| Subject: Al Jazeera Station in Kabul Bombed by US (3 items) |
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Date Posted: 16:46:52 12/03/01 Mon
To: nyfreemedia@tao.ca From: nicadlw@earthlink.net (David L. Wilson) via Carol Subject: Al Jazeera Station in Kabul Bombed by US Date: Fri, 16 Nov 2001 23:13:37 -0500
Al Jazeera Station in Kabul Bombed by US
Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit
["Freedom of the Press" means freedom of the press that the US government approves of, and the press that does the US Government's bidding.
See the background story (3rd article below) for coverage of the USA's attempt to muzzle the Qatar-based Al Jazeera last month. Al Jazeera continued to broadcast news and highly disturbing photographs of all the children and other civilians killed and mutilated by the United States Terror Crusade, as well as the speeches and public statements of the USA's Enemy-of-the-Month, the Taleban and Osama bin Laden.
Yesterday, Al Jazeera announced plans to begin an English-language service (see 2nd article below). The response of the USA, world-class bully and coward, was predictable and savage: silence by bombing. This is the USA's "democracy."
Will they also bomb the stations headquarters in Qatar? Will they wait for their cronies in the WTO meeting there to leave first? ]
BBC - 13 November, 2001, 13:48 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/south_asia/newsid_1653000/1653887.stm
Al-Jazeera Kabul offices hit in US raid
The channel says everybody knew where the office was, including the Americans The Kabul offices of the Arab satellite al-Jazeera channel have been destroyed by a US missile.
The Qatar-based satellite channel, which gained global fame for its exclusive access to Osama Bin Laden and the Taleban, announced that none of its staff had been wounded.
But al-Jazeera's managing director Mohammed Jasim al-Ali, told BBC News Online that the channel's 12 employees in Kabul were out of contact.
Mr Jasim would not speculate as to whether the offices were deliberately targeted, but said the location of the bureau was widely known by everyone, including the Americans.
He also expressed concern at reports that Northern Alliance fighters were singling out Arabs in the city since they took over early on Tuesday.
Critical situation
The station said in an earlier report the bureau had been hit by shells when the Afghan opposition forces entered the capital.
Al-Jazeera confirmed later that it was a US missile that destroyed the building and damaged the homes of some employees.
"The situation is very critical," Mr Jasim told the BBC from the channel's offices in Doha.
"This office has been known by everybody, the American airplanes know the location of the office, they know we are broadcasting from there," he said.
He said there had been no contact with Kabul correspondent Taysir Alluni because all their equipment had been destroyed.
The Northern Alliance has reportedly ordered most reporters in Kabul to gather at the Inter-Continental Hotel.
"Now that the Northern Alliance has taken over, it is too dangerous," Mr Jasim said, adding that he had heard that some Arabs had been killed.
Taleban withdrawal
Earlier, al-Jazeera correspondent Yusuf al-Shuli quoted Taleban officials in their southern stronghold of Kandahar as saying they had withdrawn from the cities to spare the civilians air bombardment and acts of vengeance by the Northern Alliance.
"They told us that reoccupying these cities will not take long once the air cover that supports the Northern Alliance is over," he said.
He said there was a "mixture of anger, despair, and disappointment among most people" in Kandahar at the fall of Kabul, but the situation there was calm.
Al-Jazeera has a reputation for outspoken, independent reporting - in stark contrast to the Taleban's views of the media as a propaganda and religious tool.
But the channel has been viewed with suspicion by politicians in the West and envy by media organisations ever since the start of the US-led military action in Afghanistan.
Exclusive access
For a time it was the only media outlet with any access to Taleban-held territory and the Islamic militia itself.
It broadcast the only video pictures of Afghan demonstrators attacking and setting fire to the US embassy in Kabul on 26 September.
Most controversially, it was the first channel to air video tapes of Osama Bin Laden urging Muslims to rise up against the West in a holy war.
Last week it showed footage of three young boys reported to be Bin Laden's sons.
Western governments at one stage warned that the channel was being used by the al-Qaeda network to pass on coded messages to supporters around the world.
*
source - abunimah list at yahoogroups
Al-Jazeera plans English service
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH (LONDON) - November 12, 2001
Al Jazeera plans version in English
By Charles Clover in Doha
THE only television station broadcasting live from Taliban-held areas of Afghanistan plans to introduce an English version early next year.
Al Jazeera, based in Qatar, has around 15 million viewers a day in the Arab world, including satellite subscribers in the West. But as it broadcasts in Arabic it does not have the global audiences that broadcasting in English could bring it.
Clips from Al Jazeera's footage of the bombing of Kabul and the video messages sent by Osama bin Laden to its office in Kabul have been used by networks around the world, including the BBC, ITN, CNN and Sky News. But the station has been accused by Colin Powell, the US secretary of state, and Tony Blair of screening broadcasts which could contain coded messages and Taliban propaganda without a critical commentary.
Ibrahim Hilal, the 32-year-old Egyptian editor-in-chief of the station, said he was under intense pressure from managers to launch English language broadcasts by January. He thought March was more realistic.
He denies allegations of bias. "We give time to anybody in this crisis. If the Archbishop of Canterbury has something to say he will be on my screen. We had him the other day."
*
Background on US Attempt to Silence al Jazeera:
BBC - 4 October, 2001, 11:07 GMT 12:07 UK
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1578000/1578619.stm
US urges curb on Arab TV channel
Qatar underlined the need for a free media Washington has asked Qatar to rein in the influential and editorially independent Arab al-Jazeera television station, which gives airtime to anti-American opinions.
The emir of Qatar, Sheikh Hamad Khalifa al-Thani, confirmed after a meeting with US Secretary of State Colin Powell in Washington that he had been asked to exert influence on the Qatari-based channel, which can be received almost worldwide.
It was al-Jazeera which carried the faxed statement purportedly from Osama bin Laden, calling upon Muslims to fight the US, and broadcast unconfirmed reports that members of the US special forces had been captured in Afghanistan.
It has also been re-transmitting an exclusive interview with Bin Laden conducted three years ago, and featuring a number of anti-American analysts on its talkshows.
Al-Jazeera's apparent independence in a region where much of the media is state-run has transformed it into the most popular station in the Middle East.
Its confrontation of controversial issues and string of scoops, which have included footage of the infamous Taleban destruction of ancient Buddha statues, has earned it praise both within the Arab world and beyond.
Free media
The US is not the first to feel aggrieved by al-Jazeera coverage, which has in the past provoked anger from Algeria, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Egypt for giving airtime to political dissidents.
Correspondents say that its coverage of the Palestinian uprising, already known to infuriate Israel, is not helpful to the US at a time when it is desperately wants Arab countries to see peace in the Middle East.
Sheikh Hamad, the ruler of the oil-rich Gulf state, reminded of the need for "free and credible media" after his meeting with Mr Powell, who is trying to build up a global alliance against international terrorism which includes Arab states.
He said he viewed the request as "advice".
The visit by the emir was of particular importance as he is also the chairman of the Organization of Islamic Conference, which includes 56 countries.
After his meeting with Mr Powell he pledged Qatar's full-co-operation. But in an interview with al-Jazeera television he also stressed that the focus of the US campaign must be well considered.
"What happened in the United States has indubitably harmed the reputation of the Arabs," he said. "But the American people must understand that terrorism is not confined to the Arabs."
The US has been at pains to stress that its war is against terrorists and not against Islam.
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is currently on tour in the Middle East in a bid to shore up support among Muslims.
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The Reichstag Fire, 1933 http://www.bartleby.com/65/re/Reichstg.html
Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP): mid-east history primer, etc. http://merip.org
The case against Henry Kissinger, parts one and two: http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Kissinger/HKissinger.html
Quotable Pat Robertson http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/7027/quotes.html
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