Bush slams Arabic TV

[Harold Schiffman]

>>From Al Jazeera,

Bush slams Arabic TV
by
Friday 06 January 2006 12:52 AM GMT


Bush says the US is being misrepresented

George Bush, the US president, has criticised Arabic television for giving a
false impression of the United States - but admitted that Americans needed to
do a better job of communicating their ideals. Launching a National Security
Language Initiative to boost the teaching of foreign languages, Bush said it
was a way to help combat the notion that the United States was bullying in
imposing its concept of freedom.

"You can't convince people unless you can talk to them," Bush told a State
Department audience.

The language initiative, which aims to boost learning of Russian, Chinese,
Hindi, Farsi, Arabic and other languages, was part of a strategic plan to
protect the United States and spread democracy, Bush said.

"You can't figure out America when you're looking on some of these TV stations -
you just can't - particularly given the message that they spread," he said.
"Arabic TV does not do our country justice."

Propaganda?

"You can't convince people unless you can talk to them"

George Bush,
US President

"They ... sometimes put out propaganda that just isn't right, it isn't fair, and
it doesn't give people the impression of what we're about."

State Department officials said the aim of the plan was to get children involved
in learning foreign languages from kindergarten and to fund more programmes
through university-level and beyond.

The White House will ask Congress for $114 million in the 2007 budget to
initiate the plan, involving a number of agencies including the education and
defence departments.

Especially since the September 11 attacks, the Pentagon, CIA and other agencies
have bemoaned a shortage of experts in Arabic and other "exotic languages",
particularly for translating security information.

"We need intelligence officers who, when somebody says something in Arabic or
Farsi or Urdu, know what they're talking about," Bush said.

Memories are still fresh of two messages intercepted from suspected members of
Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network on 10 September, 2001, that said, "Tomorrow
is zero hour", and "The match begins tomorrow". They were translated on
September 11 and only given to policy-makers on 12 September.




http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/76CBF0B1-2D77-4E0D-9C23-81052D7B926F.htm