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?