Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Guardian: Documents Show US Views Al-Jazeera as Al Qaeda Front

The Guardian reports they have seen documents that show an al-Jazeera cameraman being held in Guantanamo Bay was offered to be released if he would spy on al-Jazeera which the US military apparently views to be an Al Qaeda front.......
Mr Hajj was arrested in December 2001 on the Afghan-Pakistani border while on assignment. His allegations are contained in notes of visits he received in Guantánamo in June this year from his lawyer Clive Stafford-Smith. The notes have been declassified by the US military.

The documents appear to show that the American military views the broadcaster, which is popular in the Arab world and is about to launch an English language channel, as an al-Qaida front.

Mr Hajj said that in one session of questioning he was offered US citizenship if he became a spy: "They have said, 'If you work with us, we will teach you journalism, we will get you a visa to live anywhere you want, we will even give you US nationality, we will protect you, we will give you money. We will help you write a book and then we will publish it. This will help make the al-Qaida people contact you, and work with you.'"Mr Hajj is a Sudanese national and is married with a five-year-old child. In the documents he also alleges that the US military threatened his family if he accepted release and then refused to spy on al-Jazeera. Al-Jazeera has angered the US by broadcasting recordings of Osama bin Laden threatening the west.

So we have claims that the US views al-Jazeera as basically the enemy. Perhaps the Mirror is on to something with their report that Bush wanted to bomb al-Jazeera. (See last post)

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