World

Subversion of Al-Jazeera leaves Muslims in the dark again

Waseem Shehzad

Jumada' al-Akhirah 16, 14282007-07-01

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When it hit the airwaves in 1996, Al-Jazeera took the Arab world by storm. Compared to the sterile reporting of government-controlled channels in the Arab world, Al-Jazeera came as a breath of fresh air, although the better informed knew this was a mirage. Al-Jazeera was slick and took on some subjects (though not all) that the rest of the Arab media dared not broach. The regular Arab channels never went beyond showing His Majesty/His Highness opening this project or that, receiving this head of state or that. There was never any substance to their news coverage. So in this sense, Al-Jazeera broke fresh ground. Exactly three years ago Samir Khader, a senior producer at the Qatari network, boasted to Brendan Bernhard of the LA Weekly, "At Al-Jazeera, we don't have taboos, we don't have red lines." Khader went on: "When I come to work, I start by raising the question, ‘Have you heard of a new red line, a new taboo, to break today?'" (June 4-10, 2004).

In May the Amir of Qatar sacked the entire management board, including Wadah Khanfar, its director. In the turbulent politics of the Middle East this would not be considered unusual, except that the new chief is none other than Hamad Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari, a former Qatari ambassador to Washington, who is known for his close links with both Republican and Democratic politicians in the US. His appointment is seen as a sop to US sensitivities because the Americans had been exerting pressure on the Qatari government to rein in Al-Jazeera, claiming that its coverage of American crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq was undermining its policies.

Perhaps there are some red lines and taboos that Al-Jazeera cannot cross or break, as recent changes at the station's management suggest. In May the Amir of Qatar sacked the entire management board, including Wadah Khanfar, its director. In the turbulent politics of the Middle East this would not be considered unusual, except that the new chief is none other than Hamad Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari, a former Qatari ambassador to Washington, who is known for his close links with both Republican and Democratic politicians in the US. His appointment is seen as a sop to US sensitivities because the Americans had been exerting pressure on the Qatari government to rein in Al-Jazeera, claiming that its coverage of American crimes in Afghanistan and Iraq was undermining its policies. Other appointees include Mahmood Shamam, another pro-US figure, and the new managing director, Ahmad Kholeifi. Insiders at the station say that Kholeifi has instituted sweeping changes that will affect news coverage drastically, undermining what little independence the station enjoyed.

From day one, American officials have viewed Al-Jazeera as a thorn in their side. In November 2001 its offices in Kabul were bombed because it was not sufficiently deferential to the American point of view of the war, and gave Taliban spokesmen air-time. Its correspondents in the field also provided graphic footage of American destruction of homes and mud huts by the 1,000-pound US bombs pulverising the country. Television footage of Afghan civilians shredded went against the sanitized version of the war, crafted in Washington and put out by CNN, that America wanted to project, promoting itself as the liberator of Afghanistan from the clutches of the wicked Taliban and their terrorist al-Qa‘ida allies. Informed observers have questioned Al-Jazeera's motives in broadcasting video messages of Osama bin Laden and Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri, asking whether this was part of a campaign to justify American aggression in the region, but it has never been satisfactorily explained how Osama's messages were broadcast just at the time when the US needed to justify its brutal practices in Afghanistan.

In Iraq, too, the Americans have been utterly ruthless in targeting Al-Jazeera correspondents. In April 2003 Al-Jazeera's office in the Palestine Hotel, Baghdad, got a direct hit from an American tank shell that killed one correspondent, Tarek Ayoub, instantly. This was a deliberate attack: a huge banner outside the hotel window clearly indicated that it was Al-Jazeera's suite; perhaps that made it easier for the Americans to bomb it. One Al-Jazeera correspondent is facing charges of terrorism in Spain; another is held at the notorious Guantanamo Baytorture-camp without charge. He was picked up in Afghanistan and flown to Cuba from there. Presumably surviving the missile-strike in November 2001 that was caught on camera was sufficient reason to send the unfortunate reporter to Guantanamo Bay.

Even before the changes in May, referred to by many insiders as the "May massacre", a number of journalists at the station had started to feel the heat. Some resigned, disappointed by the increasingly restrictive atmosphere in which they found themselves having to work, while others decided not to renew their contracts. Critics of the new policy call the changes "foxification", drawing parallels with the rightwing US television-channel that specialises in scandalous allegations against critics of US and Israeli policies. Despite its name, the American channel Fox News is less news and more propaganda, but that is what almost all American news coverage has become. It is reported that US President George Bush only watches Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, an Australian zionist, who also owns Britain's Sky News and has now made a bid for Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal (which is another rightwing mouthpiece for corporate America).

When it was launched, Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, the Amir of Qatar, pumped US$150 million into Al-Jazeera. It has not been a financially profitable venture so far, but has managed to occupy a significant niche in the Arab market—some 40 million viewers—and is growing worldwide, despite American and Canadian cable networks refusing to provide it with outlets. Money, however, is not the real reason for the sweeping changes at Al-Jazeera. It is clear that Qatar has had to buckle under US pressure even though it is the only country in thePersian Gulf to have established close links with Israel. Lebanese sources have reported that US planes airlifted hundreds of thousands of cluster-bombs from its base in Qatar to Israel, which the latter used against Lebanese villages last summer. The US military base in Qatar has been used for other purposes as well: as a launching pad for attacks against Iraq and as a base for US propaganda through the misleadingly named Coalition Media Center.

Neither Washington nor London was never happy with Al-Jazeera's reporting. Recent leaked reports suggest that Bush had considered bombing Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, but was prevented from doing so by a strong plea from Tony Blair, the recently retired British prime minister, who argued that it would further inflame Muslim hatred against the US and jeopardize western interests. Al-Jazeera has been denied access by the British government to documents that would confirm this widely reported (and widely believed) story, although officially it has been denied. Blair has argued that there were other ways to influence Al-Jazeera's coverage. Recent changes in management indicate that this approach has been more successful. Both British and American hands are clearly visible behind this move.

For the Arab peoples, Al-Jazeera has been the station of choice. Instead of bombing the station with cruise missiles, the British persuaded Bush to bring about changes from within. Not many will know that Al-Jazeera has become a twin of Fox News. Henceforth, American propaganda will be beamed into the Arab world through a friendly Arab voice that most people in the Middle East will assume is the same station that until now has given them good-quality coverage of events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

While the changes at Al-Jazeera were occurring, the US-created and US-financed al-Hurra station has been plagued by scandals and its total ineffectiveness in "winning hearts and minds" in the Arab world. For the Arab peoples, Al-Jazeera has been the station of choice. Instead of bombing the station with cruise missiles, the British persuaded Bush to bring about changes from within. Not many will know that Al-Jazeera has become a twin of Fox News. Henceforth, American propaganda will be beamed into the Arab world through a friendly Arab voice that most people in the Middle East will assume is the same station that until now has given them good-quality coverage of events in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine.

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