DUBAI, 1 December 2003 — Arab satellite television channel Al-Arabiya slammed yesterday as “baseless” recent suggestions by US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that it might be cooperating with Iraqi insurgents in attacks against US troops.
“Mr. Rumsfeld’s allegation is baseless and we invite him to produce the evidence or retract his statement,” said the Dubai-based channel in a statement sent to AFP.
“Al-Arabiya suggests that a proper examination of the evidence should have been conducted before floating such serious charges against a media organization,” added the statement.
Rumsfeld suggested Tuesday that both Al-Arabiya and its Doha-based rival Al-Jazeera were cooperating with Iraqi insurgents attacking US troops, saying both have been in “close proximity” to attacks against coalition forces, sometimes during or even before assaults had occurred.
Asked if US troops in Baghdad had evidence of such cooperation Rumsfeld replied: “The answer is yes, I’ve seen scraps of information over a sustained period of time that need to be looked at in a responsible, orderly way.”
“I’m not in a position to make a final judgment on it,” the defense secretary stressed. “How it happens is for time to tell, but it happens.”
Al-Arabiya denied the allegations, saying it has “never aired any footage of an attack against coalition forces,” and that its reporters have “never been in close proximity to such attacks,” nor “cooperated with any persons with a view to filming such an attack.”
The channel said it films the aftermath of attacks just like other media.
Al-Arabiya was also indignant at being lumped with its rival Al-Jazeera by Rumsfeld, saying that such “generalizations tend unfairly to stereotype the Arab media.”
