Anti-Saddam radio faces problems

[gelatik]

A proposed opposition radio station in the Kurdish-controlled area of Iraq may
not be able to go on air without US protection.

The US-financed radio station is to be hosted by the Kurdistan Socialist
Democratic Party (KSDP), which controls an area in the east of the Kurdish
region along the borders with Iran.
KSDP leader Muhammad Haji Mahmoud told BBC News Online that "going on air from
our area is going to be difficult without any concrete and direct US assurances
and guarantees" of support and protection.

Last week that US State Department agreed in principle to fund building an
Iraqi opposition radio transmitter in the Kurdish-controlled area to broadcast
anti-Saddam propaganda into Iraq.

State Department spokesman Richard Boucher has said that the US administration
had been in talks with the Iraqi National Congress (INC) on an opposition
transmitter "for some time".

"We are open to the concept of broadcasting from inside Iran or from Kurdish
controlled areas of Iraq," Boucher added.