Al-Jazeera –‘Taqiyya Television’- Begins in Australia

The Opening move: Cairo 2001

Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer al Thani Chairman of the Board of Al-Jazeera was in a discursive mode as he spoke to TBS Senior Editor Abdullah Schleifer and the then managing Editor Sarah Sullivan in 2001.”We have now encrypted Al-Jazeera in Australia.’

(Source: TBS Archives: No 7 Fall/Winter 2001 #2)

The “Incredible Stroke of Timing” 2001

Optus television customers who subscribed to Arabic-language channels in Australia were amongst the select few to see Usama Bin Laden deliver his video statement, the first since September 11 attacks. Channel 43 was the new home of the Arabic –language 24 hours news channel Al-Jazeera which what has been described as ‘an incredible stroke of timing’ was added to the Optus platform in Australia on 1 October 2001. About 230,000 viewers currently subscribe to a package of Arabic-language channels through Optus International and World Media International.

(Source: The Age 11 October 2001.)

The Australian-Al Jazerra link 2003

Jordanian –born 45 year old ‘freelance journalist’ Salef  Saqqaf is reportedly due to head Al-Azeri’s Australian operation in late 2003. He migrated to Australia in 1985 and reported for Al-Jazeera since 1997, the year after al-Jazeera was established.

Saqqaf has resided in Australia for the past three years working from his home in Sydney NSW.  He joins al-Jazeera’s network of 90 correspondents. He also engages in ‘occasional’ work for SBS radio.  Saqaaf modestly refuses to disclose the number of Al Jazerra viewers in Australia.

In press interviews Saqqaf is critical of Australian media coverage of the Arab world and perhaps reveals his concept of fair and balanced reporting:

‘Generally, I don’t think the Australia media is covering all aspects of this conflict in Iraq. …That has been the same with the Palestinian issue. They are concentrating on the surface…They talk for instance, about the conflict between Iraq and Kuwait, and when Iraq invaded Kuwait. They’re not looking at the historical aspect of what happened.’ 

‘It’s easy to say. “Oh look; Iraq (has) lots of mass destruction weapons.” For Arab countries, mass destruction (is) something they’re proud of. And when Iraq started (becoming) a country which had mass destruction weapons, around 15 or 20 years ago, they think: “yes, it’s our right”. It’s a (source of pride), because they want to compete with Israel’

(Source: The Age March 20 2003 (emphasis added))

Rarely has the Iraq invasion of Kuwait or the right of Arab countries to weapons of mass destruction or the WMD threat to Israel been so tortuously delineated.

Al-Jazera :Al-Qaida’s media asset

Al-Jazeera is favoured  by Bin Laden and Al Qaida for issuing terrorist threats against the United States Australia and other western countries, and as a post –office box for dropping anonymous ‘tapes and other non-verifiable sources of information and  as a source of information through its agents, sympathisers , assets and sources within al-Jazeerra journalistic networks and offices.

Al-Jazeera ‘reporters’ throughout the world and the Middle East are well placed to ask ‘trick’ questions at public and media conferences. Some of these ‘questions’, may be in the form of  requirements for bin Laden and Al Qaida and used for intelligence counter intelligence or targetting  purposes as Al-Jazeera has a valuable quality in information collection: access. For example, a senior manager and two other Al-Jazeera staff were recently exposed as agents of the Iraqi intelligence service.

In  the context of Al-Jazerra’s relationship with Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, the al-Jazeera upgrade in Australia is more than symbolic; it is a subtle extension of extremist and prospectively, terrorist interest in Australia.

Al Jazeera’s form of Taqiyya television has three operational purposes: Pre-terrorist attitude formation or conditioning amongst Australia target audiences; strategic  disinformation aimed at Western governments, the US and Israel in particular and rationalisation (‘explaining’ or ‘contextualising’) terrorist acts against Asian US and Western targets.

Al-Jazeera is terrorism by other means: the psychological and strategic dimension of terrorism which aims to de-authorise resistance or opposition or even awareness of terrorism by repetitive denial: in two words: Taqiyya television...

Previous editorials

   

20th June 2004

  Lakemba's terrorist connections: The 'axis of evil' in Australia

9th May 2004

  Australia’s Mufti Sheikh Hilaly meets Hezbollah in Lebanon

23rd April 2004

  Pakistan-born Faheem Khalid Lodhi, aka Abu Hamza, charged

12th April 2004

  Lakemba, Australia: A great place for transnational terrorists

15th February 2004

  Sydney’s Sheikh Feiz and his students

7th January 2004

  The Al Qaeda CI /CE challenge

16th December 2003

  ASIO management and Willie Virgil Brigitte’s dark terrorist network in Australia

11th November 2003

  Australia’s Islamic fundamentalist Sheikh Mohamed Omran’s Mystery Train

13th October 2003

  Al Qaeda and Islamic rules on espionage

22nd September 2003

  REVIEW: INSIDE AL QAEDA: How I infiltrated the World’s deadliest terrorist organisation

9th September 2003

  ANDREW WILKIE: ONA and Australia’s Progressive Intelligence Officer

16th March 2003

  Al-Jazeera –‘Taqiyya Television’- Begins in Australia

4th March 2003

  Yosri Fouda of Al Jazeera meets Saddam Hussein and the Director of Iraqi Intelligence: Why? Fouda - A contaminated source

17th March 2003

  Yosri Fouda and Al- Jazeera- Journalism as terrorism by other means

2nd December 2002

  Taqiyya and kitman: The role of Deception in Islamic terrorism
6th November 2002 A noted Anglican theologian discusses the ‘Terrorist Threat’
31st October 2002 Implications of the Washington ‘sniper case’: A scenario for US-Iraq war-time terrorism
19th October 2002 Bali and Australian Intelligence Failure: ASIO / ONA / DFAT / DIO Directors should be dismissed
6th October 2002 Terrorism with a return address: The nuclear suitcase bombs threat
23rd September 2002 In the name of Allah, the wise and the merciful
19th August 2002 Intelligence  (mis)management :  The Platitude Masters versus intelligence analysts
10th May 2002 Record of conversation between (deleted) Australian Intelligence Officer and USIO
10th March 2002 The Assassination of Daniel Pearl:  Islam hates “The Other”
11th February 2002   Australia's most sophisticated Anti-American Elite Organisation: Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT)
15th January 2002   The neutralisation of intelligence: The rise of the legal mystique, the decline of intelligence capability and the rise in terrorism
25th November 2001   Interview with Professor I C Comfort, Professor of Multicultural Law and Inter Ethnic Jurisprudence
10th November 2001 Lakemba's Sheik Hilaly:Australia’s anti-semitic multicultural Mufti with many masks
26th October 2001 Muslim fundamentalism: the false comfort of illusions
19th October 2001

One thousand Bin Ladens: Inflammatory Australian Muslim Web Site - pro Bin Laden and pro Taliban

15th October 2001

Psycho-linguistic warfare and Terrorism: the use of ‘BUT’
12th October 2001 The methodology of theories of conspiracy
7th October 2001 The Australian Broadcasting Commission’s  Propaganda:  War by other means
30th September 2001 Bin Laden in Australia
26th September 2001 BIN LADEN'S war against the United States of America and the West
21st September 2001 Australia: elite anti US opinion
 

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