Sunday, November 21, 2004

On Meet the Press today, Sen. John McWayne admonished AlJazeera TV. He claimed (falsely of course) that AlJazeera keeps airing the tape of the shooting of the unarmed Iraqi, and they failed to even mention that Margaret Hassan was murdered. He is wrong on both counts. AlJazeera only aired the tape on the first day as far as I can tell, and then abruptly stopped airing it (I am sure after one phone call was made from DC). AlJazeera has of course mentioned the murder of Hassan and has refused to air a propaganda video by her captors in which she tragically pleaded for her life. Pro-Saudi media (which really include all major and minor Arab news media--linked directly or indirectly to House of Saud's money--except AlJazeera, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, and New TV (which are linked to Qatari money) have been running a pro-Allawi and anti-AlJazeera campaign. In AshSharq AlAwsat newspaper last week, they made the fantastic claim that the brother of AlJazeera bureau chief in Baghdad is a key aide to Zarqawi. The man in question appeared on TV: was much younger than was alleged, and would have been 14 years old when AshSharq AlAlAwsat claimed he was fighting in Afghanistan. Arabic media do not run corrections, by the way. They happen to be like the Pope: infallible.