“Why Did You Want to Bomb Me, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair?”

I can’t count the number of accusations against Al-Jazeera and the attempts at harassment we have suffered since 1996. According to rumors, we have successively been an instrument of Mossad, the CIA, Bin Laden, and then Saddam Hussein. At the same time we have been criticized by Zarkaui and Rumsfeld. We know that some such rumors have been spread by the Arab intelligence service that wants to get the Arab viewers detached from Al-Jazeera.
Until 2001, this TV network was generally liked in the West and particularly in the US because it showed the Arab world differently. The hostility of Arab regimes was seen as proof of our professionalism and objectivity. But after 9/11, Al Jazeera has become the prop of information in Afghanistan and then in Iraq. However, the worldwide decision makers dislike the introduction of contrary opinions this time.
Iraq has set a new standard: 74 journalists from expert teams or translators have died in that conflict – two of them employed by Al Jazeera. We have been subjected to pressures and charged with stirring up violence. Our sites in Kabul and Baghdad have been bombed. On both occasions we were told it had been a mistake, but no investigations whatsoever have been made and now we know that they would like to bomb our offices in Qatar.
I demanded an explanation, but have had no answer from the British authorities. We want to know the truth about that plan, about Tayseer Alluni’s incarceration in Spain, and Sami Al-Haji in Guantánamo, and about Tariq Ayub’s death in Iraq.