BBC World Servicing

I tuned in to BBC World this morning. And what did I hear?

Now, an interview with the author of "Saddam Hussein : America's Obsession"

Q: "Tell me, were Uday and Orsay really as bad as they've been made out?"

A: (Several minutes cataloguing Uday's bestiality and Orsay's Stalinist repression, amounting to "Yes")

Funnily enough, I don't think that was the answer they were hoping for. I mean, they carefully select the author of a book critical of US policy, set him up with a Dorothy Dixer, and he goes and lets them down.

Why do I say that? Well, have a look at the BBC Website on the issue.

Saddam Sons 'dead' and US celebrates 'good' Iraq news

Maybe someone should tell them that overuse of sneering quotes devalues them. Then there's the 'carefully selected' comments (anyone who's ever tried to post a comment on the BBC website knows how carefully the comments are selected for 'balance'):

Agree that the whole Hussein family are murderers but on what grounds US has that license to kill them? They should have been brought to the international court for their crimes. It's an assassination, just because our forces have the power there doesn't mean we can take law in our hands.
SK, USA

I do not understand the relevance of finding Hussein Ist, IInd or IIIrd. It is relevant only to those that see the Iraqi campaign as the necessary example of strength and power to the Arab world ("look at my army, is stronger than yours so watch out!".
Paolo, USA

.. with the first phrase highlighted in a sidebar. Anyway, to continue :

No. The death of Saddam's two sons is not the end of Saddam's dynasty. This is like igniting a fire. This is going to cause Saddam's loyalists to becoming more aggressive and suicidal towards the coalition forces in Iraq.
George Oyemu, Canada

Any premeditated and intentioned killing is a murder. No wonder USA is seeking to be excluded from war crime trial by ICC. They sought them to kill them. That's murder.
Henry Bedmoth, Uganda

Why not arrest them?
Robert van den Heuvel, Netherlands

...which says a lot about Europeans being disconnected from reality. It was a gunfight.

This event mean nothing for the Iraqi resistance, actually it will increase it. And that will make the resistance 'face' clearer, because the coalition forces theory of correlating most of the resistance actions to Saddam's loyalties will be disapproved if the resistance keep going. It would be better to stop over exaggeration of unimportant events like these, and be aware that the illegal coalition existence in Iraq will end one day, even if Saddam's DNA went away.
Ebiat, Palestine

The first sentence is carefully highlighted in a sidebar.

Would it be better if they were captured rather than killed?
Ming-Lam Choi, USA

Yes, it's all the US's fault.

The story and identification of the bodies come from the US military. There is no one else that can challenge this claim. As far as we know, this can all be false and fabricated just like the WMD claims. If the source is the US military, then I don't believe it until it can be confirmed by the UN.
Vito, US

At this point, maybe the BBC thought that they'd gone a bit Over The Top even for them. Time for some "balance", with an opposing view highlighted.

If the two bodies are definitely Uday and Qusay Hussein, then it was a good day for Iraq and its people. They no longer would need to fear these individuals. This does not make the war less immoral or illegal by international law, nor should it take the focus off the more important issue of US and UK leaders' misuse and fabrication of intelligence to dupe their people into support for the war. Nonetheless, these two brothers were cruel tyrants who did not deserve positions of leadership. Congratulation to our soldiers and to the people of Iraq.
Robert Furino, USA

So what's highlighted? "A good day for Iraq"? "Congratulations to the soldiers and people of Iraq? Nope. "This does not make the war less immoral or illegal by international law".

Non-judicial killings and target killings are against International law. I do not believe in the killing of human beings without trial. The US/UK forces had no legitimate reason to attack the people of Iraq and so the "intelligence" against Saddam's sons is questionable at best. It is sad when a human being is killed.
Arshad Khan, Canada

Celebrations may be taking place in Iraq due to the deaths of Uday and Qusay. But these celebrations are nothing compared to those when the American troops leave Iraq.
Tahir, UK

Their death still does not answer the fundamental question "was this invasion and occupation justified?" and if intelligence was "sexed up" in justifying the invasion.
Murali Ramaswamy, USA

I only hope that it will help put an end to the resistance in Iraq. Enough lives have been lost. Now that Bush can finally take credit for spilling Hussein blood, maybe he'll drop his macho foreign policy and allow the UN to take over.
Mike, USA

Again, the second sentence is carefully repeated and emphasised in a sidebar.

Now there are opposing viewpoints expressed as well. One even gets highlighted. But go read the thing for yourself, and decide if the comments that were so carefully selected bore any resemblance to the distribution of the range of views. Or whether the spin is in the thousands of RPM.