Al Jazeera: The mouthpiece of guerrilla groups

CAIRO – 3 June 2017: Qatari news channel Al Jazeera was once perceived by Arab viewers as a pan-Arab media outlet that created a space for opposition powers and intellectuals in Arab countries. Now, however, feelings toward Al Jazeera have shifted drastically and what are now perceived as the channel’s ‘true colors’ have been revealed among the outbreak of civil wars across the Arab world; Al Jazeera’s featured guests are now recognized as affiliates of terrorist guerilla groups like Al Qaeda and Hezbollah.

What is Al Jazeera?

Qatari news channel Al Jazeera was founded on November 1, 1996, five months after the closure of BBC Arabic in April. It filled the void left by BBC Arabic – which did not resume until 2007 – by tackling internal and critical issues pertinent to Arab countries.

In doing so the channel gained popularity, as such topics were often censored in national Arab media. However, this is now seen as a means to a bigger and more insidious goal: steering viewers’ support to extremist and terrorist groups that are portrayed by Al Jazeera as regular political opposition.

Al Jazeera harnessed interest in the West in the aftermath of 9/11 by broadcasting tapes of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda spokesman Suleiman Abou Ghaith justifying the terror attacks. The channel further garnered attention when it managed to get outstanding footage of the Afghanistan war in 2001 that it sold to other media outlets, including CNN, the Poynter Institute reported.

Colin Powell, then U.S. secretary of state, tried to persuade the Qatari Emir to shut down Al Jazeera, which at the time was perceived as a propaganda tool of Al-Qaeda. An article titled “Qatar Advances Plans to Privatize Al Jazeera,” published in the Washington Post in January 2005, reported that Powell also had “intense discussions” with the Qatari Foreign Affairs minister at the time, Hamad bin Jasem Al Thani, who later became prime minister in 2007.

Powell’s talks reflected the views of U.S. officials who complained that “Al Jazeera’s coverage is politically inflammatory and, at times, factually flawed.” The Bush administration called the channel ‘the mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden,’ according to a documentary titled “Control Room” produced by Egyptian-American filmmaker Jehane Noujaim in 2004.

Al Jazeera’s coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq

Live coverage of the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 further boosted the popularity of Al Jazeera among Arabs viewers; it was the first war to receive live coverage by any media channel in the world. Al Jazeera was the only Arab channel to take part in that live coverage.

According to “Control Room,” the U.S. Central Command, the U.S.’ military headquarters in the Middle East and the only U.S. outlet for media information, was located in the outskirts of the Qatari capital, Doha. Thus, Al Jazeera had greater access to the Central Command, which every outlet was relying on for information.

The documentary included interviews with Al Jazeera producers about their coverage of the invasion in 2003. Samir Khader, Al Jazeera’s senior producer at that time, criticized the selection of American political analyst Jeffrey Steinberg, who said the United States planned a long-term military presence in Iraq. Steinberg said the war furthered American plans for a “new empire” and aimed to control Gulf oil; Khader called his words “irrational” and “hallucinations.”

In the documentary, Khader judged Steinberg’s statements as “inappropriate” and consequently ended the interview early not because of any breach of ethical standards, but rather because of his personal opinion that the statements were unreasonable.

Steinberg’s speculations regarding the duration of the U.S. military existence turned out to be a reality; the U.S. army left Iraq in December 2011, eight years after the invasion.

In an article titled “How Disbanding the Iraqi Army Fueled ISIS,” Time Magazine reported that the Bush administration decided “to disband the Iraqi army shortly after the 2003 invasion—without the knowledge or consent of either the Pentagon or President.”

Khader declared that those who were celebrating in Al-Fardous square, where Saddam Hussein’s statue was located, were brought by the American army “to make a show.” Khader himself is an Iraqi and he said that he recognized that the accent of the protestors is not Iraqi.

Deema Khatib, Syrian journalist and a producer at Al Jazeera also interviewed, said she questioned whether the people celebrating in Al-Fardous Square, where the now-iconic statue of Saddam Hussein was located, were “real protestors” as the group that went to put the American flag over the statue’s head were all male adolescents. She questioned how they got the flag and gathered in the square while all other residents were scared to death and remained in their homes.

Al Jazeera, however, broadcast that Iraqis celebrated the collapse of Hussein’s statue without questioning or investigating their producers’ suspicions.

Continuing the tide

In 2006, Israel imposed a blockade on Lebanon from July 12 through August 14, for a total of 34 days, because of the missile attack launched by Hezbollah against Israeli border towns in an attempt to release Hezbollah prisoners. The incidents resulted in 1,191-1,300 Lebanese casualties, mostly civilian, and 165 Israeli casualties, including 44 civilians, according to the BBC.

Around one million Lebanese and 300-500,000 Israelis were displaced, and Lebanese infrastructure was destroyed.

Ghassan bin Jeddo, Al Jazeera’s Beirut bureau chief from 2004 to 2011, in an interview with Egyptian TV host Mona el-Shazly in 2009, described Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah as a “war leader,” and said interviewing him during the war in Lebanon was a “great honor.” He did not even deny that he and Nasrallah were friends on a personal level, according to Palestinian online newspaper Donia Al-Watan.

Hezbollah provided Al Jazeera with exclusive material as well as phone interviews on air with its members and Nasrallah. After the interview with Nasrallah, bin Jeddo said, on the 30th day of the war, the Israeli Cabinet threatened to bomb Al Jazeera’s bureau.

Al Jazeera never attempted to condemn the existence of a guerrilla group like Hezbollah, which jeopardizes the sovereignty of the Lebanese state, and which ignited a war that brought destruction and loss to the country.

The Arab Spring

During the eruption of the Arab Spring revolutions, Al Jazeera persisted in polishing the image of Al-Qaeda leaders in Libya during the February 17 uprisings in 2011 by presenting them as revolutionist leaders. The main figures they supported were Abdel-Hakim Belhaj, who was fighting with Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan and is now the head of Al-Watan Party in Libya, and Ali al-Salabi, the head of the Rafallah el-Sahati militant group in Libya.

According to Al Arabiya.net, Belhaj was one of the founders of the Libyan Militant Group in the 1990s, and he later headed to Afghanistan. His real name is Abd-Allah el-Sadek, and he was arrested in Malaysia in 2004 and interrogated by the CIA before being deported to Libya in the same year.

Ali al-Salabi is affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood and had been one of the Gadhafi regime’s opponents before he built good relations with Seif el-Islam el-Gadhafi, whom he persuaded to release the incarcerated Libyan Militant Groups’ member.

Belhaj was first hosted by Al Jazeera on April 24, 2012 to clear himself of the terror accusations directed to him by American and British intelligence services following his arrest in Bangkok. Al Jazeera hosted Belhaj again on January 17, 2017 as he claimed that the British government offered him financial compensation so he would not file a lawsuit against it, stating that he just wanted an apology.

Salabi was hosted on July 31, 2007 by Al Jazeera to explain the ‘Jurisprudence of Victory and Empowerment’ which would enable the establishment of an ‘Islamic state’ as part of an episode of a show called “Kol Youm” (Everyday), broadcast on Al Jazeera for years.

In 2011, Salabi made a statement to Al Jazeera.net that “the little secular minority” is an enemy to Libyans’ religion, as the vast majority of Libyans are Muslim. This was in response to Libyan Prime Minister Mahmoud Gebril’s calls for reconstructing a national army and resolving armed militias.

Over the years, since 2011, Al Jazeera frequently hosted Abu Mohammad al-Julani, the leader of Al-Nusra Front and the military leader of Tahrir Al-Sham Front. Al-Nusra Front, which was created in 2012, joined Al-Qaeda in 2013 and split to 2016.

Predictions for the future

The destructive agenda Al Jazeera adopts against Arab nations does not seem likely to change soon: on May 18, it aires a documentary called “The Quicksand” on jihadists affiliated to the Shura Council of Derna jihadists in Libya. The promo was released few days prior to the airstrikes launched by Egypt on terrorist groups in Derna responsible for the shooting at the bus carrying Christians in Minya, which left 29 dead.

Although the reality of the guests and figures featured by Al Jazeera has become well known among Arab viewers, and thus diminished the channel’s credibility, the channel continues to operate. Many question why.

Since the channel represents the voice and stance of the Qatari state over different regional and global issues and still receives funds from the Qatari state, the question of whether it reflects Qatar’s support for terrorism remains to be answered.