Attacks on al-Jazeera

* The United States is determined to suppress the independent Arab media. On April 8, the Americans bombed the office of the al-Jazeera television station. The United States bombed al-Jazeera because it was angered by reports that did not confirm its one-sided picture of the war. Al-Jazeera has been broadcasting both sides of the war, but the Americans could not allow such freedom of expression to prevail.

The United States sent its first warning to al-Jazeera in November 2001, bombing its Kabul office, destroying its equipment and forcing its journalists to flee. An al-Jazeera cameraman was sent to Guantanamo Bay as a war prisoner.

Then the Americans opened fire on Abu Dhabi television, whose identity was spelled out in large blue letters on the roof. The next target was the Palestine Hotel in Iraq, the headquarters of world media representatives. An American tank fired a shell and two more journalists were killed. Thus the United States tried to conceal evidence of its crimes from the world and kill the witnesses.

These actions of the U.S. military are not those of a civilized and humane nation and the administration that approved them should be voted out of power.

FRANK P. BELCASTRO

Dubuque, Iowa

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