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Al-Jazeera to Sue CNN for Airing Bin Laden Interview
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Al-Jazeera and CNN cooperation on Osama bin Laden videos. |
WASHINGTON, Feb 1 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Qatar's Al-Jazeera Arabic satellite channel, which scooped the world with exclusive videotapes of Osama bin Laden, says it will sue CNN for airing without its consent an interview with the suspected terror mastermind conducted by one of its reporters, news agencies reported.
"Al-Jazeera's board of directors is upset, and we will sue CNN," Al-Jazeera chief executive Mohammad Jassem al-Ali told Agence France-Presse (AFP) Friday.
"The tape [of the interview] is a property of Al-Jazeera" and CNN, which obtained a copy "by illegal means," did not have the right to air it without authorization, Ali said.
He did not say how CNN had obtained the tape.
CNN responded by saying it had done "nothing illegal in obtaining this tape, and nothing illegal in airing it - our affiliate agreement with Al-Jazeera gives us the express right to use any and all footage owned or controlled by Al-Jazeera, without limitation."
Eason Jordan, CNN's chief news executive, said that the U.S. network was "dumbfounded" as to why al-Jazeera had not aired or even acknowledged the existence of the interview.
In a CNN report, Jordan was quoted as saying that the network "has some very tough questions to answer. Among them, why was the interview not ever televised, why did Al-Jazeera initially deny the existence of the tape, and what other tape does Al-Jazeera have, or did it have, that had never been acknowledged or televised.
"Clearly a lot of interesting material has fallen into Al-Jazeera's hands," he said.
CNN said there were indications, however, that the tape has been circulating in the intelligence community for some time and noted that excerpts from the interview had been quoted previously by British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In remarks published on the CNN web site, Ali said Al-Jazeera will "sever its relationship with CNN and will take the necessary action to punish the organizations and individuals who stole this video and distributed it illegally."
However, in his remarks to AFP, he said Al-Jazeera would "not sever links" with the Atlanta-based international network, which is owned by AOL Time Warner.
An Al-Jazeera correspondent in Kabul had conducted the interview last October, excerpts of which were aired late Thursday, but the Qatar-based station did not broadcast it.
In the interview, bin Laden, who is Washington's chief suspect in the September 11 terror attacks on New York and Washington, vowed to pursue to the death his battle with the United States.
"The battle has moved to inside America," he said in the interview, which took place at an undisclosed location on October 21, two weeks after U.S.-led forces began a military campaign against Afghanistan.
"We will work to continue this battle, God permitting, until victory or until we meet God," bin Laden said.
"I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed," bin Laden said. "The U.S. government will lead the American people - and the West in general - into an unbearable hell and a choking life."
Asked about his alleged involvement in the September 11 attacks, bin Laden said, "America has made many accusations against us and many other Muslims around the world. Its charge that we are carrying out acts of terrorism is unwarranted."
However, bin Laden added, "If inciting people to do that is terrorism, and if killing those who kill our sons is terrorism, then let history be witness that we are terrorists."
Later in the interview, bin Laden said, "We kill the kings of the infidels, kings of the crusaders and civilian infidels in exchange for those of our children they kill. This is permissible in Islamic law and logically."
Bin Laden was asked by the Al-Jazeera reporter, "So what you are saying is that this is a type of reciprocal treatment. They kill our innocents, so we kill their innocents?"
He replied, "So we kill their innocents, and I say it is permissible in Islamic law and logic."
The reporter also asked bin Laden if he was behind the anthrax attacks in the United States.
He responded, "These diseases are a punishment from God and a response to oppressed mothers' prayers in Lebanon and Palestine."
Bin Laden ridiculed U.S. concerns that videotaped statements he has issued since the September 11 attacks might carry hidden messages.
"They made hilarious claims. They said that Osama's messages have codes in them to the terrorists."
The White House at one point had warned Al-Jazeera that bin Laden could be using his videotaped messages to issue coded instructions to his followers to launch fresh attacks.
"It's as if we were living in the time of mail by carrier pigeon, when there are no phones, no travelers, no Internet, no regular mail, no express mail and no electronic mail. I mean, these are very humorous things. They discount people's intellect," bin Laden said.
He cited the Soviet defeat in Afghanistan and the deaths of 18 U.S. servicemen in Somalia in 1993 as evidence a U.S. defeat in Afghanistan was possible.
"We believe that the defeat of America is possible, with the help of God, and is even easier for us - God permitting - than the defeat of the Soviet Union was before," he said.
"Our brothers with Somali mujahideen and God's power fought the Americans. God granted them victory. America exited dragging its tails in failure, defeat, and ruin," bin Laden said.
In a statement, the director-general of Al-Jazeera, Mohammed Jassim al-Ali, said that the network was not obligated to explain why it chose not to air this tape, and slammed CNN for broadcasting it.
According to CNN, Al-Jazeera had declined to air the tape because they felt it was not newsworthy, and CNN aired the tape because it "felt otherwise."
But in the Al-Jazeera statement published by CNN, Ali said, "Al-Jazeera does not feel it is obligated to explain its position and its reasoning of why it chose not to air the interview.
"Al-Jazeera denounces the fact that CNN resorts to such illegal ways to obtain this tape. Al-Jazeera would have expected CNN to use its judgment and respect its special relationship with Al-Jazeera by not airing material that Al-Jazeera itself chose not to broadcast," he said.
Al-Jazeera has aired three videotapes of bin Laden since October, drawing U.S. criticism for providing a platform for him and his Taliban protectors before Afghanistan's Islamist ruling militia was ousted by the U.S.-led military campaign against the country.
But Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr al-Thani cited press freedom last October to defend Al-Jazeera against U.S. charges of "inflammatory rhetoric" in its coverage of the Afghan crisis.
Al-Jazeera, the only media present in Taliban-ruled territory, gained world fame with exclusive footage of the first U.S. strikes on Kabul and a defiant bin Laden.
The satellite channel, which was then celebrating its fifth anniversary, is watched by at least 35 million viewers in the Arab world, and many more Arabs and Muslims elsewhere.
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