February 1, 2002

7:53 AM

Al-Jazeera Severs Ties With CNN: Does it strike anyone as particularly rich that Al Jazeera, the Arab television network, decided to sever ties with CNN after CNN broadcast portions of a video showing bin Laden making his least ambiguous statements yet on al Qaeda's alleged involvement in the terrorist attacks of 9/11? [more inside...]
posted by verdezza (3 comments total)

CNN just began showing portions of the video yesterday; the interview was recorded in October, and it’s one of the prime sources British Prime Minister Tony Blair relied upon when he went before the public last November claiming to have seen “irrefutable evidence” (or something to that effect; I’m paraphrasing) of bin Laden’s and al Qaeda’s guilt in the attacks of 9/11.

On CNN last night, Wolf Blitzer explained that the journalist conducting the interview on the tape asked bin Laden if he and/or his organization had been responsible for the “terrorist attacks” of 9/11, to which bin Laden gave the following response (paragraph #11 in the linked article): “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.”
posted by verdezza at 7:55 AM on February 1, 2002

I know, I know: Double post.

Move along, nothing to see here...

...except for the direct link between the journalist's question and bin Laden's extremely culpable response, which the article linked to yesterday, but wasn't called out in the pursuant discussion...

...and the mention of Tony Blair's reliance on the tape as part of his certainty of bin Laden's guilt, stated last November (and also not mentioned in the thread begun yesterday).
posted by verdezza at 8:05 AM on February 1, 2002

Airing this video would have embarrassed all their distinguished commentators in flowing robes sitting in Crossfire and Larry King simulacra studios pontificating on the Disneyesque means by which America cooked up the other video.
posted by dhartung at 10:06 AM on February 1, 2002