Al-Jazeera America Is Shutting Down

Yes, Pravda-on-the-Hudson is reporting that al-Jazeera,AKA Jihad TV is calling it quits here in the US.

After paying a cool $500 mill to acquire Al Gore's Current TV, the call went out to jihad-friendly writers and on air personalities everywhere to come aboard and preach dawa to America on the Emir of Qatar's dime. And they spent millions promoting al-Jazeera as a smart, new and happening thing.

Fortunately, American audiences never bought into it. Jihad TV started in August of 2013 with tops, 15,000 prime time viewers on a good night. No matter what, they were never able to get more than 20,000 to 30,000 viewers per night. And that was when things were going extremely well.

In addition, there was quite a bit of behind the scenes drama, micro-management and genuinely nasty behavior off screen involving the management and the staff, many of whom jumped ship or were fired. And there were lawsuits from former employees complaining of sexual harassment and anti-semitism at the Arab-owned station...what a surprise, eh?

Today, in a memo to the staff, Al Jazeera America’s chief executive, Al Anstey announced that Jihad TV was pulling the plug and would cease operations no later than April 30th. Instead, Anstey said they plan to expand their digital presence in the United States and “bring new global content into America.”

 


So we're not entirely rid of this Islamist propaganda outlet...they'll still have their website. But at least these swine are off the air. And speaking of swine, I've always wondered what the climate change groupies thought of Big Al profiting by selling a TV station to a country like Qatar that produces all that horrible petro-chemical energy?

At any event, good riddance.

U.S. Middle East Diplomat and Qatar's Money

 

by David Gerstman

The New York Times earlier this month published an expose of how foreign money influenced think tanks. One of the subjects of the article was the Brookings Institution, its vice president Indyk and $14.8 million grant that the government of Qatar had given Brookings. A former scholar at Brookings cautioned that because of Qatar's influence any report coming out of the institution is likely not to be the "full story."

The New York Times didn't seem much concerned with the implication of its reporting but some people did notice.

In Tablet this week Lee Smith pounced on the Times for not looking into the implications of what it reported.

Or maybe the editors decided that it was all on the level, and the money influenced neither Indyk’s government work on the peace process nor Brookings’ analysis of the Middle East. Or maybe journalists just don’t think it’s worth making a big fuss out of obvious conflicts of interest that may affect American foreign policy. Maybe Qatar’s $14.8 million doesn’t affect Brookings’ research projects or what the think tank’s scholars tell the media, including the New York Times, about subjects like Qatar, Hamas, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and other related areas in which Qatar has key interests at stake. Maybe the think tank’s vaunted objectivity, and Indyk’s personal integrity and his pride in his career as a public servant, trump the large piles of vulgar Qatari natural gas money that keep the lights on and furnish the offices of Brookings scholars and pay their cell-phone bills and foreign travel.

 

Smith also observed that the Qatar connection made Indyk poorly suited as an interlocutor for both the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Of course, Hamas, which Qatar proudly sponsors, is a problem not just for Israel but also the Palestinian Authority. Which means that both sides in the negotiations that Indyk was supposed to oversee had good reason to distrust an American envoy who worked for the sponsor of their mutual enemy. In retrospect, it’s pretty hard to see how either side could have trusted Indyk at all—or why the administration imagined he would make a good go-between in the first place.

But there's one particular point that's particularly galling, Smith asks "why in the midst of Operation Protective Edge this summer did Kerry seek to broker a Qatari- (and Turkish-) sponsored truce that would necessarily come at the expense of U.S. allies, Israel, and the PA, as well as Egypt, while benefiting Hamas, Qatar, and Turkey?"

Kerry's support of the ceasefire deal that favored Hamas sponsored by Qatar and Turkey raised questions at the time. There  was an Egyptian ceasefire proposal on the table at the time. It's possible (though by no means certain) that if the United States had supported the Egyptian proposal and brought international support behind it, that the war could have been ended a month earlier before hundreds of more people were killed. Did Kerry listen to his compromised former envoy (who said he'd "consult" with the State Department after he resigned) and prolong the war by giving Hamas hope that it could get everything it wanted?

The corrupting influence of Qatar and its effect on the Middle East is something that needs more exposure.

 

One last note ... when Kerry appointed Indyk, The New York Times ran an editorial that described Indyk as having "a long association with pro-Israel groups." The mention was gratuitous but the suggestion was clear: Indyk might be too pro-Israel to be effective. Now that the Times' own reporting has exposed Indyk's ties to Qatar, will it ask the appropriate question in retrospect?

cross posted at Le·gal In·sur·rec·tion

Huge! Qatar Expels Brotherhood's Sheik Qaradawi, Hamas Leader Mesha'al

The coup in Egypt has already had an effect on the Muslim Brotherhood and the Caliphate.

The emirate of Qatar reacted to Wednesday's events by stripping Sheik Qaradawi, the Brotherhood's spiritual leader of his citizenship, closing down all Brotherhood offices and expelling Qaradawi and Hamas leader Khalid Mesha'al from the country.

The link's in Arabic..here's a loose translation, adjusted so it makes more sense in English:

Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa second, the Emir of Qatar, on Tuesday evening, said that Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi must leave the country, and ordered the withdrawal of Qatari nationality from him, and the closure of all offices of the Muslim Brotherhood in order of state policy not to choose a political faction or movement. Confirmed Prince Tamim, in an interview, we are all Muslims, but not the Muslim Brotherhood, and are dealing with matters of State and Government and not allied with any political faction. Al-Nahar reported that Prince Tamim gave Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, 48 hours to leave the country.

The Emir has always been a huge supporter of the Brotherhood, until now. As a matter of fact, Sheik Qaradawi (a foul, genocidal maniac who is not allowed into the U.S. for very good reasons) is (or was) a major star on al-Jazeera, which is owned by the Emir and his family.I have a feeling his show has been cancelled for lack of a sponsor, as they say in showbiz.

Mesha'al is the political head of Hamas, who took refuge in Qatar after he was forced to leave Syria by Assad after the Syrian Civil War broke out and Hamas refused to send fighters to his aid.

You can expect Qatar to cease all financial support for the Brotherhood as well.Deposed Egyptian president Morsi and his friends made a few too many friendly overtures to Iran, which put them on the wrong side of the Sunni-Shi'ite war led by Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

Now that Wednesday's coup removed them from power, expect Qatar and Saudi Arabia to establish ties to the Egyptian junta and support it financially. The Brotherhood has now been revealed as a weak horse, and we know what happens to weak horses uin this part of the world.

This is absolutely huge, and very good news for the West.