Attacking al Jazeera, round XXXVII

Al Sharq Al Awsat continued its ongoing campaign against al Jazeera yesterday.   Last month, it was with sensational allegations that al Jazeera's Baghdad bureau chief was coordinating and funding the Iraqi insurgency via his brother, Abu Musab al Zarqawi's chief aide in Fallujah.   The Iraqi authorities have essentially given up on this story, as I mentioned a few weeks ago.  But that was just one battle in the ongoing war against al Jazeera.  Yesterday, the paper covered the front page with revelations of alleged ties between al Jazeera and Uday Hussein.   

According to al Sharq al Awsat (see the AP version via the Jerusalem Post), a videotape has been found of a meeting between Uday and then-station director Mohammed Jassem al-Ali, in which al-Ali allegedly says that "Al-Jazeera is your channel."  The meeting was supposedly to prepare an interview for al Jazeera, which ultimately never aired.  This isn't exactly news:  Al-Ali was fired shortly after the war started last March, and at the time the alleged connection between al-Ali and the Iraqi regime was widely aired (though never proven).

What makes it news now is that al Hurra is planning to air the tape this week, as part of the American government's campaign against al Jazeera and the Arab media.  Al Jazeera officials had no comment since they had not seen the tape (odd how al Sharq al Awsat had!).    Sounds like Muwafic Harb, Al Hurra's embattled station director, is swinging for the fences here - trying to actually get someone to watch al Hurra and to hurt al Jazeera at the same time.  We'll see if there's anything more to the story than we've seen so far. 

Comments

[Nur al-Cubicle]

This reminds me of Allawi's claim last week that an arrested ex-Ba'athist from Fallujah had photos in his wallet showing insurgents with Syrian leaders. Allawi was talking pretty tough about Syria on New Years' Eve, saying that Iraq was going
respond to Syrian agression.

Surely the Iraqi pubic must laugh itself silly when politicians try these outrageous lies from Planet 'News of the World'!