THE United States this week quietly unveiled Al-Hurra, our own Arab-language satellite channel that is the American answer to the Mideast news channel al Jazeera.

Al-Hurra, which means “The Free One,” is based in Virginia and run by the same executives who operate Voice of America.

During Al-Hurra’s weekend launch, the channel aired an exclusive interview with President Bush and promotions full of obvious symbolism.

Some Arab critics slammed the channel as “propaganda,” but Hisham Kassem, a leading advocate for human rights and the publisher of the English-language Cairo Times, told a British newspaper, “I say let a thousand stations bloom.”