Arab Press Reaction


December 15, 2001



BROOKE GLADSTONE: And now, "more than ever," we are joined by Martin Walker, the chief international correspondent for UPI who will put us in touch with what the Middle Eastern press is saying about all of this. Martin, welcome back.

MARTIN WALKER: Hello there.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: I assume that what we're going to hear is a sort of half and half reaction -- one that says oh my God, and the other that says the whole thing is a phony. What did you get?

MARTIN WALKER: That's pretty much right, and what you think depends upon where you stand on the, the great Arab divide over attitudes towards the USA. The United Arab Emirates government was the first one to come out and say that they were convinced by the tape, and as a result the Gulf Times is saying that the tape confirms Bin Laden's guilt beyond a doubt; that Arabs and Muslims should now punish Bin Laden's Al Qaeda network for offending Islam and the Arabs. Elsewhere, on Al Jazeera there has been a whole series of people denouncing the tape as a fraud and as a fake. In Cairo's Al Aham [sp?] they're quoting a whole group of, of Islamic scholars. One says the United States government has spent the last few days plotting with Hollywood to concoct the tape to fool the world.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Is there a common thread of, of evidence that they cite supporting the notion that this is a fake?

MARTIN WALKER:They say that the tape was clearly cut and edited. Some people are quoting a line which General Gul [sp?], the former head of Pakistani intelligence apparently spoke on Al Jazeera. He's certainly quoted in the daily Jang [sp?] of Pakistani today saying that, quote, "I think there is an Osama bin Laden look-alike." [LAUGHTER] "I don't think it was him. This looks too thin to be the real man." It's one that really has gone round the world, because I noticed that the, the Kaleej Times [sp?] of the, of the Emirates talked to Osama bin Laden's family in Syria and they're quoting one family member as saying "I saw the film on TV like the rest of the world. I don't know if it's really him or if it's someone that just looks like him. There is so much at stake -- how do you want us to know if the film is authentic or not?"

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And in Israel?

MARTIN WALKER:Well Israel naturally is saying that they're entirely convinced by it. The Jerusalem Post simply says that this is the smoking gun that Washington had hoped to find. That phrase, "smoking gun" is used absolutely everywhere. It's used in the Times of London, in the Daily Telegraph of London, even the moderately left wing press like Britain's Guardian, although their comment is that if this is a fake, it's also a masterpiece. The credibility of the evidence offers is of a completely different magnitude from anything made public so far, and that although the video is not quite the smoking gun the Americans claim it to be, it is certainly closer than anything they could ever have reasonably hoped for.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:We just heard from Marvin Kalb saying that he wouldn't be surprised if it were part of Bush's strategy to release the tapes in order to diminish the attention on another story which is America's departure from the ABM Treaty. Did it work in Europe?

MARTIN WALKER: Only in Germany I think did the withdrawal from the ABM Treaty really get a lot of play. In Germany's Frankfurt Algemeine Zeitung [sp?] they simply say that President Bush's announcement comes as no surprise. Although the Americans invented the concept of mutually assured destruction and convinced the Russians of its logic, they could never accept the existence of their own nation should depend on others' reasonable behavior.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And how about Russia? Was Russia distracted?

MARTIN WALKER:No, Russia had had this signaled I think fairly thoroughly. The biggest story was in the pro-Communist paper Slovo [sp?] which simply said "Putin's pro-American strategy in ruins," but most of the Russian press is focusing on something else all together. Apparently a domestic war between Putin in the Kremlin and Yuri Luschkov [sp?] the mayor of Moscow which is going to be fought out on Sunday in the Moscow municipal elections.

BROOKE GLADSTONE:Did you see any editorials by anybody in any of the papers that said you know, I was really skeptical of America's charge that Bin Laden was responsible. I'm not skeptical any more. Any sign that minds that hadn't been made up were changed by the tape?

MARTIN WALKER: No, because -- certainly not in the Middle East. I think what it did was to come-- and I was very struck by this -- come as a rather low-grade news story on a very busy day. If you look at the Egyptian press, they're still focusing upon a very dramatic interview given by President Mubarak who is warning of an imminent outbreak of war with weapons of mass destruction across the Middle East if the Israelis continue their campaign against Arafat and the, the Palestinian Authority. That's the big news over there. On the whole it breaks down into pre-conceived positions in the Arab news. From Saudi Arabia for example we have the editor, Abu Al Sahm [sp?] who's been under a great deal of fire for supporting the American position coming out with a big editorial saying well if America is the sole superpower, all I can say is thank God for that. I'd hate to see what China, Russia or even India would do if they were the sole superpower. The most intelligent comment I th-- I, I saw was in Al Hayat [sp?] which is one of the London-based Arab papers which is quoting a Saudi dissident whom they say they're not naming for his protection who says this tape's release will only increase popular Arab support for Bin Laden because it proves he had the power to hurt America. The timing of the release is unfortunate for Washington, coming as it does amid massive at-- Israeli retaliation against the Palestinians. The tape's potential effect, therefore, is being lost on a very angry Arab public, and even though many moderate Arabs like me may now be convinced of Bin Laden's guilt, their attentions are much more focused on the misfortunes of the Palestinians today than what happened in New York 3 months ago.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: Martin Walker, chief international correspondent for UPI. Thanks, Martin.

MARTIN WALKER: A pleasure. [MUSIC]