Light in the Dusky Afternoon

Michael Hedges February 14, 2005

The esteemed playwright Arthur Miller died at the end of a week that also claimed lives of journalists in Iraq and Somalia. The week also ended the career of CNNs head of international news.

Arthur Miller 1915-2005 Playwright

Miller died, aged 89 years, at his home of complications from cancer and heart disease on Friday (11 February). His fame as a craftsman of words came, mainly, from two plays written in the middle of the last century: Death of a Salesman and The Crucible. Both commented eloquently on the American zeitgeist immediately following World War II and achieved the universality of great works of theater.

Abdul-Hussein Khazal, aged 40 years, and his son Mohammad, aged 3 years, were machine gunned to death outside their home in Basra, Iraq Wednesday morning. Like many people living in difficult places, Khazal held several jobs. For the past two years he had worked for Radio Sawa and joined television channel Al-Hurra as a correspondent last April. He also worked as press officer for the Basra City Council and edited a small newspaper.

A Knight-Ridder account of the Khazal’s killing referred to the attack as an “ambush.”  Agence France Presse reported a heretofore unknown group claimed responsibility. Al-Hurra News Director Mauafac Hard said Khazal was “killed because he was a journalist.”

Al-Hurra and Radio Sawa were launched by the US government to counter other Arabic language media, notably television channel Al-Jazeera. US President George W. Bush said Al-Hurra was created to “cut through the hateful propaganda.”

Engaging a crowd of supporters in the US state of Ohio last Friday (4 February) President Bush told a 57 year old single mother that it is “fantastic” that she works three jobs. He referred to her efforts to support her family as “uniquely American.”

On the great list of failed States, Somalia ranks at the top. Anarchy has reigned since warlord Mohammad Siad Barre was ousted in a revolt in 1991 led by General Mohamad Farrah Aidid. Notorious for withstanding an attempt by US forces to capture him in 1993 and forcing US and UN peacekeepers to withdraw in 1994, Aidid died in uncertain circumstances in 1996 leaving a host of warlords to fight over the country.

A nominal government has been living in neighboring Kenya, planning to return later this month. Anticipating this event, BBC producer Kate Payton traveled from her base in Johannesburg, South Africa with BBC reporter Peter Greste. Within hours of her arrival Wednesday Payton had been shot in the back.

Peyton and Greste and their bodyguards were waiting outside a Mogadishu hotel before a scheduled interview with a Somali government official. A single pistol shot was fired from a Toyota Corolla taxi at approximately 1500 local time. Peyton was hit in the back. The bodyguards reportedly gave chase but the assailants disappeared. The taxi was discovered, crashed, with a pistol inside several hours later. By the end of the day Peyton, aged 39 years, died of her injuries. Greste was not injured.

News accounts of Khazal's murder all carried references to Al-Hurra as television channel established by the American government. No similar references were made to the BBCs financing by British taxpayers in accounts of Peyton's death.

The fates of Italian and French journalists in Iraq remain uncertain. Giuliana Sgrena, journalist for Il Manifesto, was kidnapped in Baghdad on Friday, 4 February, while conducting interviews with residents of Fallujah who had taken refuge on the University of Baghdad campus. One Islamist group announced on Monday (7 February) that Sgrena would be released shortly because it had determined that she was “not a spy for infidels.” Another group announced on Tuesday (8 February) that she had been executed. On Wednesday Il Manifesto reported that it had made “informal” contacts with the kidnappers and that Sgrena was alive. By Friday the group that said it held her on Monday said it would release her within 48 hours of Italian troops leaving Iraq, a common demand of Islamic militants.  

Liberation senior correspondent Florence Aubenas and translator Hussein Haroun Al-Saadi went missing in Baghdad January 5th. French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier repeated on Wednesday (9 February) that government was doing all it could to secure their release. Barnier also said the circumstances surrounding Aubenas and Al-Saadis kidnapping were “not the same” as the kidnappings of Radio France International correspondent Christian Chesnot and Le Figaro journalist George Malbrunot. 

After 124 days in captivity, Islamic militants released Chesnot and Malbrunot  December 21st. French President Jacques Chriac bluntly told French journalists not to go to Iraq. Chesnot and Malbrunot shared that position.

“Our kidnappers told us ‘Don’t come back’,” said Malbrunot.

Three days after Aubenas and Al-Saadi disappeared, Liberation chief editor Serge July argued in an editorial against President Chirac’s position saying “The day there are no journalists in Baghdad, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and al Qaeda representative in Iraq Abu Musab al Zarqawi will be the main sources of information.”

Last week ended, too, with the abrupt resignation of CNN’s Executive Vice President and Chief News Executive Eason Jordon. Charged with coordinating international news coverage, including coverage of Iraq, Jordon faced right-wing outrage at an off-the-record comment made, and quickly clarified, at the recent Davos, Switzerland World Economic Forum (WEF) panel discussion. No transcript of the comment has been released as the WEF judiciously guards its property, but reports from those in attendance say Jordon at first suggested, then clarified, that US military might have targeted journalists in Iraq.

American right-wing operatives have long targeted institutions and individuals it considers “liberal,” “communist” or in other ways differing from its particular world-view. Television networks CNN and CBS – as well as the New York Times – have been accused of bias and distortion whenever critical of right-wing or Republican dogma. After attempting to defend a less than stellar piece of journalism about Mr. Bush’s military duty, CBS Evening News anchor Dan Rather resigned following the US election amid a landslide of political criticism.

Jordan’s comments during the Davos session were not dissimilar from those whispered by international news directors since a Reuters cameraman was shot and killed by tank-fire in the early days of the Baghdad military operations.

Arthur Miller lived through an earlier attempt to control dissent. In the 1950’s he was called to the infamous House Un-American Activities Committee led by Republican Joseph McCarthy to reveal “communists” in the arts and entertainment quarters. It was that experience that drew him to write The Crucible, drawn in language from the 17th century Salem witch trials.

In the play, Judge Danforth – the symbol of autocratic justice – explains to protagonist John Proctor the rule of the day:

“You must understand, sir, that a person is either with this court or he must be counted against it, there be no road between. This is a sharp time, now, a precise time-we live no longer in the dusky afternoon when evil mixed itself with good and befuddled the world. Now, by God's grace, the shining sun is up, and them that fear not light will surely praise it.”

A memorial fund has been established by Al-Hurra for Abdul-Hussein Khazal's survivors, his wife Hawra'd Assaf and three surviving children.

Contributions can be sent to: The Abdul-Hussein and Mohammed Khazal Memorial Fund Post Office Box 5600 Springfield, Virginia 22150-5600 USA