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Boeing, Bell apologize for mosque attack
(Reuters)
Updated: 2005-10-01 08:50
The ad shows troops rappelling down from an Osprey craft to the domed roof of
a building labeled "Muhammad Mosque" in Arabic as smoke billows from a
burned-out car nearby.
"It descends from the heavens. Ironically it unleashes hell," says the ad,
published by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, a unit of Textron Inc., which jointly
developed the Osprey.
The aircraft "delivers Special Forces to insertion points never thought
possible," says the text of the ad.
A spokesman for CAIR said on Friday the group welcomed the companies' swift
response, but would press the issue of how such an ad came to be created.
The group had earlier called on Boeing and Bell chiefs to withdraw the ad.
The ad "clearly portrays special forces assaulting a mosque, a structure
dedicated to civilian worship purposes," said CAIR executive director Nihad
Awad, in a letter to the two companies. "This gives the impression that 'the
insertion points never thought possible' are Islamic places of worship."
Bell said it regretted any concern provoked by the ad, and it was looking
into its "creative processes" to prevent a repeat.
"At the very first indication that this ad caused discomfort nearly a month
ago, we immediately pulled the creative and replaced it with an alternative ad,"
said Bell vice president Michael Cox, in a statement. "Despite our directive to
the National Journal to replace the ad, it was not replaced as requested, which
resulted in its publication this week."
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