Will EchoStar/DISH Network Air Al-Jazeera International?   October 23, 2006

Joyzelle Davis of the Rocky Mountain News, in its April 22, 2006, edition, reports that, “EchoStar’s Dish Network is the only cable or satellite operator in the U.S. publicly willing to consider carrying controversial Arab news channel Al Jazeera’s planned English-language spinoff.”

I have emailed EchoStar at press@echostar.com to see if this is true. Perhaps you may want to find out as well. Their press spokesperson is Kathie Gonzalez, 720-514-5351.

 You may wish to remind her that:

The Qatar-funded Al-Jazeera acts in support of global terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. Al-Jazeera International, the English-language version of Al-Jazeera, is currently negotiating carriage on cable and satellite systems controlled by Western media organizations. AIM has produced the DVD, “Terror Television: The Rise of Al-Jazeera and the Hate America Media,” noting evidence that:
·        Al-Jazeera’s first managing director, Mohammed Jassem al-Ali,  was shown in a videotape captured after the liberation of Iraq taking orders from Uday Hussein.
·        Al-Jazeera’s Kabul, Afghanistan, bureau chief, Tyseer Alouni,  was charged, convicted and sentenced to prison in Spain for being an agent of al Qaeda, and was alleged to have links to members of a terror cell that planned the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America.
·        Al-Jazeera continues to pay Alouni’s legal bills and defend him.
·        Al-Jazeera employee Sami al-Haj was captured in Afghanistan and is now in prison at Guantanamo Bay on terrorism charges.
·        Al-Jazeera was expelled from Iraq by its new democratic government.
 

Posted: October 23, 2006 at 5:16 pm

Times Columnist Defends Suspected Terrorist   October 17, 2006

New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof, who is being sued for defamation for falsely blaming Steven J. Hatfill for the post 9/11 anthrax attacks, is now coming to the defense of a suspected terrorist — Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Hajj, now in prison at Guantanamo Bay. “There is no public evidence that Sami al-Hajj committed any crime other than journalism for a television network the Bush administration doesn’t like,” Kristoff says in his October 17 column.

The problem with the column, of course, is that Al-Jazeera is not “journalism.” What’s more, any sane-thinking person should detest Al-Jazeera, for its inspires anti-American violence.

Perhaps he is innocent, but I wouldn’t take Kristof’s word for it. He was wrong about Hatfill and he could be wrong about al-Hajj. In fact, if I were al-Hajj, I’d want Kristof to stay completely away from my case.

Al-Hajj’s attorney,  Clive Stafford Smith, has said that Taysir Alouni, Al-Jazeera’s Kabul, Afghanistan, bureau chief, may have been innocent, too. But Alouni was convicted of being an agent of al Qaeda and is now in prison in Spain.

By the way, Osama bin laden says they are both innocent of ties to al Qaeda. Why didn’t Kristof mention that in his column?

Posted: October 17, 2006 at 2:31 pm