Sunday, December 30, 2007
Has al Jazz cut off al Qaeda?
Stratfor($) notes that al Qaeda's latest propaganda message did not come through al Jazeera, its usual channel.
Al Qaeda’s Dec. 28 claim of responsibility for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto was not transmitted through the organization’s usual messenger, Al Jazeera. This change probably resulted from a deal between the United States, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Rather than using Al Jazeera, al Qaeda spokesman Al Qaeda Mustafa Abu al-Yazid — likely working through elements connected to Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus— transmitted a message via phone to Italian news agency Adnkronos International (AKI) and Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online...
The shift in Al Jazeera’s al Qaeda coverage probably resulted from negotiations between Doha, Qatar; Riyadh, and Washington. The Qatari government has come under pressure from the United States and Saudi Arabia to rein in Al Jazeera and aid in Washington’s and Riyadh’s efforts to undermine support for al Qaeda in Iraq. Al Jazeera’s modification follows a recent rapprochement between Qatar and Saudi Arabia that emerged in a December deal between the two governments with several breakthroughs that included the return of Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Qatar. (Saudi Arabia has not had an ambassador in Qatar since 2003, when the Saudi ambassador was withdrawn over an Al Jazeera broadcast critical of the Saudi royal family.) The deal also included Saudi King Abdullah’s attendance at the Gulf Cooperation Council in Doha in December. (King Abdullah has boycotted the meeting since it was last hosted in Doha, in 2002.) Finally, the deal provided that Qatar would ensure future Al Jazeera broadcasts no longer would “undermine” or campaign against Saudi Arabia; in exchange, Saudi Arabia would permit the network to establish a bureau in Riyadh.
If true, Bush administration diplomacy has cut off al Qaeda's loudest megaphone into the Arab Muslim world. There was a day when this would have clearly been a significant victory in the information war, because most other media available in many of those countries is controlled. The question is whether alternative pipes -- other satellite television, other mainstream media, and internet-based new media -- will substitute.
3 Comments:
By 
Unknown, at
Sun Dec 30, 11:31:00 AM:
I suspect this is true. I read Al jazeera English almost every day and I have noticed a difference in the coverage these past few months.
There is alot less coverage of the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. And there have even been a couple of articles that showed some Israelis as human beings.
I am sure this is not an accident but a deliberate editorial change. It has a long way to go before I would consider it an honest source of info, but it is throwing less red meat to the mob.
By 
, at
Sun Dec 30, 12:58:00 PM:
And people say that the Bush administration is incapable of subtlety...
FYI, the English and Arabic versions are different, sometimes dramatically so. Just the English doesn't necessarily reflect how the company reports in the Arab world.
By , at
Sun Dec 30, 03:24:00 PM:
That only leaves CNN, Reuters, AP, NYT,WaPo, CBS, ABC, NBC, CNBC, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, John Kerry and Jack Murtha, to name a few.
