http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,137132,00.html State Dept. Tried to Get Tape Shelved Friday, October 29, 2004 WASHINGTON - The State Department on Friday asked the government of Qatar to discourage Al-Jazeera from broadcasting a videotaped speech by Usama bin Laden (search), a senior State Department official said. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the State Department spoke to officials in Qatar before Al-Jazeera showed a portion of the tape. In it, the Al Qaeda (search) leader said the United States can avoid another attack if it stops threatening the security of Muslims. The request to the Persian Gulf government, which is considered an ally in the U.S. campaign to counter terror, was passed through the U.S. embassy in Doha, Qatar's capital. Al-Jazeera spokesman Jihad Ali Ballout issued a statement saying his station "has established itself as maintaining an independent editorial policy" and based decisions on what to air on newsworthiness. "I don't think anybody would disagree as to the high news value of the bin Laden tape," he said. The network was launched in 1996 with a five-year $150 million loan from Qatar's government. Since then, Al-Jazeera has claimed full independence from the government and executives say the station now supports itself financially. It has gained a reputation as an independent voice in a region where many other news organizations are government-controlled. Secretary of State Colin Powell (search) and other Bush administration officials have appeared in Al-Jazeera interviews, although the State Department has occasionally denounced the network as biased against the United States. The reason for going on these programs is to convey the U.S. message to the Arab world, the official said. ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.intellnet.org Post message: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
