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memri
Feb 18, 2011
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Owner of Arrai TV Mish'an Jabouri: I Support Al-Qadhafi; Revolutions Should Be Limited to Pro-American Regimes

#2817 | 05:09
Source: Al-Rai TV (Syria)

Following are excerpts from an address delivered by Iraqi politician in exile and owner of Arrai TV Mish'an Jabouri, which aired on Arrai TV on February 18, 2011:

Mish'an Jabouri: Everybody knows that we support the demonstrations. We supported the demonstrations of our brothers in Tunisia and in Egypt, and we will stand alongside the demonstrators in all the Arab countries, who are struggling for freedom, for democracy, and for reforms. Some of you might ask how it can be that while we support the demonstrations throughout the Arab world, our coverage of the events in Libya gives the impression that our TV channel supports the Libyan leadership.

My response to you is: Indeed, this is the truth. We try to be transparent and reliable, and we are not prepared to deceive our viewers or to deceive ourselves.

So the question is: Why? We believe that the confrontations and the mass demonstrations, sweeping over the Arab world today, should be focusing on America's collaborators, bastilles, and servants. The masses began with the toppling of Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak, and we will continue with the toppling of all the other collaborators with the US, because they are the source of all the afflictions, the corruption, the injustice, the oppression, and the backwardness of the nation, and because they support the enemies of this nation a the expense of its peoples.

This description does not apply to the Libyan leadership. In our view, objectivity requires us to say that it is important for the Libyan leadership to continue to exist at this critical phase in the history of the Islamic nation, in order to confront imperialism, invasion, and occupation.

[...]

Today, we remember what happened in 2004, 2005, and 2006, when the collaborators with the US looked down upon us, and began to strut about like peacocks, thinking that their time had come, drawing strength from declarations issued by the White House.

Today, the US cannot even support them with words. On the contrary, at times it even urges them to leave office, out of fear of the wrath of the peoples, and out of fear that the demonstrations will shift from the Tahrir squares, to the embassies of the American evil in the region. The US has been forced to take the stand it took in order to avoid such a disaster, and to avoid the scenario that took place in 1979 in Iran.

[...]

In my view, it is in our interest for the winds of change to continue to blow, and to rock the thrones of the collaborators with the US. We say to our Libyan brothers, to the citizens who are protesting: Our hearts are with you, but it is in the interests of us all that Libya be more stable at present. I am convinced that Libyan Leader Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi has the ability and the wisdom to resolve the problems that led to these protests.

[...]

I admit that I have never demonstrated in support of any leader or political party. I have never participated in any demonstration in support of anyone, but I am prepared to lead a demonstration in any Arab capital, or in Tripoli, Libya... I will go there to demonstrate in support of the leader of the Libyan revolution, Mu'ammar Al-Qadhafi, in order to give him the opportunity to celebrate along with the revolutionaries, the fighters, and the free. Together we will watch the fall of the thrones on which the collaborators with the US in our region are seated.

[...]

When all those collaborators with the US go to hell, Allah willing, the Libyan leadership will be calmer, and will have the opportunity to address the domestic issues – and indeed, we call upon it to begin addressing these issues – because we wish to prove to the world that the national pan-Arab anti-American enterprise can be successful.

[...]

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