What if Russian television ran a long, meaty interview with Osama bin Laden? asked Pyotr Romanov in a commentary for the Russian news agency RIA Novosti. What if we asked him about his hopes and feelings, gave him airtime to tell lies about America and its alleged crimes? Americans would be furious—and feel betrayed. Yet that's just what what the ABC News program Nightline did last week, when it aired an interview with Chechen archterrorist Shamil Basayev. Russia's most-wanted man brazenly admitted that he was behind almost every recent terror attack in Russia, from the siege of an elementary school in Beslan, where more than 300 people, mostly children, were killed, to the siege of a Moscow theater, where nearly 200 were killed. 'œOkay,' he told Nightline. 'œSo I'm a terrorist. But what would you call them? If they are keepers of constitutional order, if they are anti-terrorists, then I spit on all these agreements and nice words.' We understand that America has a 'œso-called free press.' But what were the American journalists thinking by giving a platform to an unrepentant killer? 'œI want to ask my U.S. counterparts whether they smelled drops of blood and dead human flesh while broadcasting Basayev's statements.'
The American journalists at ABC may yet regret their choice, said Yuri Politov in Moscow's Izvestiya. Disseminating interviews with terrorists is prohibited by Russian law. As a result, Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov has revoked ABC's press privileges with his ministry and with the armed forces. And there may be deeper 'œforeign policy' consequences for the United States. The Foreign Ministry has expressed 'œprofound indignation' that the U.S. government turned down Russia's 'œofficial request' to stop ABC from broadcasting the interview. And the pro-Kremlin newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda has announced that it will do all it can to get an interview with bin Laden himself.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
The Week Unwrapped: Are pig-butchering scams taking over the world?Podcast Plus, could discarded gadgets solve the copper shortage? And will employers hire more over-50s?
-
5 spine-chilling horror video games to play this HalloweenThe Week Recommends A nostalgic classic remastered and a couple of scary co-ops you can play with brave friends
-
Climate safe havens may be a thing of the pastUnder the radar Safe spaces are few and far between
-
No equipment for Afghanistanfeature The U.S. has reportedly decided to hand over to Pakistan some $7 billion worth of American military hardware currently in Afghanistan.
-
How they see us: Crudely insulting our allies
feature Well, at least we know now what the Americans really think of us.
-
Spied-upon Germans are not mollified
feature In the wake of revelations last year about the NSA's spying activities, relations between Germany and the U.S. have been at an all-time low.
-
Is a deal with the U.S. in Iran’s interest?
feature The “unprecedented enthusiasm” of Western diplomats after the talks in Geneva suggests they received unexpected concessions from the Iranians.
-
How they see us: Sowing chaos in Libya
feature The kidnapping of Abu Anas al-Libi is an outrage committed against Libyan sovereignty—and it will have repercussions.
-
Europe is complicit in spying
feature It’s not just the Americans who have developed a gigantic spying apparatus.
-
Protecting Snowden
feature American whistle-blower Edward Snowden has proved a master spy with his “meticulously timed operation.”
-
Listening in on Europeans
feature Europeans are apoplectic over the U.S. National Security Agency's massive PRISM surveillance program.