Iraq: Terror TV

Journeyman.tv: It's the sinister TV show that's got all of Iraq engrossed. But is parading insurgents on tv and forcing them to confess really the right way to restore confidence in the new government? 'Terrorists in the Hands of Justice' airs six times a week on prime time tv. "It's like a police-detective show," raves one viewer. But humiliating and degrading the mostly Sunni suspects on national tv is increasing ethnic tensions in Iraq. There are allegations it has prompted revenge attacks and that the interrogations are staged. And the fate of most of the alleged insurgents who appear on the show remains unknown. Link

Realplayer movieclip [14 min 35 sec]

Transcript

[DB] Itend to see the ghost of George Orwell everywhere these days. Certainly in the story above.... Quote from 1984: In its second minute the Hate rose to a frenzy. People were leaping up and down in their places and shouting at the tops of their voices in an effort to drown the maddening bleating voice that came from the screen. The little sandy-haired woman had turned bright pink, and her mouth was opening and shutting like that of a landed fish. Even O'Brien's heavy face was flushed. He was sitting very straight in his chair, his powerful chest swelling and quivering as though he were standing up to the assault of a wave. The dark-haired girl behind Winston had begun crying out 'Swine! Swine! Swine!' and suddenly she picked up a heavy Newspeak dictionary and flung it at the screen. It struck Goldstein's nose and bounced off; the voice continued inexorably. In a lucid moment Winston found that he was shouting with the others and kicking his heel violently against the rung of his chair. The horrible thing about the Two Minutes Hate was not that one was obliged to act a part, but, on the contrary, that it was impossible to avoid joining in.