Dr. Khaled Shawkat, director of the Netherlands-based Center for Promoting Democracy in the Arab World, says that Al-Jazeera TV has been “hijacked” by the Muslim Brotherhood, the group that gave rise to terrorist organizations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad.Â
Al-Jazeera, he says, was an historic opportunity to advance democracy in the Arab world but the opportunity has been lost. As reported by MEMRI, He says:
 ”Al-Jazeera has been hijacked by the Muslim Brotherhood organization – either at the wish of the channel’s owners as part of a certain political game [played] by the Qatari rulers, or out of the lack of awareness of the Qatari rulers, who think that the situation is under control and that even though they have given the Muslim Brotherhood a chance to control Al-Jazeera, for local, regional, and international considerations, they can get rid of them or restrain them any time they want… ”
This helps explain why Al-Jazeera has played a role in the rise of Hamas in the Palestinian territories and why its employees were arrested in Israel on suspicion of aiding Hezbollah. It also explains why the channel was infilitrated by and became a mouthpiece for al Qaeda. See our recent AIM Report on this matter.
He says the current managers of Al-Jazeera are “trying to preserve the channel’s popularity by distorting Arab public opinion, [which it achieves] by stirring up emotion on sensitive regional issues, such as Palestine, Iraq, and Afghanistan…”
BINGO.Â
He adds, “Recently, a joke [has been going around] that explains the delay in launching the English Al-Jazeera International channel: The British director is refusing to swear loyalty to the supreme guide of the Muslim Brotherhood…”Â
But is that a joke? Â This is no laughing matter. This adds to our case that Al-Jazeera International must be stopped from entering U.S. media markets.
Contact your member of Congress immediately at 202-224-3121. Â
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Posted: August 24, 2006 at 10:49 am
The New York Post, which is not always reliable, claims that Al-Jazeera International “has secured carriage agreements with cable, satellite, telecom and broadband video providers, according to spokesman Michael Holtzman.” It quotes Holtzman as saying, “We’ve gotten carriage across the board. We just can’t identify with whom at this stage because they are at different stages.” The Post reported that “Holtzman said the debut will be available in more than just a smattering of American homes.”
Should we believe this? It’s strange that Holtzman would be so secretive, except if the channel is meeting significant resistance. Which means it may be a lot of bluster. Why aren’t they trumpeting their success?
In a column about this development, Doug Powers refers to Al Jazeera as “the Nickelodeon of nutcases and the ESPN of choice for the discerning knife, rocket and belt-bomb jihad sportsmen…” He cites the following cartoon as an example of how Al-Jazeera may be getting its exclusive terrorist videos:
 
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“There are major players at the table,” Holtzman said. “This won’t be a tiny toehold; we will have significant access.”
Posted: August 22, 2006 at 8:43 am
Britain’s Independent newspaper reports that Paul Gibbs, Al-Jazeera International’s director of programs, has resigned after differences of opinion with management.
Meanwhile, the Canadian Jewish News reports that, “Quebec-based Vidéotron Ltée. says its cable company would seriously consider carrying al-Jazeera’s nascent 24-hour English-language international new channel – al-Jazeera International (AJI) – if the channel gets the go-ahead from the CRTC” – the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. One reason for Vidéotron’s receptiveness to AJI “is the growing Muslim population in Quebec,” the paper reported.
Reporter David Lazarus added, “Two years ago, the CRTC approved a broadcast licence for the Arabic-language al-Jazeera, but the station never made it to Canadian households via domestic cable and satellite carriers because the CRTC stipulated that they would have to monitor its feed 24 hours a day and could even censor portions deemed unsuitable for broadcast.
“That effectively made it untenable for cable and satellite companies to carry al-Jazeera. It’s unknown, at this point, whether the CRTC might apply similar conditions on AJI.”
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Posted: August 12, 2006 at 8:16 pm
Karen Hughes of the State Department says the answer to Al-Jazeera’s poisonous propaganda is to go on the channel to offer the U.S. side of the story. The Dallas Morning News says ”she’s intent on ‘changing the culture’ of the State Department, to empower ambassadors and others to speak out more often and more forcefully – even on the Arab television network Al-Jazeera, which the administration has previously scorned.” The paper adds that “Ms. Hughes, who has the rank of ambassador, has appeared several times on Al-Jazeera, despite what she calls ‘legitimate concerns’ that some of its coverage has been inflammatory.” She tells the paper, ”as a communicator, I feel it’s important to get our voice on the channels that people are watching. And Al-Jazeera is the channel that people are watching in the Middle East.”
On her Web site, however, it is said that the U.S. must “Isolate and marginalize the violent extremists” and “confront their ideology of tyranny and hate.” How is that accomplished by going on Al-Jazeera, an outlet for tyranny and hate?
A better approach is to tell the autocrats who run Qatar, where Al-Jazeera is based, to pull the plug on this channel or face the consequences.What has Qatar been doing in the current crisis? The U.N. passed its resolution on Lebanon 14-1 — the one was Qatar. Qatar’s leading English daily paper proundly reports that “Qatar tried to push through a resolution in the UN Security Council to condemn the Israeli aggression in Lebanon but the United States blocked it with a veto, says the Palestinian ambassador in Doha.”
Previously, on July 6, AP reported that Qatar circulated its own draft U.N. Security Council resolution “demanding Israel end its offensive in the Gaza Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.” AP added that, “The draft faced immediate opposition from the United States and France, which called it unbalanced in its criticism of Israel. The document does not condemn the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants and makes no mention of Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel this week.”
 Qatar is supposed to be a “moderate” Arab regime. And Al-Jazeera was supposed to promote democracy in the Arab world.
Wake up Ambassador Hughes! Â
Posted: August 7, 2006 at 12:30 pm
A Republican operative distributed information claiming that Al-Jazeera has published an article attacking Senator Rick Santorum and endorsing his opponent Bob Casey. This was NOT true. The article in question was NOT from the official website of the Al-Jazeera channel. The official Al-Jazeera website is www.aljazeera.net The article in question came from www.aljazeerah.info which is not associated with the channel. The misleading information was picked up by various bloggers as well as the Santorum campaign, causing them all enormous embarrassment. Al Kamen of the Washington Post covered the error, saying, “Small problem. It wasn’t the Middle East-based news network — which has no ‘h’ on al-Jazeera — but rather a site based in Dalton, Ga. A Santorum spokeswoman said that didn’t matter.”
It does and should matter. And it would have been proper to admit the error.   ”Rick Santorum has reached a new low in gutter politics by trying to ridiculously link Bob Casey to terrorists,” Casey spokesman Larry Smar told the Philadelphia Inquirer. The paper quoted Santorum’s spokeswoman, Virginia Davis, as saying it doesn’t make a difference. “We thought we should share these kind of sentiments,” she said.
She should just admit they got it wrong. If they don’t, they will be greeted with skepticism when and if they bring real issues to the attention of the public, such as Casey’s receipt of $5000 from the world government lobby.Â
We have been writing about Al-Jazeera for quite some time and AIM has launched this web site with information about the channel and its expansion in the U.S. What Santorum should do is join our effort to keep the English-language Al-Jazeera International out of the U.S. media market. He recently gave a speech blasting Islamic fascist terrorists. Now he should target their propaganda outlets, such as the real Al-Jazeera.  Â
Posted: August 2, 2006 at 4:42 pm
