Al Jazeera is an Islamic Terrorist Organization

An Al-Jazeera employee in Qatar. (AP/Kamran Jebreili, File) (AP Photo/Kamran Jebreili, File)

We used to know Al Jazeera and Qatar were the enemy, but now we forgot.

By Daniel Greenfield, Frontpage Magazine

The media is apoplectic over the deaths of two Al Jazeera-linked figures, Hamza Wael Dahdouh, the son of Al Jazeera’s Gaza correspondent Wael Al-Dahdouh, and Mustafa Thuria, an Al Jazeera stringer, who was also working for the AFP, in an Israeli air strike.

Media accounts keep playing up the “tragedy” often without bothering to address Israel’s explanation for why it struck the car they were in.

The IDF told AFP that it “struck a terrorist who operated an aircraft that posed a threat to IDF troops”, adding that it was “aware of the reports that during the strike, two other suspects who were in the same vehicle as the terrorist were also hit.”

What were they doing in a car with a terrorist seemingly engaged in operating a drone on a battlefield?

Al Jazeera is the state propaganda arm of Qatar. And Qatar is a state sponsor of Islamic terrorist groups including Hamas.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called it an “unimaginable tragedy” on Sunday in Qatar.

“I am a parent myself, I can’t begin to imagine the horror that he has experienced, not once, but now twice. This is an unimaginable tragedy and that’s also been the case for far too many innocent Palestinian men, women, children,” said the top American diplomat, who was scheduled to arrive in Israel on Monday.

Blinken has conveniently forgotten what Al Jazeera is. He’s been around long enough to remember when Al Jazeera was the tape dump for Osama bin Laden.

October 3, 2001 – U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell expresses concern about Al Jazeera to the Qatari emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani in a meeting. Following the meeting, one senior State Department official said the emir was “defensive” about the issue and countered that he did not feel Al Jazeera was any more inflammatory than any other Arab media outlet. Still, according to the official, the emir said he “would take it under advisement.”

October 7, 2001 – Al Jazeera broadcasts a statement by Osama bin Laden two hours after the US-led coalition begins military strikes against Afghanistan. In it, bin Laden says the U.S. will have no rest until the Middle East conflict is resolved and U.S. military bases in the region are shut down.

October 30, 2001 – When asked by correspondent Muhammad Al-Alami of Al Jazeera’s Washington bureau about the authenticity of pictures showing Afghani children as war casualties, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld accuses the network of propounding Taliban propaganda. He adds that Al Jazeera has “a pattern of not making judgments about the accuracy of the propaganda.”

November 13, 2001 – The U.S. launches a missile attack on Al Jazeera’s office in Kabul, Afghanistan. In making the case that this was a deliberate attack, Al Jazeera’s managing director, Mohammed Jasim al-Ali, says “This office has been known by everybody, the American airplanes know the location of the office.” Although no Al Jazeera staff was hurt in the attack, the building was destroyed and some employees’ homes were damaged. In a letter to Al Jazeera dated December 6, U.S. Assistant Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke says “the building we struck was a known Al Qaeda facility in central Kabul.”

December 26, 2001 – Al Jazeera releases another video tape of bin Laden. “Our terrorism against the United States is worthy of praise to deter the oppressor so that America stops its support for Israel, which is killing our children,” bin Laden states in the video. “This is nothing more than the same kind of terrorist propaganda we have heard before,” says White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

March 4, 2003 – The New York Stock Exchange bans Al Jazeera (as well as several other news organizations whose identities were not revealed) from its trading floor indefinitely, citing “security concerns” as the official reason. A few months later the ban was rescinded, according to a New York Stock Exchange spokesperson.

April 8, 2003 – U.S. bombs hit Al Jazeera’s office in Baghdad, killing reporter Tareq Ayyoub and wounding cameraman Zohair al-Iraqi. Al Jazeera’s Baghdad correspondent Majed Abdel Hadi calls the U.S. missile strike and Ayoub’s death a “crime.” At a briefing in Doha, Qatar, Brigadier General Vincent K. Brooks says of the Al Jazeera attack: “This coalition does not target journalists. We don’t know every place journalists are operating on the battlefield. It’s a dangerous place, indeed.”

September 23, 2003 – The Iraqi interim government suspends Al Jazeera (and Al-Arabiya, an Arab news channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates) from reporting on official government activities for two weeks for what it says was support of recent attacks on government members and U.S. forces.

January 20, 2004 – In his State of the Union Address, President Bush refers to Al Jazeera as a source of “hateful propaganda” coming from the Arab world.

July 2004 – Al Jazeera’s banner is taken down at the Democratic National Convention in Boston. A DNC spokeswoman says politics had nothing to do with the sign moving and cites logistical reasons for the decision. However, she adds that “we’re trying to create the kind of atmosphere we want to best present John Kerry and the Democratic Party.” An Al Jazeera spokeswoman responds: “I don’t think anyone would deny that the Al Jazeera logo and name are not part of John Kerry’s communications plan.”

Al Jazeera is a terrorist organization. We’ve bombed it several times because it happens to be where the terrorists are.

In 2004, even Kerry didn’t want to be associated with Al Jazeera. But Qatar has spent a fortune buying influence in America until not a word of criticism can be aired about Al Jazeera or Qatar.

The historical revisionism is so complete that a comedy skit like this looks like it’s coming from some alternate reality in which we hadn’t spent the last two decades kissing the boots of our oppressors and asking how we can appease them some more.