Editorial: Video isn’t playing well in Arab nations

Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2001 | 8:41 a.m.

Osama bin Laden bragged and laughed about his involvement in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a video released last week. Still, Islamic extremists in many Arab nations scoffed at the video and said it was a fake. But how was the incriminating bin Laden video viewed by Egypt and Saudi Arabia, two Arab nations that often characterize themselves as the most friendly to U.S. interests in the Mideast?

As NBC News' Andrea Mitchell reported Friday, the video was broadcast in Cairo on Thursday, but the next night the Egyptian government-owned television network didn't mention the tape at all in its newscast. Newspapers in Egypt downplayed the story or didn't even bother to print it. The Middle East Broadcasting network, owned by Saudis, broadcast the video throughout the region, but nearly all the analysis was critical. Saudi newspapers never mentioned the Saudi who bin Laden was talking to on the video. Saudi officials also didn't denounce bin Laden after the tape was released, NBC reported.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia, despite the moderate image they try to project, have allowed Islamic extremism to take off in their own countries. Don't forget that the Sept. 11 hijackers came from both Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The countries' muted response to the bin Laden video shows how far they'll go to placate Islamic extremists. The U.S. government should question its relationship with Saudi Arabia and Egypt. With friends like these, who needs enemies?