harmed by US forces (1) . On December 15, 2001, U.S. forces de- tained cameraman Sami Al-Haj, as he was doing his job in Af- ghanistan. Al-Haj was then sent to Guantanamo Bay, accused of being a member Al Qaeda. He was released in May 2008 without any official charge. The U.S. aggression against Al Jazeera was repeated during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, when a U.S. fighter jet bombed the channel’s Baghdad office on April 8. This time, how- ever, the assault killed Al Jazeera’s correspondent, Tariq Ayyub, and injured Iraqi cameraman Zouheir Nazem, as they were cov- ering the invasion (2) . In both cases, the U.S. outright rejected the bombing was intentional. Meanwhile, it expressed how disturbed it was by Al Jazeera’s coverage; the images of civilian casualties, and the stances of anti-U.S. parties aired by the channel during the two wars. It was difficult to dismiss the two attacks as mere mistakes, particularly as the then director, Mohamed Jasim Al-Ali, notified the Pentagon by means of an official note on 24 th February 2003, of Al Jazeera’s office location in Baghdad, so they do not repeat the Kabul tragedy. The then spokesman for Al Jazeera, Jihad Ballout, stressed that Al-Ali’s note, including full address and detailed co- ordinates of Al Jazeera’s office, was addressed to Victoria Clark, Assistant U.S. Defense Secretary for Public Affairs (3) . Days after
(1) Ibid.
(2) For more details on the U.S. bombing of Al Jazeera’s office and Palestine Hotel in Baghdad on 8 April 2003, see for example: Dahr Jamail, “The deadliest war for journalists”, Aljazeera. com , (11 April 2013): https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2013/4/11/iraq-the-deadliest-war-for-journalists/ (accessed 15 November 2020). Jane Perlez, “At Least 3 Journalists Die in Blast at Baghdad Hotel”, New York Times , (8 April 2003): https://www.nytimes.com/2003/04/08/international/worldspecial/ at-least-3-journalists-die-in-blast-at-baghdad.html/ (accessed 15 November 2020). “Attacks on the Press 2003: Iraq”, Committee to Protect Journalists , (11 March 2004): https://cpj.org/2004/03/attacks-on-the-press-2003-iraq/ (accessed 15 November 2020).
(3) “At Least 3 Journalists Die”, New York Times , ibid.
269
EN2.indd 269
20/02/2022 4:14 PM
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter