LEGITIMATE TARGET REDUX

Saddam's spies "infiltrated" leading TV network (Marie Colvin, May 11, 2003, The Sunday Times)

THE Arab news channel that won global influence after broadcasting a video of the terrorist mastermind Osama Bin Laden was infiltrated by Iraqi intelligence agents in a campaign to subvert its coverage, according to documents obtained in Baghdad.

Senior officers of Iraq's intelligence agency controlled three agents who worked at the Al-Jazeera network, say the files. Their detailed reports also refer to the Qatar-based news network as an "instrument" of the regime.

Since Al-Jazeera was founded in 1996 it has won a worldwide audience of 35m- 50m and become "the CNN of the Arab world" - watched in cafes and presidential palaces alike. When Bin Laden chose Al-Jazeera as a means of communicating to the world, the network's reputation soared.

The television station denies that its Iraqi coverage was biased or that it was operating on behalf of Saddam Hussein's regime.

The documents - covering a period from August 1999 to November 2002 - were allegedly recovered from a local office of the intelligence service in Baghdad. It is understood the files were transferred from the city's intelligence headquarters during the war.

They claim the channel was used to "foil" American aggression and outline the secret contacts between Al-Jazeera's staff and Saddam's intelligence network. A document headed "Presidency of the Republic, Mukhabarat Service", indicates apparent contact between the intelligence agency and Mohammed Jasim Al-Ali, the station's managing director.

One of the files contains a registration document for "Iraqi or foreign secret co-operatives". It also names an Iraqi employee at Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, the Qatari capital, who was codenamed Jazeera 2. An Iraqi embassy document listing his activities claims he provided the Iraqi regime with two letters written by Bin Laden.

The report, written by an official in the Iraqi embassy in Qatar, states: "(Jazeera 2) has a distinguished stand in the co- operation with us, continuously providing us with the information we request. I made him aware of the appreciation of his efforts. He has been presented with a set of gold jewellery for his wife."

They are as was said then an integral part of the terror network and should be treated as such. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 11, 2003 12:33 PM