Journalists from al-Jazeera are perplexed by the statement from al-Qaida
Thursday, February 13, 2003 LE MONDE
The audio statement attributed to Osama bin Laden, broadcast Tuesday, February 11, by the Qatari station al-Jazeera, seems to be something that raises questions more than something that provides proofs. For example: why did the television station deny the existence of this declaration all during the day before broadcasting it during the evening news? Who picked up this tape and when? Who chose the 16 minutes of extracts that make up the recording received by al-Jazeera? And why was Secretary of State Colin Powell the first to mention this tape, before a Senate committee?
These questions perplex even the journalists of al-Jazeera themselves. They don't have the right to comment on bin Laden affair on the record and were all but ordered to refer any foreign journalists who inquired to a sphinx-like statement put out by management.
These journalists had been astonished to learn Tuesday morning over CNN that their channel would broadcast a new declaration by Osama bin Laden. "Since it was a big vacation day, part of the Eid al Adha holiday, we didn't have a full editorial staff. Neither the channel's director nor the editor in chief were present. Customarily, when the channel gets ready to broadcast a big scoop, the bosses are there," commented one member of the editorial staff under cover of anonymity.
That afternoon the channel was assailed with calls from editors around the world. Up until 9 pm (local Doha time, 7 pm in Paris), al-Jazeera denied having received a new tape from bin Laden.
"Pressure or Division of Labor?"
"But," recalls another station employee, "at the end of the afternoon, we realized that something might be going on when the head of the channel's board of directors, Sheikh Hamed bin Thamer al-Thani -- a member of the Qatari Emir's family -- arrived at television headquarters." It was at this meeting, which Sheikh Hamed presided over, among himself, the director of the station, Mohamed Jassem al-Ali; the editor in chief, Ibrahim Heellal; and the former correspondent in Kabul, Tayssir Allouni, that the decision was taken to broadcast the declaration during the evening news. Because he had met and interviewed bin Laden in Afghanistan, Tayssir Allounai would have been the one to authenticate the voice. When the 16 minutes of extracts that made up the recording began broadcasting over al-Jazeera, the spokesman for the US State Department, Richard Boucher, was already ready to take part in a discussion on al-Jazeera. He declared that "It is clear that there are connections between the Iraqi regime and al-Qaida."
Pressure from the Americans on the Qataris or simply a division of labor between America and its most stalwart ally in the region at the moment? The journalists of al-Jazeera asked themselves this question again on Wednesday the 12th of February, noting that the United States had installed its command center in the emirate. Whatever the answer, according to our interlocutors, the unanswered questions about the bin Laden tape would throw a chill over the traditional get together the station's management traditionally throws to celebrate Eid al-Adha.
Tewfik Hakem
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