Squeezing Al Jazeera

Think the Saudis are getting bad press in the U.S.? It's nothing compared to the negative treatment they're getting from at least one source in the Arabic-speaking world -- Qatar's Al Jazeera. The satellite news service is now paying the price.

Al Jazeera is in a financial squeeze because Saudi Arabia has led a boycott against the news service that has cost it many of its commercial sponsors. The Saudis and other Gulf states are offended by Al Jazeera's disrepectful tone, or, as the KSA puts it, its ?deliberate and programmed assaults against the Kingdom and its leaders.?

Now, the Kingdom's effective ruler, Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, is refusing to show up in Doha, Qatar for a scheduled regional meeting that begins Saturday, because Qatar's emir (Sheik Hamad Bin) has refused to restrain the Doha-based news service. Several other heads of Gulf states have followed suit, turning the Al Jazeera boycott into a boycott of Qatar itself.

Both the Saudis and the Jordanians have recently recalled their ambassadors from Doha to protest Al Jazeera material.

Comments

[Burt egel]

Considering al jazeera's supposed influence, and our new, cozy relationship with Qatar, the US would do well to financially support them. The propaganda bennies (Whose bread I eat...) would be enormous. Neutralize (at least) the loudest voice over there. Might already be happening, considering this news.

[E Raymond Smith]

GREETINGS, Bastards! It's me, Emmett Smith! No, NOT the football-sonofabitch, the OLD farmer from Eagle Lake! And I'm here to tell you, good for al-Jazeera! Now if only ONE of these pussyfooting US 'free' news outfits would just put it up Bush's ass...just a little, maybe! As a libertarian, ALL I have to say is that if there's anything more obnoxious than a Young Republican it's an AGING Young Republican...these people are NOT Winston Churchill; and, A/G Ashcroft is actually a cunt!

RESPECTFULLY, Former (Thanks to the God-damned IRS!) Farmer Smith

[E Raymond Smith]

GREETINGS, Bastards! It's me, Emmett Smith! No, NOT the football-sonofabitch, the OLD farmer from Eagle Lake! And I'm here to tell you, good for al-Jazeera! Now if only ONE of these pussyfooting US 'free' news outfits would just put it up Bush's ass...just a little, maybe! As a libertarian, ALL I have to say is that if there's anything more obnoxious than a Young Republican it's an AGING Young Republican...these people are NOT Winston Churchill; and, A/G Ashcroft is actually a cunt!

RESPECTFULLY, Former (Thanks to the God-damned IRS!) Farmer Smith