 Abdul Rahman bin Laden told news network Al Jazeera today that his sister Eman, one of his stepmothers and five of his brothers have been prevented from leaving by the authorities in Tehran since 1997. He claimed Eman managed to escape several weeks ago and he then advised her to take shelter in the Saudi Arabian embassy. Abdul Rahman bin Laden told Al Jazeera that he was concerned for his sister's health. He called on Tehran to release his relatives and on the Saudi government to ensure his sister's departure from the country. The Australian
 By Jim Hoft ** Here is the video.
This was a new low for the anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan.
Louis Farrakhan blamed George Bush for the Fort Hood massacre.
He also spread hateful anti-American propaganda during his recent interview on Aljazeera.
FOX Nation and MEMRI reported:
Following are excerpts from an interview with “Nation of Islam” Leader Louis Farrakhan, which aired on Al-Jazeera TV on November 6, 2009. The sub-titles follow the English original, where audible. Interviewer: Let us begin with the most recent development on the American front, and the racial discrimination against Muslims and their persecution – the incident associated with Mr. Nidhal Hassan, a Muslim psychiatrist of Arab origin, who killed 13 soldiers at the US Fort Hood base. To what extent might this incident affect the Muslims in the US and make them targets of persecution?
[...] Louis Farrakhan: As you know, since 9/11, in America and in other parts of the world, those anti-Islamic forces have stepped up their efforts to make Muslims… to cause the Muslims to be looked at as uncivilized, savage, or wicked people. This is an attempt by anti-Islamic forces, and some members of the Jewish community, and some members of the Christian community, who have united to condemn Islam and to speak ill of our Prophet Muhammad, and to even go so far as to say that the Muslims worship the devil.
[...] It is because, my dear brothers and sisters, Islam was making so much progress in the United States that those anti-Islamic forces are trying to stem the tide of the progress of Islam.
[...] This recent unfortunate event, which took place at the Fort Hood base in Texas, has only added fuel to the fire. On behalf of all the Muslims in the Muslim world, we are saddened by the loss of these 13 American soldiers and the thirty others who were wounded in the incident. No human being would be pleased to see that kind of slaughter, coming from a fellow officer in the US army. However, we have to look at Major Nidhal Hassan. What happened to him? What kind of stress was he under? What kind of insults had he borne?
[...] When there are Muslims who love America, and who join the armed forces to protect America, and to serve the interests of America, and then America, unfortunately, under the falsehoods of the George. W. Bush administration, launches attacks against Iraq and against Afghanistan, and now, those soldiers are killing Muslims… So when they go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, the kind of hatred that is built up in the American forces, when they call the Muslims “ragheads” and “desert niggers,” and then, in the Abu Ghureib prison, Muslim women were raped, and Muslim men were sodomized… All this affects Muslims serving in the army. So when you are being insulted by your superior officers or by your fellow soldiers, at some point, a person might break. Unfortunately, I believe this is what happened to Captain Nidhal Hassan. With thanks to Gateway Pundit H/T: Jared 
 AL Jazeera's English-language news network had its first Australian triumph yesterday when it made its debut on local television screens, and it hopes to make a second breakthrough by convincing Australian government leaders to appear before its cameras. Hamish Macdonald, an Australian reporter and news presenter for Al Jazeera English (AJE), said yesterday he hoped the launch of the news service to 739,000 homes through Austar pay-TV would help change the Rudd government's attitude towards appearing on the Doha-based network. "As an Australian it has been really disappointing that our government has not embraced AJE and its really strong audience in Southeast Asia and other regions to try to have its voice heard outside Australia," he said at AJE's London studio. "We keep hearing that the government wants its messages to reach people and opinion makers in the region and in the Muslim world, but for some reason they don't take advantage of the platform that we keep offering them. "It's bizarre - we can get Hillary Clinton but not Stephen Smith." Max Uechtritz, the former ABC news chief who is now AJE's programming director, said he was mystified by the attitude of the Australian government, which made a great play of its "soft diplomacy" ambitions in the region. "We have huge influence in the region, so I can't understand why Rudd wouldn't use the platform." Uechtritz said. "The good thing is that in every country where our service has been launched, people quickly realise that we are a tremendous news service - and hopefully now that people can actually see us in Australia the penny will drop for whoever is working out the government's media strategies." Similarly, Uechtritz hopes access to Austar's regional audience through yesterday's inclusion in its starter package of 40-plus channels will get enough public interest to convince the much larger Foxtel network to also offer the service to its subscribers. One Al Jazeera broadcaster who says he would like to get Mr Rudd on air is Sir David Frost, the veteran who has interviewed the seven previous Australian prime ministers except Paul Keating. Read more at The Australian
 AL-QA'IDA leader Osama bin Laden has told Americans in a new message their support for Israel prompted him to launch the September 11 attacks in 2001, a US-based terror monitoring group says.
Al-Qa'ida's As-Sahab media released a video titled "Message to the American People," which features a still image of bin Laden and an audio statement, said IntelCenter.
The release came two days after the United States marked the eighth anniversary of the al-Qa'ida-sponsored attacks, which killed nearly 3,000 people.
According to the centre, Bin Laden said that among "some other injustices,'' US support to Israel motivated al-Qa'ida to launch the 9/11 attacks.
He also stated that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were driven by the pro-Israeli lobby in the White House and corporate interests, not Islamic militants.
"If you think about your situation well, you will know that the White House is occupied by pressure groups,'' he said, according to IntelCenter. "Rather than fighting to liberate Iraq - as Bush claimed - it (the White House) should have been liberated.''
He was referring to former US president George W Bush, who launched an invasion of Iraq in 2003.
According to bin Laden, current US President Barack Obama is powerless to change the course of the wars.
Obama's retention of US Defence Secretary Robert Gates and other individuals from the Bush administration is confirmation of the president's weakness, the al-Qa'ida chief argued.
Bin Laden urges Americans to pressure White House leaders to cease the wars and US support to Israel, rather than succumb to what he called "the ideological terrorism'' exercised by neo-conservatives.
"The bitter truth is that the neo-conservatives continue to cast their heavy shadows upon you,'' he insisted.
If the wars are not ended, "all we will do is to continue the war of attrition against you on all possible axes, like we exhausted the Soviet Union for ten years until it collapsed with grace from Allah the Almighty and became a memory of the past,'' bin Laden vowed.
IntelCenter said bin Laden typically releases such a statement annually around September or October.
The last audiotape by bin Laden was released on June 3. In that missive he scorned Obama's overture to the Islamic world and warned of decades of conflict ahead.
That audiotape aired on Qatar's Al-Jazeera news channel less than an hour after Obama landed in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's home country, at the start of a Mideast tour.
Obama "has followed the steps of his predecessor in antagonising Muslims... and laying the foundation for long wars," bin Laden said in the June release, referring to deadly clashes in Pakistan between the US-backed government and Islamist militants.
"Obama and his administration have sowed new seeds of hatred against America,'' he said.
"Let the American people prepare to harvest the crops of what the leaders of the White House plant in the next years and decades."
Bin Laden has a $US50 million ($A58 million) bounty on his head and has been in hiding for the past eight years.
Intelligence officials, US military analysts and other experts have long said they believe the world's most wanted man is hiding in either Pakistan or Afghanistan near the remote mountainous border between the two countries.
 A NEW audio purported to be an "address to the American public" from al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden has been released by the militant group's media branch, a US-based terror monitoring group said. Al-Qaeda's As-Sahab media released a video featuring a still image of bin Laden and an audio statement, said IntelCenter, noting that there were no subtitles or transcript yet available. The release came two days after the United States marked the eighth anniversary of the al-Qaeda-sponsored September 11, 2001 attacks which killed nearly 3000 people. "The video shows a still of bin Laden while the audio statement plays,'' IntelCenter said. "There is no video footage of bin Laden or of anything else, aside from the graphics surrounding his still. "There is no media footage or footage from other groups." The group described the release as "an address to the American public'' and said bin Laden typically released such statements annually around September or October. The last audiotape by bin Laden was released June 3. In that missive he scorned US President Barack Obama's overture to the Islamic world and warned of decades of conflict ahead. That audiotape aired on Qatar's Al-Jazeera news channel less than an hour after Mr Obama landed in Saudi Arabia, bin Laden's home country, at the start of a Mideast tour. Source: The Australian
 July 05 | By Aaron Klein Islamist websites associated with terrorist organizations, WND has learned, hailed over the weekend a recent New York City Council resolution recommending the city's school system shut down to commemorate two of the most important Muslim holidays. The nonbinding resolution passed last week was the subject of extensive coverage in the pan-Arab media, including on the Al Jazeera and Al-Arabiya satellite networks. The stories were also discussion themes over the weekend on two Palestinian websites linked to terrorist organizations. The Palestinian Forum for Dialogue is known to be close to Hamas, carrying the group's official propaganda, while the Islamic Forum is strongly associated with the Islamic Jihad terror group. The topic of the resolution was hailed in hundreds of user postings on both websites. A typical posting on the Islamic Forum website, translated from Arabic by WND, reads: "[The resolution proves] there is a new situation in America where Obama understands that going against Islam and Muslims only brings disaster for us." Obama, however, was not involved in the resolution. Another posting on that website stated, "Allah is with the Muslims when we fight for our rights." Stated another posting on the Islamic Forum: "The new [U.S.] administration and the American people understand they cannot defeat Islam and they should co-exist with Islam." One user comment on the Palestinian Dialogue forum stated, "This is one more sign about Islam getting stronger all around the world." "It is one more sign of the fact of Islam being accepted as a growing power. This proves we don't have to be ashamed of our religion and we should insist on our rights to wear our clothes and celebrate and fast on Ramadan," the comment stated. NYC forced to honor Islam on 9-11? The Council resolution received much U.S. media attention; however the reports did not note the holidays fall on Sept. 11 in some years. The council vote is at odds with the opinion of Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who has said he is opposed to adding any more days off to the school calendar. Bloomberg, however, recently relinquished control of the school system to a newly appointed board of education, which could approve the holiday plan. The Islamic holidays being considered for commemoration are Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. The former commemorates the Islamic belief Abraham was willing to sacrifice Ishmail. The latter marks the end of the Islamic fast period of Ramadan. Jewish and Christian tradition relates Abraham was willing to sacrifice his son Isaac, not Ishmail. Islamic holidays are set based on the lunar calendar, meaning the dates corresponding to the Gregorian calendar change each year. As first noticed by Andrew Walden, publisher and editor of the Hawaii Free Press, Eid al-Adha falls on Sept. 11 in the year 2016, according to the accepted Umm al-Qura calendar. Eid al-Fitr, meanwhile, will begin at sunset Sept. 9 and continue to sunset Sept. 10 next year. The dates, though, depend on the official citing of the new crescent moon as certified by the Saudi "hilal committee," which at times has shifted holidays by one or two days, meaning Eid-al-Fitr could technically also be celebrated on Sept. 11 in 2010. The council's vote reportedly comes as the culmination of a three-year lobbying effort by U.S. Muslim groups, including the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR. The council resolution cited New York City's growing Muslim population as well as the fact that the system observes major Jewish and Christian holidays. The resolution's advocates have cited a statistic claiming Muslims make up 12 percent of the city's public school students and, therefore, they deserve recognition. Bloomberg told reporters before the vote that not all religions could be accommodated on the school system's holiday schedule, only those with "a very large number of kids who practice." "If you close the schools for every single holiday, there won't be any school," Bloomberg said. "Educating our kids requires time in the classroom, and that's the most important thing to us." While Bloomberg recently handed control of the school system to a new education board, the state Senate could take action to put the mayor back in control. "Right now the degree of control the mayor has over the education system is completely unclear," Councilman G. Oliver Koppell, the only council member to vote against the resolution, told FoxNews.com. Source: WorldNetDaily
 By Khaled Abu ToamehThe leaders of the Palestinian Authority do not want the international community to hear anything about massive abuse of human rights and intimidation of journalists that its security forces are practicing almost on a daily basis in the West Bank. They do not want the world to see that, with the help of the Americans and some Europeans, they are building more prisons and security forces than hospitals and housing projects for the needy. They want the US and the rest of the world to continue believing that peace will prevail tomorrow morning only if Israel stops construction in the settlements and removes a number of empty caravans from remote and isolated hilltops in the West Bank. The Palestinians do not need a dictatorship that harasses and terrorizes journalists, and that is responsible for the death of detainees in its prisons. In the Arab world we already have enough dictatorships. The Palestinians do not need additional security forces, militias and armed gangs. In fact, there are too many of them, both in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. American and European taxpayers' money should be invested in building hospitals, schools and housing projects. Investing billions of dollars in training thousands of policemen and establishing new security forces and prisons will not advance the cause of peace and coexistence. There is no doubt that many Palestinians would love to abandon the culture of uniform and weapons in favor of improved infrastructure and medical care. As for the international media, it's time to abandon the policy of double standards in covering the Israeli-Arab conflict. For many years, the mainstream media in the US and Europe turned a blind eye to stories about financial corruption under Yasser Arafat. The result was that Arafat and his cronies got away with stealing billions of dollars that had been donated to the Palestinians by the Americans and Europeans. Back then, many foreign journalists said they believed that the stories about financial corruption in the Palestinian areas were "Zionist propaganda." Other journalists said they would rather file an anti-Israel story because this way they would become more popular with their editors and publishers. Recently, a Palestinian TV crew was stopped at a checkpoint in the West Bank, where soldiers confiscated a tape and erased its content. This incident, hardly received any coverage in the mainstream media in the US and Europe. The reason? The perpetrators were not IDF soldiers, but Palestinian Authority security officers. And the checkpoint did not belong to the IDF; it was, in fact, a Palestinian checkpoint. The story of the detention of the TV crew -- which, by the way, belonged to Al-Jazeera and the erasure of the footage did not make it to the mainstream media even after Reporters Without Borders, an organization that defends journalists worldwide, issued a statement strongly condemning the assault on the freedom of the media. Read it all here....Source: Hudson New York
 IN July 2005, al-Qa'ida's chief strategist Ayman al-Zawahiri outlined a critical element of his organisation's war against the West. "We are in a battle and more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. We are in a media battle for the hearts and minds of our umma (community)." Al-Qa'ida has made "the media battle" a key front in its war, a strategy that helps explain why the jihadist movement continues to flourish. Yet intelligence and security agencies engaged in the so-called war on terror have been slow to seize this imperative, choosing instead to remain in the shadows, avoiding the vigorous media and public debate about terrorism and how it should be combated. Their reluctance has allowed the jihadists to gain the upper hand in the crucial battle for hearts and minds. Al-Qa'ida's media strategy was deliberate and targeted from the outset, in keeping with an earlier directive from Zawahiri: "We must get our message across to the masses of the nation and break the media siege." Osama bin Laden's first television interview in May 1997 was with CNN. The launch of his World Islamic Front for Jihad against the Jews and Crusaders in 1998 was announced at a press conference, where invited journalists were treated to a show staged by his entourage of mujaheddin, firing their AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades at the mountains. In 2004 bin Laden's videotaped "Message to America" was released for broadcast just before the US elections. From its inception, al-Qa'ida established a media committee to run its propaganda offensive and a media production company, Al-Sahab, to film and distribute professionally produced videos, DVDs and other propaganda. Its activity has escalated markedly in recent years. In 2006, Al-Sahab released 58 videos, one every six days. In 2007 it issued 97, one every four days. The trend has continued. More..... Source: The Australian
 27th March Those who are regularly left open-mouthed at the way in which the British media puts across an overwhelmingly Arab narrative about Israel and the Middle East, transmitting lies and distortions as facts and reversing victim and victimiser to present Israel as the regional aggressor and the Palestinians as their targets, may well also scratch their heads at being told with monotonous regularity that ‘the Jews control the media’. Well now Arab Media Watch lifts a curtain to show us the real lobby at work. It boasts: Some 200 guests gathered at Kensington's Royal Garden Hotel on 21 March 2009 to attend Arab Media Watch’s fifth annual fundraising dinner, and to mark its ninth anniversary. Among the guests were almost three-dozen senior journalists from the BBC, Al Jazeera English, Financial Times, Reuters, Daily Mail, Independent, Asharq Al Awsat, Al Quds Al Arabi, Al Hayat and others. The evening began with a welcome speech by AMW chairman Sharif Hikmat Nashashibi, who outlined the extensive work done by the organisation during and since Israel's invasion of Gaza, including: - forcing the media to correct factual errors
- meeting with editors and journalists
- providing them with information
- being interviewed by them or arranging interviews for them
- getting letters and articles published
- being quoted and cited in articles
- publishing studies, press releases and Action Alerts
- organising and speaking at events
- helping university students and researchers ‘All this was done,’ Nashashibi reminded the audience, ‘while continuing our work on media portrayals of the entire Arab world, a huge but vital task undertaken on a budget that’s dwarfed by that of the pro-Israel lobbies.’ He added: ‘We've proven the sceptics wrong for the last nine years, establishing ourselves as a credible, professional, dynamic organisation with the recognition, respect and support of much of the British media, and high-level contacts in every news organisation…AMW is making a considerable and invaluable difference, and wants to continue doing so.’ Here are some of the ‘factual errors’ that on its website AMW has tried to correct: - The ‘myth that Hamas is out to destroy Israel
- The ‘myth that Palestinian rockets are a grave threat to Israeli civilians’
- The ‘myth that five Arab armies tried to wipe out Israel in 1948: ‘Strictly speaking, therefore, the Arab states did not launch a war against Israel, but undertook an armed intervention which was both lawful and justified.’
On and on its goes, lie after smear after brazen lie. And now just look at how, as AMW goes on to detail, the British media fawned over these purveyors of gross and inflammatory untruths: Ian Black, the Guardian’s Middle East editor, was unable to speak at the dinner due to illness, but he wrote a statement of support that Nashashibi read out. ‘I'd like briefly to pay tribute to the work of AMW,’ the statement began. ‘For anyone in the British media writing about the Middle East or the wider Arab world, AMW - very ably run by Sharif Nashashibi - has become a force to be reckoned with. It has served notice that inaccuracy, misrepresentation, half-truths and prejudice are simply not acceptable - and has done much to monitor and combat them.’ Black continued: ‘AMW has played an especially important role on Iraq and Palestine. Its work on the Gaza war was both combative and effective. Its letters to editors, op-ed articles and complaints about biased or misleading coverage have become part of the landscape.’ He added: ‘To some extent AMW has filled the gap left by the failures of the Palestinians and Arab governments to state their case as effectively as they could and should've done. That's especially true with regard to the Arab Peace Initiative, which surely remains the only workable basis for a just and comprehensive solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.’ Black concluded: ‘The work of AMW is necessary, courteous and professional. I commend it to you wholeheartedly.’ The next speaker was Barbara Serra, presenter for Al Jazeera English (formerly with the BBC, Sky News and Channel 5), whose introduction was followed by projected footage of her heated interview of Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev during the Gaza invasion. ‘It's easy to forget, when one works closely with and in the Middle East, how little knowledge the general public across the world often has about the issues behind the continuing tensions, from the illegal occupation in the West Bank to the continuing expansion of settlements there,’she said. ‘That's why the work of AMW is so invaluable. They don't just fight against prejudice and distortion in the media, but also highlight inaccuracies which, if left unchecked, would only reinforce the misconceptions many hold towards the Arab world.’ A performance by comedian Ian Stone was followed by the presentation of AMW's annual award for excellence in journalism to world-renowned reporter, author and documentary filmmaker John Pilger, whose daughter Zoe accepted the award and read out a statement by him. ‘This is an honour I very much appreciate, and I send warm thanks from Australia to all of you at AMW, ‘he wrote. ‘I pay tribute tonight to AMW, and to Al Jazeera, and to all the courageous Arab journalists who have brought us the truth...’ Attendees watched clips of Pilger’s documentaries ‘Breaking the Silence: Truth and Lies in the War on Terror’ and ‘Palestine is Still the Issue.’ A three-course dinner was then served, with Arabic music in the background, quotes from the night's speakers projected on screen, and a raffle and auction which included five-star holidays, paintings by renowned Arab artists, and antique Arab furniture. Peter Oborne, political columnist at the Daily Mail and contributing editor at the Spectator, was unable to speak at the dinner because he had to travel unexpectedly to Afghanistan, but he wrote a message of support that Nashashibi read out: ‘The most noble purpose of journalism is to tell the truth and expose falsehood. Too often, British journalism achieves the exact opposite. It tells lies and glorifies falsehood. That's why the work of AMW is so important. It sets out to combat the climate of deception that dominates too much of our reporting.’ And here is more feedback from AMW’s grateful media client base:
‘Thank you…We did enjoy it.’ - Financial Times / Reuters
‘Many thanks for inviting me. I enjoyed it.’ - The Independent ‘I enjoyed the programme and the company of your nice guests.’ - BBC
‘Thank you very much for the invitation. I wish you all the success you deserve.’ - BBC ‘Thank you very much for the invitation. I really enjoyed the annual dinner. It was refreshing. It was, as before, perfectly organised…’ – BBC ‘Thank you so much for your generous invitation…The event was wonderful and the presentation was flawless…Best wishes for continued success…’ – BBC. Source: The Spectator
 By Firouz Sedarat
DUBAI - Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden accused conservative Arab leaders of plotting with the West against Muslims and urged his followers to prepare for jihad (holy war), in a recording posted on Islamist websites.
"The hearts of our rulers are like those of the enemies. Whether in Najd (Saudi Arabia) or in Egypt, they never soften, Pharaohs who have returned to humiliate Arabs," he said, reciting a poem honouring Gaza resistance to Israel's offensive.
He also called for the creation of a body of devout clerics to draw up a list warning Muslims about "enemies, hypocrites, their media such as newspapers ... radio stations and satellite channels, of which the most dangerous are the latter two."
The list, he said, should include the British Broadcasting Corporation, U.S.-funded Arabic-language television al-Hurra in Iraq, and the Saudi-funded Al Arabiya channel in Dubai.
Bin Laden described Israel's offensive in Gaza and its attacks on the Palestinian territory as a "holocaust" and said militants wanting to help Gazans should support Iraqis fighting U.S.-led forces and Baghdad's government.
"It is clear that some Arab leaders have plotted with the Zionist-crusader coalition against our (Muslim) people, these (Arab countries) the United States calls the moderate states," bin Laden said.
"We must seriously work and prepare for jihad to enforce the right and abolish the wrong," bin Laden said in the 33-minute audio recording dated March 2009, that was posted on Saturday.
JORDAN
He made a similar call for jihad on January 14.
"The valuable and rare opportunity for those who sincerely want to free (Jerusalem) is to support the mujahideen in Iraq with everything they need to free the country," he said, adding that Jordan would be the next country to be liberated, giving militants access to the West Bank.
The recording entitled "Practical steps to liberate Palestine", in which the speaker's voice sounded like earlier bin Laden messages, was produced by al Qaeda media arm As-Sahab. It was accompanied by an English translation of its text.
"Gaza's holocaust after the long siege is a historic event and tragedy that underlines the need for a separation between Muslims and hypocrites," bin Laden said.
More than 60 messages have been broadcast by bin Laden, his second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri and their allies since the Sept. 11 attacks in 2001. Source: Reuters
 NEW YORK - The Al Jazeera Network plans to announce on Thursday that it has signed a deal to run its news on Worldfocus, a syndicated nightly news program produced in New York and distributed throughout the United States.
The deal would help the international news network, one of the top services in the Arabic-speaking world, broaden its reach in the United States, where it so far has been available to only a limited audience.
Worldfocus, hosted by former NBC News correspondent Martin Savidge, is produced by New York City public broadcaster WLIW and syndicated to a number of Public Broadcasting Service affiliates, as well as other stations in 60 U.S. markets, including 27 of the top 30. Source: Reuters
Coming to Sony Ericsson mobile phones: JihadTV."The Al Jazeera Network has announced a partnership with Sony Ericsson, where RSS feeds of its news content will be pre-installed on four models of its mobile devices in both the Middle East and North Africa."
This means that owners of these phones will soon be able to enjoy quality Al Jazeera programs like this: a birthday party for a child killer, Samir Kuntar, who forced a little girl to watch as he shot her father, then bashed her brains out with a rifle butt.
Sony Ericsson should be ashamed of themselves for promoting this evil hatred. Source: WiredH/T: LGFSony Ericsson
Latest recipient of The Dhimmi Award
Los Angeles Times writer Ashraf Khalil complains that the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera isn’t available in the US, and as evidence of their excellent reporting he shows a video clip by an Al Jazeera reporter trolling hospital beds in Gaza: In praise of Al Jazeera.
The report Khalil praises is blatant propaganda, with the sole purpose of inflaming emotions against Israel.
And of course, this is the cleaned-up, sanitized Al Jazeera for Western consumption. If you watch them in Arabic you get the real stuff.
For example, this incredibly vile birthday party for released terrorist Samir Kuntar—who shot a child’s father in front of her, then bashed the little girl’s brains out with a rifle butt.
This sickening, utterly depraved show alone should prevent Al Jazeera from ever being picked up by US cable providers, but people like Ashraf Khalil are doing their best to trick the American public into looking elsewhere. Source: LGF
Middle East network covering DNC from office in Denver suburb
Posted: August 22, 2008
10:40 pm Eastern
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
Residents of suburban Golden, Colo., say they don't want the Middle East television network Al Jazeera setting up a broadcast office in town for the coming Democratic convention, forcing the city manager to withdraw an invitation to network officials to join him for a picnic.
According to the Denver Post, Golden City Manager Mike Bestor withdrew an invitation to the crew for the news channel known for broadcasting updates from al-Qaida.
The controversy arose when area residents discovered the network was setting up a base of operations from which to cover the DNC in the Denver suburb.
Bestor said he issued the barbecue invitation to Al Jazeera English officials as a private citizen after the network said it wanted to do interviews at the gathering. The network had contracted with a local bar, the Buffalo Rose, to use as a base for its operations during the DNC.
But residents took their complaints to the city council, demanding officials not allow the network to broadcast from town.
"I am not happy about Al Jazeera infiltrating our small town and portraying us however they see fit," resident Dawne Montoya told KWGN-TV.
City officials said the Arab network approached them about broadcasting from Golden and no city money would go towards the project. They stand by their decision, even though residents are objecting.
"We treated them like any other news organization, we believe in the First Amendment, freedom of speech, freedom of press is so vitally important," Bestor told the station.
Al Jazeera representatives contended their network is misrepresented in America and has no agenda but to show the world what American politics are all about.
"I think it's unfortunate when people try to stifle different voices when people don't want to hear or allow other people to hear what is being said," spokesman Rob Reynolds told KWGN.
In a statement on the city's website, officials said the city council "listened to a large volume of public comment" regarding Al Jazeera during its city council meeting Aug. 21.
The city concluded it "doesn't have the right to restrict or prohibit Al Jazeera or any other news agency from broadcasting out of the city, whether we approve of their coverage or not, whether we share their perspectives or not, whether we find their coverage offensive or not."
The city statement said Bestor had offered the invitation to Al Jazeera to his barbecue "believing that doing so would enable him to ensure that a representative group of Golden citizens were interviewed and that Golden would be "fairly represented."
But he apologized for the "divisiveness" his actions had brought about and confirmed he did not mean any disrespect for "the many brave veterans and men and women currently serving this country in the Armed Forces."
Al Jazeera English, a division of the parent Al Jazeera, debuted in 2006 and claims 100 million viewers worldwide. The parent, an Arabic language network, has been controversial for its broadcast of videos showing Osama bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders.
Just weeks earlier, the parent company admitted to "unethical" behavior in its coverage of Israel's release of convicted Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz said Israel's government press office raised the issue of the network's coverage of the welcome-home festivities for Kuntar in which the head of Al Jazeera's Beirut office, Ghassan bin Jiddo, praised the terrorist, calling him a "pan-Arab hero."
Kuntar was convicted of murdering four Israelis, two adults and two children, during a 1979 terrorist attack. He was released last month as part of a deal with Hezbollah. In exchange, Israel received the bodies of kidnapped soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
Haaretz reported bin Jiddo previously was awarded Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah's first interview of the Second Lebanon War. But bin Jiddo also told Syrian television officials he never would agree to interview Israelis. Source: WND
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Abdul Rahman bin Laden told news network Al Jazeera today that his sister Eman, one of his stepmothers and five of his brothers have been prevented from leaving by the authorities in Tehran since 1997. 
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