support in their countries.
In Jordan, former parliament member Toujan Faisal, who is on the list, said she never took Iraqi bribes, but had served as an intermediary between the Iraqi government and a Jordan-based oil dealer.
"I wanted to help this dealer who happened to be a good of friend of mine do business in Iraq," she told The Associated Press.
Mrs. Faisal, suspected in the selling of 3 million barrels of Iraqi oil, said the deal was brokered in late 2001 and her friend sold 1 million barrels for a commission that didn't exceed 3 cents for each barrel.
"I had nothing to do with this," said the former lawmaker, who visited Iraq several times after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and who was known for her support of the Saddam regime. A framed portrait of Saddam hangs in the living room of her Amman apartment. She once told an AP reporter that the Iraqi leader gave the photograph to her daughter.
Former French Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, among Europeans on the list, on Tuesday denied receiving bribes from Saddam.
"That's far-fetched," said the conservative hard-liner who headed France's Interior Ministry in the late 1980s and early 1990s. "First, I was never interested in oil. Second, I am not a friend of Saddam Hussein and I do not see how my name came to be in this," he told Europe-1 radio.
In Baghdad, Iraqi Oil Ministry Undersecretary Abdul-Sahib Salman Qutub said the provisional government found documents proving the alleged bribes. He threatened to "sue those who stole the money of the Iraqi people."
"These documents show that the former regime spent lavishly Iraq's wealth here and there on persons, politicians, head of parties and journalists who were backing its corruption," he said.
Iraqi National Congress spokesman Entifad Qanbar, speaking to reporters in Baghdad, said his party had the list of people allegedly bribed with Iraqi oil in return for support to Saddam.
"We have thousands of pages of Iraqi intelligence documentation which back up those lists. What you are seeing in those lists is only the iceberg of what you are going to see in the future," he said.
Qutub, the Iraqi oil ministry undersecretary, said some of the documents had been stolen to "avoid any condemnation to persons who were collaborating with (Saddam's) regime."
The documents, as published in the Iraqi Al-Mada newspaper, showed people who allegedly received Saddam's graft came from 46 countries, including Arab states, Europe, Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric in New York said he wasn't aware of any investigation related to the U.N. oil-for-food program, which had allowed the Saddam regime to sell limited quantities of oil to raise funds to help the Iraqi population. The program ended three months ago.
"The oil-for-food program has been repeatedly audited by internal and external auditors. It has been satisfactorily audited both internally and externally," he said.
Jordanian businessman Fawaz Zreiqat, who's on the list of accused, told AP he had sold Iraqi oil for five years starting in 1998. But he said all his deals were conducted under the U.N. oil-for-food program.
"Selling Iraqi oil is a legitimate business, it's not like selling drugs," he said. "All my deals were done with the approval of the United Nations and the money I received was from international firms I had sold the oil to and not from Iraq."
He said his profit was marginal and did not exceed 10 cents per barrel. He declined to say how many barrels he had sold.
In Cairo, Abdel Adhim Manaf, editor in chief of Sawt al-Arab newspaper, an Egyptian newspaper published in Cyprus, told AP: "I have official letters from Iraqis offering me this issue (oil), but I turned them down and I have documents to prove that."
"Even if I had received (oil), what's the problem?" he asked. "The Iraqis are saying the Arab oil is for all Arabs. This is not a crime, this is not forbidden. I have always supported Saddam and believed in him, and I still do. I will never backtrack."
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AP reporter Salah Nasrawi in Cairo contributed to this report.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.