Yahya El Yahyaoui observed in Istiqlal party-run Arabic-language Al Alam (2/17):  "In fact, the timing of the launching of radio 'Sawa’' following the Anglo-American aggression and direct occupation of Iraq, was the result of two factors in our belief:

 First was the ugly image Arab citizens had of the behavior of a right-wing, extremist and Zionist U.S. administration following the invasion and destruction of Iraq....

 Second is the U.S. administration’s inability to communicate its vision about events developing either in Iraq, on the Palestinian issue or about its intentions towards Syria, Iran and the Gulf....

We are fully convinced that radio 'Sawa' aims to infiltrate the Arab media system and reconstruct its form and content....  Neither Radio 'Sawa' (nor its TV channel) can mend by words or pictures what (U.S.) policy-makers have broken with deeds and practices....

U.S. behavior towards Arabs, as well as towards Muslims, has created strong feelings of rejection that cannot be mended by the performance of a radio station (or a TV channel), but only by changes in the form and in content of its behavior....

Radio 'Sawa' is an aggressive station par excellence; why not, since it is the creation of an administration that does not hesitate to humiliate human beings, civilizations and stones in most instances without having the right to do so?"

(*)U.S. Department of state International Information programs, February 18, 2004

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/news/2004/02/wwwh40218.htm

*  Morrocco:  "The 'Arabic' Radio Sawa In Morocco"; U.S. Department of State; International Information programs February 18, 2004.