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January 05, 2005
Smoking Gun: Tape Shows Al-Jazeera, Saddam Link
Not the OBL-Saddam link we'd all like, but it does put lie to the notion of Al Jazeera as a bona fide journalistic operation:
A videotape found in a pile of documents in Baghdad following the collapse of Saddam Hussein's regime shows a former manager of the Al-Jazeera satellite channel thanking one of Saddam's sons for his support and telling him that "Al-Jazeera is your channel," the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported Sunday.
According to Asharq al-Awsat's report, the tape of the March 13, 2000, meeting shows former Al-Jazeera manager Mohammed Jassem al-Ali telling Odai Saddam Hussein, "Al-Jazeera is your channel," and Odai recalls that he proposed "some ideas" in previous meetings that led to "some changes" in political coverage, including the introduction of new hosts on Al-Jazeera programs.
The Columbia Journalism Review is planning a major expose blaming the entire affair on bloggers.