The staffers signed a petition urging Congress to investigate VOA's Broadcasting Board of Governors, which they accused of "dismantling the nation's radio beacon," The Hill reported this week.

"The petition also accuses the board, an independent entity responsible for all government-sponsored broadcasting, of launching new services in the Middle East with no editorial accountability at the expense of VOA programs serving the same areas and cutting back on broadcasts to Eastern Europe and in English around the world," the D.C. publication reported.

The VOA has been a vital tool of the United States during the Cold War ... and could have played a key role in America's new war on terror.

But insiders at the government-funded global network say the VOA's broadcasting outlets are being used to promote American music labels – such as violent rap music – to Third World and Muslim countries.

The Hill quoted one VOA editor as saying: "We're being bled white to support this expensive and ill-advised operation to the Middle East. It's shameful and also very sad that we're missing an opportunity to be doing what we should be doing."

Alan Heil, a former deputy director who supported the petition, said, "It's very, very important for the United States to have something on the air that's more food for thought and is part of the dialogue and not just a pop music service."

According to the petition, one of VOA's new taxpayer-supported outlets in the Middle East, Radio Sawa, refused to report such major events as the capture of Saddam Hussein.

More: Read NewsMax.com's special series on Radio Sawa and Voice of America's other dangerous blunders.

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