SCHIFF: IRAQI TV OUTLET GETS FUZZY RECEPTION.

Byline: Lisa Friedman Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON - Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi believes U.S.-funded satellite TV station Alhurra is ``a waste of money,'' according to a Southern California congressman who recently returned from Baghdad.

Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, said he plans to ask for a meeting with the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees the station, to review what impact Alhurra is having in the region.

``We've done a really poor job on the diplomatic front, and if this latest effort is also a bust, we need to know about it and we need to retool,'' Schiff said.

Arabic for ``the free one,'' Alhurra is a $62 million effort to improve America's image in the Middle East. Designed as an alternative to Al-Jazeera and other Arabic stations, the 24-hour news station's main mission is to encourage democracy and change anti-U.S. opinions in the Arab world.

The station's launch seven months ago was met with distrust and even calls for boycott, but it now appears to be thriving, American officials say. In April, it began broadcasting in Iraq.

Still, Schiff said upon returning from a meeting with Allawi and other Iraqi officials in Baghdad, ``At least in the view of the new prime minister, it's still missing the mark.''

Norman Pattiz, chairman of Westwood One radio in Los Angeles and a member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, said Allawi's comments do not square with feedback the station is receiving from independent surveys.

In the most recent poll, conducted by Oxford Research International, 61 percent of Iraqi adults said they watch Alhurra each week. Among viewers, 64 percent find the news ``very'' or ``somewhat'' reliable.

``Those are numbers that we did not expect to reach this early at all,'' Pattiz said of the survey. ``I'm surprised Prime Minister Allawi said that.''

Schiff said the weeklong congressional delegation trip to Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan - during which he talked to National Guard and Army Reserve troops who were serving months longer than expected - impressed upon him the need to examine a restructuring of the U.S. military and the possibility of creating civilian forces to carry out some reconstruction efforts.

As for President George W. Bush's plan to withdraw troops from Europe and Asia, Schiff said he thinks redistributing troops is necessary but questioned Bush's method.

``I don't think we should reflexively oppose what the president is contemplating, but I don't think it calls for a wholesale withdrawal,'' he said.

Schiff's Republican congressional challenger Harry Scolinos said he supports removing troops from Europe and Asia but believes the military should remain in the Korean peninsula.

Scolinos spokesman Jonathan Tee criticized Schiff for scheduling his Iraq trip three months after a visit to Guanatamo Bay.

``By visiting the prisoners first, it sends a message that he's not necessarily supportive of what the troops are doing over there,'' Tee said.

Schiff said this was his second trip to Iraq - the first was in 2003 - and he also has visited troops in Afghanistan and Korea's demilitarized zone.

Lisa Friedman, [phone]

lisa.friedman(at)langnews.com