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Investigating Reports, Watch The Video  Al Jazeera Director Demands More Information on Secret Memo
He then published an article in the Guardian newspaper called "Why did you want to Bomb me Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair?" In it he writes, "If it is true that Bush had indeed thought of bombing the Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, this will undoubtedly constitute a watershed in the relationship between government authorities and the free media."
AMY GOODMAN: We continue to look at the Downing Street memo that allegedly reveals President Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair in April 2004 of his desire to bomb Al Jazeera. We are joined in the studios here in Doha at the headquarters of Al Jazeera by the Wadah Khanfar, the Managing Director of Al Jazeera. Days after the British newspaper, the Daily Mirror, cited the memo, he arrived in London to petition for a meeting with Prime Minister Blair to discuss the leaked memo. Mr. Khanfar, then published an article in the Guardian newspaper called, "Why Did You Want to Bomb Me, Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair?" in it he writes, quote, "If it's true that Bush had indeed thought of bombing the Al Jazeera headquarters in Doha, this will undoubtedly constitute a watershed in the relationship between government authorities and the free media." Wadah Khanfar, the Managing Director of Al Jazeera, joins us here in the studios at Al Jazeera. Welcome to Democracy Now! WADAH KHANFAR: Thank you very much. AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us. Well, can you talk about -- at this point, what do you understand? Is this memo real? WADAH KHANFAR: At this point, actually, we still, supposedly, we have to receive official response from 10 Downing Street, after we have submitted application according to the Freedom of Information Act. However, those who have read the memo confirmed to us that the memo is real. There are ten statements. Ten in that memo speak about Al Jazeera, in particular, and mention that Mr. Tony Blair and George Bush had a discussion about Al Jazeera and the issue of bombing Al Jazeera. We did ask both governments, actually, to give us, you know, a straightforward explanation of what has happened, to confirm or at least to give us the context of that discussion. However, we received many statements, but none of them definitely gave us a certain answer. So, therefore this kind of atmosphere that has been created around this memo already, you know, was received, is still received by the Arab world and by our organs as another incident, another example of the relationship between the West, unfortunately, and the Arab world. This Al Jazeera has been celebrated by the American administration as the voice for freedom and democracy up to 2001, and after 2001, two of our bureaus were bombed, one in Baghdad and one in Kabul, and then this memo came, to speak about something much more dangerous, which is bombing even the headquarters. AMY GOODMAN: Before 2001, who said that Al Jazeera is a symbol of freedom, in the Bush Administration? WADAH KHANFAR: Many spokespeople in the American administration, ministers and officials, did repeatedly take Al Jazeera as an example of freedom of expression, and they did speak about it as a freedom of expression, as a model of freedom of expression in the region, but unfortunately, the same slogan that Al Jazeera adopted, the same motto --“the opinion and the other opinion” -- we tried, you know, innocently, as journalists, to adopt the same criteria after 2001, and to carry on reporting, but it seems that “the opinion or the other opinion,” when some authorities are representing the other opinion, they don't want actually to adopt the same criteria. And therefore, we were classified, we were accused, we were even sometimes bombed, and we definitely think that was not the appropriate way that the American administration should have dealt with Al Jazeera during the last few years. AMY GOODMAN: Talking about the time of this alleged memo, mid-April 2004, this was at the siege of Fallujah. At the time, the U.S. Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, called Al Jazeera’s reporting “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable. It’s disgraceful what the station is doing.” The senior military spokesperson, Mark Kimmitt, that's U.S. military spokesperson, declared, “The stations that are showing Americans intentionally killing women and children are not legitimate news sources. That is propaganda. That is lies.” This was at the period that George Bush allegedly made this statement. Can you talk about Fallujah, the pressure on Al Jazeera at that time, and what you were doing there? WADAH KHANFAR: You know, I would say that I was at that moment in time, the bureau chief in Baghdad. So I was aware of the daily problems that we faced in our work in Iraq. More than 20 of our colleagues were detained at certain checkpoints. Some of them spent, you know, days in jail, actually, in very serious circumstances. Some of them were tortured in Baghdad. The situation in Fallujah, we – it happened that we were the only team, the only crew, that we had – Al Jazeera had the only crew inside Fallujah reporting live, actually. I remember when Kimmitt made this kind of statement, he was in the box on our screen, the other half of the screen, the other box, was showing live images from the hospital of Fallujah, about civilians who had been killed. He was telling us that, “You are fabricating the story. You are lying. You are not telling the truth,” you know, and the Arab world was watching what has been happening.  Now, of course, recently, a lot of media started to apologize about the misinformation regarding Fallujah and the fact that they were reporting incidents, or the attack on Fallujah from the embedded – embedded with the American side. So the situation in Fallujah, that was the issue. For me as a journalist, when I am reporting from wherever I am reporting from, I am relating the reality as I see it, and the Americans, at that moment of time, were not happy to listen to someone who is saying that there are civilians who have been killed, and by the way, then, they acknowledged that civilians were killed in Fallujah. That does not mean, you know, the fact that they don't like to see that on the screen, doesn't mean that me as a journalist should take these sensitivities and political considerations into account, because I have a duty towards the people. Some of our audience are the victims of Fallujah themselves. Some of our audience who receive Al Jazeera are the people who live inside Fallujah. We are part of the social and cultural fabric of the society, and we are entrusted in relating the truth about the story. So I cannot alter my reporting for the sake of -- we did not do it for Arab governments. We have been punished by governments. Our bureaus were closed. Our journalists were detained, but we have never compromised on the editorial integrity or balanced reporting when it came to the Arab governments, and we are not going to do it for any other government in the world, simply, so we should be respected as independent journalists, not as journalists who should be – should modify their reporting to suit anyone's political agenda. AMY GOODMAN: We had Ahmed Mansur on the program yesterday, who was describing that day, April 9th, April 10th, which was the anniversary of the fall of Baghdad, in Fallujah broadcasting with a satellite on the rooftop and saying that they were, Al Jazeera, he was directly targeted at the time that the bombs were falling, because the U.S. military could see exactly where they were. As you said, they were broadcasting live. WADAH KHANFAR: What we know, at least what has been coming out during that time, that the Americans, when they were negotiating with a certain team from Fallujah, they did put one of the conditions to stop the attack was to take out the Al Jazeera crew from inside Fallujah. AMY GOODMAN: As a condition for the ceasefire? WADAH KHANFAR: That was a condition for a ceasefire, that, you know, the team, the negotiating team, did speak out about this issue on Al Jazeera, and we did report that at that time. So it was -- Al Jazeera at that time was a problem, you know. The Americans spoke, as you mentioned, a lot of them, they did speak against Al Jazeera, as if we were the people who are creating the problem, you know. I think there are a lot of misconceptions about Al Jazeera, and some of these misconceptions are factually wrong. When Mr. Rumsfeld repeatedly says that Al Jazeera shows the slaughtering and the killing and the beheading of the kidnapped people in Iraq, and our people in the Arab world listen to that, because we put it in the news, and they know, those who have been watching Al Jazeera for ten years, that since 1996, since Al Jazeera started, up to this moment of time, we have never shown one frame of beheading or slaughtering, and we have very strict rules when it comes to the issues of images like that. So how are you going to explain to the people? Al Jazeera is a screen. It is public. Everyone can watch it. It is not something secret and hidden, that you can speak about it and people can believe it. Factually wrong statements came out from the American administration, and our public, our people, the people who watch Al Jazeera know that it is not true.  AMY GOODMAN: We are speaking to Wadah Khanfar. He is the Managing Director of Al Jazeera. We are in Doha, Qatar. Now, the whole question of this memo, first of all, we don't know yet if it exists. We haven't actually seen the memo. The U.S. government has said it’s outlandish, though that's not a direct denial of it. There have been those who have said, “Well, if Bush said it, he was kidding.” What's your response to that? WADAH KHANFAR: I'm not sure if kidding could be included in an official memo. I'm not sure, really, about that. Other statements like “unfathomable,” you know, I am not really expert in English language, but I don't really mean -- what does it mean? I don't know. What does it mean? Even Tony Blair, when he spoke about it, he spoke about general terminology. He said literally, okay, you know, “Luckily, Al Jazeera is still on air.” That is not a direct answer, as well. So that kind of statements, the statements that came out from 10 Downing Street and from White House, did increase, you know, suspicion in people's minds about this whole issue. AMY GOODMAN: Our previous guest said that he bumped into the British Labour Parliamentarian M.P. Peter Kilfoyle, who says he, too, had seen some version, copy, of the memo and said that in it, it says that Colin Powell, the former Secretary of State, was also at the meeting. Is that your understanding? WADAH KHANFAR: We did understand that from those who have, you know, looked at the memo. We have been informed about this issue, but we could not, of course, confirm it. What we are trying to do now with the British government is telling them to set the record straight. It is the only way to settle this matter. It is a defining moment in the history of journalism that, you know – or the relationship between authority and journalism, that a government like the United States of America, at a moment of time, thought of bombing a TV station that is recognized as the most important credible source of information for at least 70% of the Arab world. That is something, in my opinion, will be a study case in the history of this profession. So, definitely, we need to know the facts about it, and we are going ahead with it, by the way. I mean, we have our legal advisors who are working on it. The first step was to submit the application. If we receive a negative response, then, of course, we are going to go ahead, and I know that there are many members of the British Parliament, as well, who are concerned about it, from the Labour Party, you know, people are concerned about it. So I think, you know, the issue eventually has to come out, and we have to know the truth. AMY GOODMAN: Who did you meet with in Britain, when you went there after this memo was first reported on by the Daily Mirror? WADAH KHANFAR: I did not really meet with officials. We did, you know, request a meeting with Tony Blair. We did not receive, during that period, any official response. Later on, when I came back to Doha, we received a response saying that they have received – acknowledged the receiving of the document, and they are discussing this matter, and they will let us know. However, I must say here something. You know, although there was a crisis, and although the Arab world was very concerned, and Al Jazeera reporters and journalists are concerned, as well, but I came back with a good feeling. But the feeling didn't come from the government. It came from the media, from the British media and many European media, as well, that stood up, and they, you know, supported us. They spoke about this issue. They did voice out their concern about this matter, and really, I felt at that moment of time that we do belong to something bigger than a nationalistic view about journalism. We belong to, you know – that spirit that provides us all as journalists all over the world, east and west, north and south, with a great feeling and a great spirit of loving the truth and defending the right of people to express their voices. I really came up, and I spoke on Al Jazeera, and I gave to the Arab world the picture about how we were received and how the media did support us, and then I would like really to thank all of those people who voiced out their concern and they stood behind us and they supported us during that period. AMY GOODMAN: I want to ask if you will stay with us. We just have a 60-second break. We are speaking to Wadah Khanfar, who is the Managing Director of Al Jazeera. I want to ask you about what else has happened to Al Jazeera reporters in Iraq, what has happened to the offices of Al Jazeera in Kabul, in Baghdad. Recommend this article...
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