Al Jazeera's War On Gaddafi

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By Stephen Lendman


Based on its recent Libyan and Gulf states reporting (or lack thereof), Qatar-based Al Jazeera's credibility appears extremely compromised.

A previous article said the following:

Overall, its Libya misreporting has been deceitful, functioning more as a propaganda arm for Washington, NATO and insurgents, indistinguishable from US and other western media, representing imperial conquest, colonization, and pillaging of another non-belligerent country.

In late March, moreover, Front Page writer Mohammed al-Kibsi accused Al Jazeera of airing old Iraqi prisoner abuse video, broadcast by Al-Arabiya in 2007, in fabricating news about Yemen.

Yet it was aired repeatedly, claiming it showed Yemeni Central Security forces torturing protesters. Later admitting its mistake, Al Jazeera blamed a technical error and apologized, too late to undue the damage to those blamed and its own reputation, badly tarnished by frequent misreporting on the region, despite earlier worthy efforts that built its standing as a reliable broadcaster. That now is very much in question.

California State University Professor As'ad AbuKhalil runs the Angry Arab News Service, accessed through the following link:

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/

His recent comments on Al Jazeera's Libya coverage include:

April 20: "According to Al Jazeera's legal opinion," UN Resolution 1973 permits use of nuclear weapons.

America, in fact, has an arsenal of so-called deep-penetrating mini-nuke buster busters, able to destroy underground targets with varying yields from one to 1,000 kilotons. Hiroshima's bomb was about 15 KT, Nagasaki's about 21 KT.

Since the Bush administration's 2001 Nuclear Policy Review, Washington claimed a unilateral right to use first-strike nuclear weapons preemptively, including against non-nuclear states under three conditions:

-- against targets able to withstand non-nuclear weapons;

-- in retaliation against nuclear, biological or chemical WMDs; or

-- against any perceived real or contrived national security threat.

April 20: "Al Jazeera now wants a ground invasion," citing Misurata residents and UAE officials also wanting intensified bombing.

April 17: "Al Jazeera and the Qarari-Saudi conflict" benefitted the broadcaster early on, then compromised its credibility after rapprochement between their royals. "That severely narrowed the limitations of speech. I have heard many complaints from (Al Jazeera) hosts about the terrible impact of the....reconciliation on their coverage and programming."

"Now what happened recently was worse:" establishing a solid alliance compromising it more. As a result, "only criticisms of countries that are not on good terms with Saudi royals (are) allowed."

April 15: AbuKhalil "was thinking yesterday while doing (his) laps: (He) may have appeared for the last time ever on Al Jazeera but (he's) glad that (his) last words were about Bahrain. The Saudi-Qarati-financed Arab media want us to forget about Bahrain, but we won't."

April 14: "Bahrain - Al Jazeera's scant reports are hilarious. They are one sentence or two. They read - as they are - like Bahraini propaganda press releases. Today, the network had a line or two about (its) government planning to prosecute opposition groups," with no comments from them aired.

April 14: "Al Jazeera and Syria." Despite good Qatari - Syrian relations, Al Jazeera's coverage has been "negative, and government propagandists are visibly mocked and ridiculed. And lately the channel relies on sensational Saudi propaganda sheets for coverage."

April 14: "Al Jazeera: the new Qatari foreign policy. Bahrain does not exist as far as Al Jazeera is concerned, and they have avoided inviting" on air Bahraini, Omani and Saudi critics. "Most glaringly, Al Jazeera" suppresses criticisms of Bahraini repression. As a result, GCC countries have "closed ranks and Qatar may be rewarded with the coveted post of" Arab League secretary-general.

April 11: "Al Jazeera's coverage of Libya is not only politically bad and professionally over the top, but it is also worse than all that - it is boring."

March 23: "Shame on Al Jazeera. (Its) sinister role (has) gotten worse, much worse" with its "obsessive non-stop (Libyan) coverage" at the expense of important omitted news. "It seems that Al Jazeera now operates according to the Western standards," providing one-sided propaganda, not unbiased reporting.

February 17: Bahrainis "are on there own now. There is no Al Jazeera to support their cause and expose the regime, and the US and EU will do their best to rationalize and support government repression. Shame on Al Jazeera Arabic for abandoning the people of Bahrain, and for invoking a sectarian element in their coverage, implying that only Shi'ites are protesting."

On February 25, Monthly Review contributor Yoshie Furuhashi headlined, "Al Jazeera Promotes Libya's 'Crown Prince' Who Calls for Military Intervention in Libya," saying:

Covering regional uprisings, Al Jazeera's reporting "began to deteriorate....when revolutionary sparks" ignited in GCC states, including Bahrain. About the same time, Libya was affected, another oil-producing country. Henceforth, Bahain was forgotten to focus on Gaddafi.

"Now there's nothing wrong with (doing it) if the purpose is to convey accurate information. (But there's) everything wrong with" propagandizing at the expense of truth. "And I'm afraid that's exactly what Al Jazeera" did, supporting imperial intervention.

"In both Arabic and English," it features "members of the National Front for the Salvation of Libya," the main CIA/Saudi/French intelligence funded opposition group, then combined with others to form the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition umbrella organization.

On February 24, Al Jazeera "hit a new low, (giving) the self-styled 'Crown Prince' of Libya - Muhammad as-Senussi," its so-called heir to the Senussi Crown, a platform to urge "the international community to help remove Gaddafi from power and stop the (claimed) massacre." In fact, most casualties and destruction were caused by daily Western bombing and support for extremist rebels - a combination of untrained civilians, former soldiers, and CIA-backed paramilitary Libya Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) insurgents, cutthroat killers acting as a proxy NATO force.

Al Jazeera's Fall from Grace

Launched in November 1996, the satellite channel once aired "dissenting views, for example on call-in shows," according to Wikipedia, adding that it "created controversies" among GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, UAE, Oman, and its home base, Qatar.

Its chairman, Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, is a distant cousin of Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani. Wadah Khanfar is director general and managing director of the Arabic channel. Ahmed Sheikh is its editor-in-chief, Mohamed Nanabhay holding the same English channel position.

Its Arabic channel reaches 50 million or more global viewers, its English one up to twice as many, a remarkable achievement in less than 15 years with little US penetration where most viewers must do it online. Elsewhere it's available by satellite or cable.

Reportedly, Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi hosts its most popular program, ash-Shariah wal-Hayat (Shariah and Life) and has significant overall editorial influence. He's written over 80 books, serves as chief religious scholar for IslamOnline, received eight international prizes for Islamic scholarship, and in 2004 was an Oxford University Center for Islamic Studies trustee. In 2008, Foreign Policy magazine ranked him third among public intellectuals worldwide, despite his controversial views.

Since 1999, however, he's prohibited from entering America, and in 2008, Britain refused him a visa. On February 16, Der Spiegel contributor Alexander Smoltczyk headlined, "Islam's Spiritual 'Dear Abby:' Yusuf Qaradawi, The Voice of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood," saying:

"(F)ew (others) have as much influence on Sunni Muslims....(He's) a word machine, a one-man talk show that leaves no subject unexamined....He's a driven man. (There's) only one Islamic scholar like (him), who (memorized) the Koran (at age 10)....the only man who can help the faithful understand the world." For the past 15 years, Al Jazeera's broadcast his "Shariah and Life" program Sundays, viewed by up to 60 million Muslims.

Now aged 84, he's "a blend of pope and service hotline, a spiritual 'Dear Abby' for all (aspects of) Muslim life," claiming moderate credentials about which some disagree, among other reasons for issuing a pro-Western fatwa against Gaddafi.

However, on February 2, 2009, the extremist pro-Israeli Anti-Defamation League denounced him for "support(ing) terrorist groups that seek to undermine a peaceful resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict," and for "inciting violence against Jews and Israel."

On February 22, the Los Angeles Times headlined, "Libya: Popular TV cleric issues fatwa against Kadafi," live on Al Jazeera, saying:

"It is not heroism to fight your people and to hit them with missiles....I say to my brothers and sons who are soldiers and officers of the Libyan Army to disobey when (the government) gives orders to kill the people using warplanes....I now issue a fatwa urging officers and soldiers who can to kill" him....This man wants to annihilate the people."

Qaradawi, in fact, chose sides, using Al Jazeera's platform to display a remarkable one-sidedness and lack of scholarship for a man of his credentials, ignoring facts to support Western imperial war, conquest, colonization, and exploitation of another Muslim country. As a result, he's Al Jazeera's leading hawk against Libyans and others across the region suffering repressively under despotic regimes, including GCC ones Al Jazeera supports.

A Final Comment

Al Jazeera feature stories since April 15, include:

April 15: "Western leaders insist 'Gaddafi must,' go," vowing to keep fighting until he's gone, quoting Obama, Sarkozy, and Cameron's day before propaganda, saying:

"It is unthinkable that someone who has tried to massacre his own people can play a part in their future government."

April 15: "Gaddafi forces 'cluster bombing Misurata,' " based solely on what insurgent leaders as well as Western officials and media claim with no verifiable proof, categorically denied by Libya's military saying they have none.

April 19: "Libya death toll 'reaches 10,000,' " again based solely on what insurgents claim, ignoring the toll from heavy NATO bombing, using depleted uranium and other terror weapons.

April 22: "(Senator) McCain urges recognition of Libyan 'heros,' " - imperial proxy killers, in fact, Al Jazeera disgracefully supports, propagandizing like their Western media counterparts, allied in the same dirty war on truth.

Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. Also visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network

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Dictator of Qatar meeting with War Criminal Tzipi Livni while his aljazeera is inflaming the Arab streets:

Both Al-Jazeera Arabic and Al-Jazeera English fail their duties to report the meeting between the pedophile dictator of Qatar and the zionist war criminal Tzipi Livni israel Foreign Monster in new york city.





This other "Meeting" took place in Qatar

Swiss TV crew held in Qatar for 13 days - report

Don't expect the Terror Channel Al Jazeera to inform you about Qatar "Democracy" because it won't... ever!

GENEVA — Swiss television channel RTS claimed on Sunday that a pair of their sports reporters were held against their will for 13 days in Qatar, the host country for the 2022 football World Cup.

The duo, who were filming a report on football in Qatar, "were grounded on Qatari soil for two weeks without receiving a clear explanation of what they were accused of," said RTS in a statement.


Al-Jazeera Libya "Freedom Fighters" Have Star of David tattoos:
Video footage of a star of david tattoo on an injured Libyan rebel.

Al-Jewzeera Propaganda Busted Again

Qatar, a Fake, Pseudo-Arab, Dictatorial Territory Under Colonial Rule

Mideast Revolutions and 9-11 intrigues crafted in Qatar

Freedom Revolution to Depose Zionist Emir of QATAR

Rise against the zionist DICTATOR of Qatar. The Prince of the Gutter, owner of anti-Islam Al-Jazeera, a paedophile working for Zionist Agendas against Arabs and Muslims. His Al-Jazeera propaganda Network faked Bin Laden 9/11 Confession Tapes and caused the Zionist Crusaders to invade Muslim countries, kill millions of Muslims. Wake up folks Al-Jazeera propaganda is behind Islamophobia worldwide.

Al-Jazeera boss is a notorious pedophile

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Rent Free Zionist US bases in Qatar from which Attacks on Mulims are Conducted

The tiny state of Qatar is a crucial American ally in the Persian Gulf, where it provides Rent Free military bases and warm support for American anti-Arab and anti-Muslim policies. NOT a word from Al-Jazeera about these

Qatar okays use of airbase for U.S. attack on Iran

Qatar agreed to allow the United States to use a base on Qatari soil to bomb Iran, according to a report in the newspaper Al-Arabiya based on secret diplomatic cables published by the website WikiLeaks.

The Bombing Aljazeera Silly Joke With the year drawing to an end, I can say that the tale of a US strike against Aljazeera is the most ridiculous story I have heard all year. Of course, I am not troubled by the pronouncements of Abu Adas’ channel. What concerns me, however, is its repetition of self-serving news in an attempt to convince the viewers the tale is indeed true, by using the air strike on Serbian TV television as proof. Is the Qatari channel equivalent to Milosevic’s mouthpiece? Surely not! Milosevic was at war against the Americans while Doha hosts a large US military base from where the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime was planned and from whose territory the US army began its invasion of Iraq. More

Al-Qaeda Crafted and Financed by Qatar as per Zionist Agendas Al-Qaeda Chief Terrorists Meeting in Qatar Before 9/11 and the 'War on Terror' KSM the "Mastermind of 9/11" Lives in Qatar with Qatar Government Protection Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM) lives in Qatar during these years. He is invited there by Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani, Qatar’s Minister of Religious Affairs at the time. He works on a farm owned by al-Thani and lives in the open, not even bothering to use an alias. He works as a project engineer for the government. One US official will later recall that al-Thani “has this farm and he always had a lot of people around, the house was always overstaffed, a lot of unemployed Afghan Arabs…. There were always these guys hanging around and maybe a couple of Kalashnikovs [machine guns] in the corner.” [Los Angeles Times, 12/22/2002] KSM continues to plot and travel extensively, including a 1995 trip to fight in Bosnia with the trip’s expenses paid for by al-Thani. Apparently the CIA becomes aware that KSM is living there in 1995 and is also already aware of his role in the 1993 WTC bombing and the Bojinka plot (see October 1995). KSM will finally have to leave his Qatar base after his presence becomes too well known in early 1996 (seeJanuary-May 1996). [Los Angeles Times, 12/22/2002; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 147, 488] KSM will return to Qatar occasionally, even staying there with the knowledge of some Qatari royals for two weeks after 9/11 (seeLate 2001). Bin Laden FREQUENTLY Visits Qatar and Qatar high officials Bin Laden reportedly visits Qatar at least twice between the years of 1996 and 2000. He visits Abdallah bin Khalid al-Thani, the country’s religious minister who later becomes the interior minister. [New York Times, 6/8/2002; ABC News, 2/7/2003] In 1999, the New York Times reports that bin Laden visited al-Thani “in Qatar twice in the mid-1990s.” [New York Times, 7/8/1999] Presumably one of these times is in May 1996, when bin Laden stops by Qatar while moving from Sudan to Afghanistan, and is reportedly warmly greeted by officials there (seeMay 18, 1996). Former CIA officer Robert Baer will later claim that one meeting between bin Laden and al-Thani takes place on August 10, 1996. [Baer, 2003, pp. 195] Al-Thani is known to shelter Muslim extremists. For instance, the CIA narrowly missed catching al-Qaeda leaders Khalid Shaikh Mohammed (KSM), Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Mohammed Atef at his farm in May 1996 (seeJanuary-May 1996). Al-Thani is a member of Qatar’s royal family, but ABC News will later report, “One former CIA official who preferred to remain anonymous said the connection went beyond al-Thani and there were others in the Qatari royal family who were sympathetic and provided safe havens for al-Qaeda.” [New York Times, 6/8/2002; ABC News, 2/7/2003] Al-Thani will reportedly shelter al-Qaeda leaders like KSM even after 9/11 (see March 28, 2003), but the US has not taken any action against him, such as officially declaring him a terrorism financier. History Commons Qatar Finances Al-Qaeda with Oil Millions THE government of Qatar is paying millions of pounds a year to Al-Qaeda in return for an undertaking to spare it from further terrorist attacks, official sources in the wealthy Gulf state claimed last week. The money, paid to spiritual leaders sympathetic to Al-Qaeda, is believed to be helping to fund its activities in Iraq. In a recent message broadcast via the internet, Osama Bin Laden told followers that operations in Iraq were costing Al-Qaeda more than £500,000 a month.

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