Banning al-Arabiya

The real reason that al-Arabiya satellite television is being banned in Iraq is not that it showed videotapes of Saddam, but that it is a prime source of videotape of damage done to US troops by the guerrillas. Rumsfeld is desperate to stop such footage getting out, and cannot easily move against the Western camera crews. Rumsfeld has charged that the guerrillas tip off al-Arabiya before an attack, allowing its cameramen to get really good footage (which then gets spread all over the air waves).