As the country continued a fierce debate over the war in Iraq last week, America took a largely unnoticed blow in the war on terrorism.

The debut of Al-Jazeera International, the English-language version of the controversial Arabic-language network Al-Jazeera, is a stunning defeat for the United States. In fact, Al-Jazeera International has plans to establish a broadcast center in the very heart of the nation’s capital, Washington D.C. It has yet to find a cable or satellite host in the U.S., but it seems it’s only a matter of time. The fact that Al-Jazeera International is staffed with well-known western journalists such as former BBC host David Frost, former ABC anchor Dave Marash and former CNN journalist Riz Khan will only strengthen its appeal to legitimacy. But the reasons for not allowing Al-Jazeera International to infiltrate our country are legion.

As is the case with its Arabic-language sister channel, Al-Jazeera International is owned and funded by a foreign government, the Emir of Qatar. Although Qatar is an alleged ally of the United States, much like many of our Arab allies, the relationship is not one of mutual trust. Americans have seen that there are two messages put forward by such allies ? one in Arabic and one in English and they have very little in common.

The public furor earlier this year over the Dubai Ports World deal, which would have involved the Dubai royal family (another “friendly” Arab regime) taking control of key U.S. seaports, was not misplaced. The same situation, if not worse, exists with Al-Jazeera International. This may explain why, according to an Accuracy In Media (AIM) opinion poll, the American people overwhelmingly oppose the channel’s launch in the United States.

Al-Jazeera’s history of coverage sympathetic to terrorism only strengthens this mistrust. The channel has a well-deserved reputation in America as a mouthpiece for al-Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups. It’s no coincidence that the Islamic Army of Iraq recently praised Al-Jazeera for aiding its “fight against the enemies” or that various videotape productions put out by members of al-Qaeda somehow mysteriously make their way to Al-Jazeera’s doorstep. One has to wonder at times if there’s a slot in the back door marked “terrorist tapes.”

Al-Jazeera’s pro-terrorist activities don’t stop there. Earlier this year, the Spanish Supreme Court rejected Al-Jazeera correspondent Tayseer Alouni’s appeal of a seven-year sentence for ties to an al-Qaeda cell involved with the 9/11 attacks. In Iraq, authorities were so incensed over Al-Jazeera’s inflammatory coverage that they closed down their Baghdad offices in 2004. Similarly, during its war with Hezbollah earlier this year, Israeli authorities arrested several Al-Jazeera employees on suspicion of aiding the enemy. Closer to home, Al-Jazeera journalists have been seen visiting America’s northern and southern border areas for reasons as-of-yet unknown.

These incidents are merely the tip of the iceberg and they certainly raise questions about the integrity of Al-Jazeera International, which is not, as some are claiming, independent from Al-Jazeera. The fact that three of Al-Jazeera International’s managing executives were also executives at Al-Jazeera would seem to contradict claims that the channel will put forward different content.    

Defenders of Al-Jazeera like to describe the network as a beacon of free speech in the repressive and tightly controlled world of Arab media. But rather than present Arab audiences with a much-needed dose of non-state-sanctioned reality, Al-Jazeera instead gives them unadulterated propaganda.

It’s an understatement to say that the perspective being put forth by Al-Jazeera is relentlessly anti-American and anti-Israel. Al-Jazeera in fact serves the purpose of Arab dictatorships by deflecting all blame for internal problems onto the outside world. Instead of covering the numerous human rights abuses being carried out by Muslim governments and terrorist groups, often against their own people, Al-Jazeera brainwashes its audience into a constant state of fear and aggression toward others. Should it be allowed to flourish, Al-Jazeera International could very well have the same effect on American Muslims.

When it comes to hatred, anti-Semitism is perhaps the most ubiquitous among Al-Jazeera’s programming. Just last month, a program aired on Al-Jazeera in which an Iraqi “researcher” living in Europe labeled the Nobel Prize part of a Jewish plot that originated with the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion.” This Czarist forgery-turned-modern-day myth is a recurring theme on Al-Jazeera and an attempt to try and explain away the sense of inferiority felt in the Arab world towards those who have chosen the path of achievement and progress over hatred and backwardness.

How Al-Jazeera International’s Jewish employees feel about being associated with an outfit that produces such programs remains to be seen. Ultimately, it’s they who have to look themselves in the mirror, but the American public needn’t follow them down the path of self-hatred.  

Of those who have tried to prevent Al-Jazeera International from coming to America, the nation’s oldest media watchdog group Accuracy In Media (AIM) has been at the forefront. AIM Editor Cliff Kincaid has been a vocal critic of Al-Jazeera International, lending his narration to a DVD on the topic, “Terror Television: The Rise of Al-Jazeera and the Hate America Media,” as well as publicly debating Al-Jazeera International anchor David Marash. Marash and his merry band of fellow anti-American western journalists have been inducted into AIM’s Hall of Shame, and rightfully so. In addition, AIM has sponsored the website www.stopaljazeera.org where readers can go to find more information about how to prevent Al-Jazeera International from taking root in the U.S.

But the very fact that the surreal prospect is even on the horizon says much about America’s continuing inability to engage in the propaganda arm of the war on terrorism. It is indeed one of our biggest blind spots and unless we begin to take the information wars seriously, even our military superiority will not save us. It doesn’t help that much if our own media appears to be fighting the propaganda battle, not on our behalf, but on behalf of our enemies.

We have seen repeatedly how America’s enemies make use of propaganda both to further their own cause and to undermine ours. Al-Qaeda has even stated that 50% of its war is conducted through the media. Yet our leadership has largely failed to pinpoint a strategy for fighting back.

State Department efforts such as Voice of America, Radio Sawa, Al-Hurrah television and the now-defunct Hi International magazine have had little to no impact. When it was learned last year that the U.S. military was finally engaging in an “information offensive” in Iraq, the program was dumped due to criticism in the mainstream media. But if we are to approach this battle with any seriousness, then it will require the sort of commitment to propaganda not seen since WWII. In other words, political correctness need not apply.

In this case, that means saying what our leaders will not. Al-Jazeera International is enemy media, plain and simple. We allow it to proliferate in America at our peril.

 

The original article can be found at http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/

 

Guest columns do not necessarily reflect the views of Accuracy in Media or its staff.

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