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...journalist for an Arab-language broadcaster score the first television interview granted by President Barack Obama? Well, at first, Hisham Melhem, the Washington bureau chief for al-Arabiya, a Saudi-backed news channel headquartered in Dubai, thought he was getting someone else. Not that he hadn't tried - like everyone else in Washington - to snag the historic first...
When Melhem's bosses in Dubai got a feeler from the White House on Sunday, it seemed that al-Arabiya was about to get an exclusive interview not with Obama but with new Middle East envoy George Mitchell. The previous Friday, Melhem had begun pressing for an interview with Mitchell after learning from sources that the former U.S. Senator and Northern Ireland peace negotiator was heading to the Middle East almost immediately. The White House told al-Arabiya execs to be ready for a major interview on Monday. (See pictures of Obama's campaign behind the scenes...
Melhem says there apparently was an internal debate at the White House about whether it was the right time for Obama to grant an interview to the Arab media, but that when the decision was made, several advisers recommended it be granted to al-Arabiya. The channel is seen as a prominent voice of moderation in the Middle East, preferring calm analysis to what many see as rival al-Jazeera's more sensational coverage. The Obama scoop came at a good moment for al-Arabiya, which had seen ratings falter as al-Jazeera provided blanket coverage of Palestinian suffering during...
...election day. With the vehicle ban, suicide bombers on foot and rocket or mortar fire pose the biggest threats. But so far there has been little sign that Iraq's militants are organizing a bloody show of force. The largest Shi'ite militia, the Mahdi Army of cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is essentially dormant these days. And Sunni insurgent elements in previously volatile areas such as Anbar and Diyala provinces appear to be, by and large, staying their hand in the expectation that sympathetic Sunni politicians - who boycotted the last provincial election, in 2005 - will take a number of seats...
With a huge security operation in place, Iraqi officials have increasingly focused on more mundane election problems such as fraud and alleged violations of campaign rules ahead of balloting. Judge Kassem al-Boudi, spokesman for the Iraqi Independent High Electoral Commission, said 180 complaints were already registered. "You can imagine with any elections happening in the world, you should expect a number of violations," said al-Boudi, who spoke to reporters in Baghdad along with Qadir. "And we are sure that we are going to have more...