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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Dear Lesley Riddoch & Colleagues,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>This message is too late - today's programme has
now moved on to the pressing issues of Euro-Cobblers and Wheelie-Bins in
Edinburgh after an hour of discussing the images from an Iraqi
Prison.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm writing to support the call made by
your last caller 'James', who asked if Eric Joyce could be called upon for his
views on all of this. I've repeatedly asked if Joyce could be invited back onto
the LR Show to defend the numerous statements he made in the run-up to the
invasion, and have received not one response from any of you apart from the
usual automated acknowledgement of receipt. Other
well-kent names frequenting your studio (way back then when the
Coalition mouthpieces were relatively sanguine) were Jim Wylie and George
Foulkes. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>In the interests of fair and balanced journalism
(remember that ??) please consider inviting any or all of those men onto your
show a.s.a.p. to face the questions of your regular listeners - your show
has also featured regular contributions from a female ex-US Air Force pilot, Zin
Someone-or-other who seemed to delight in winding-up other contributors with her
abrasive views on US objectives and methods. Where is she now ?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For those BBC Scotland listeners who opposed the
'war' well in advance, and did their level best to air their
concerns by joining civilised debate on-air, the content of the LR
Show these past few months has been as frustrating as it has been enraging
- I cannot speak for others, but it seems, Post-Hutton, that your show has been
content to focus attention on domestic matters which, while 'important', pale
into trivia compared to what is happening - in our name - in Iraq.
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Radio could never hope to convey the impact
of 'seeing' those photographs - all the more reason why
speech-based current-affairs coverage is so important. The first hour
of today's programme, while instructive in parts, was almost entirely reactive,
assumed general awareness of the images, and no-one who has NOT yet seen
those photographs would have been able to reach an accurate
awareness of what was going on, why they are having such an enormous
impact. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Amnesty International has today stated that they
are 'shocked but not surprised' by the images - many who have followed this
tragic saga since '9-11' will identify with that reaction. It is a
cliche that radio 'paints better pictures' - can those working on the LR
Show honestly say that a blind listener somewhere in, say, Barra, depending
exclusively on BBC Scotland to form their 'pictures' of the world, would
have been able to concur with the AI statement ? Has the BBC in general,
and the LR Show in particular, made any effort whatever to prepare
viewers/listeners for this 'shock' by providing them with the basic facts which
would help make it all slightly less surprising ?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>For the benefit of the blind listener in Barra,
perhaps you would like to take the time to properly and accurately describe the
photographs now causing such a furore. Perhaps you will have to draw straws to
decide who will undertake the task of describing the delight on the faces of the
torturers - some apparently female - as they pose alongside heaps of
tethered, terrified prisoners. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I have worked in a slaughterhouse. The animals know
why they are there, and so do the workers. The task, unpleasant as it is, is
done with no sense of joy, there is no procrastination involved. The spilt and
emptied carcasses are dealt with so swiftly that the muscles are still twitching
even when the beast has been skinned, decaptitated and halved.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Those men in the photographs - in the same
moment that their tormentors were happily saying 'cheese' - would have
known nothing aside from raw, mind-ripping fear, unable to explain to
themselves or one another what was happening, and why. Why ? They were
stripped, humiliated and sexually abused so that some GI's could get some 'good
snaps', some souvenirs. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Shocking !! Appalling !! Mind-bending !!
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Yes indeed, but wait a wee minute, just a wee tick
there, yeah, that's it - don't you remember, about a year ago, talk of British
troops humiliating Iraqi prisoners, hoisting them in nets etc etc, some squaddie
had sent back a film for his folks and the local 'Boots' had picked up
on it ? Remember that ? Maybe I just imagined it all - sure enough, no photos
ever emerged, nothing was done...must've been a figment.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Okay, that's enough. I suppose the point of this
message is to ask, with all due respect, that all involved with the production
of the LR Show have a long and serious think about things and where to go
next - it might, just might restore some faith in the quality of your
programme if you get the pro-war shills mentioned above and allow listeners the
opportunity to 'ask them some questions'.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>One final point. My understanding is that all
terrestrial broadcasters are required to retain their tapes for at least two
years. If that is the case, what procedures exist for accessing those tapes ? I
would like to know the details of the LR Show's broadcasts over the past two
years i.e. what 'guests' were featured. Is there a form I should fill
in to request such access ? I really do want an answer to this question, and
will press for one if ignored, so please do respond. </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Like dozens, nay hundreds of others,
I look forward to tomorrow's show - what's the latest on the Uist hedgehogs
? Is Robbie the Pict still at large ? Did our First Minister wear matching
pin-stripe underpants or not ?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Keep up the great work,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Regards,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Ian Brotherhood </FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
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