Al Jazeera popped on to the American news scene at the 2004 RNC Convention held at Madison Square Gardens in NYC. They were that skybox high to the right of the stage. Mediates whispered, took photos puzzled that the Arab network was now going prime time. Soon, job offers began appearing on the work place board at the National Press Club in Washington DC seeking journalists to cover Sports and other odd placements for the Middle East entity. Job placement ramped up until the proverbial camel got its nose in the tent. Al Jazeera was mainstream. Suspicions had vanished. Al Jazeera had arrived. Al Jazeera was everywhere. Al Jazeera is financed by the ruling family in Qatar. The competing broadcaster Al Arabiya is financed by Saudi investors. The approach differs somewhat on this point. The Saudis are more in favor of the Salafists, whom they finance and arm, while the Qataris tend toward the Muslim Brotherhood, who, in turn, get financial support and weapons from them.
Or was it Al Jazeera that was everywhere?
The question was ansered this morning. Al Jazeera’s Berlin correspondent Aktham Suliman recently resigned from his post exposing the Qatari government is “exercising undue influence on Al Jazeera’s reporting.”
Aktham Suliman criticized Al Jazeera for lack of professionalism is now lacking at Al Jazeera an impression Suliman did not have when he was hired in 2002. Unclear as to an agenda, Suliman said “the organization lacks internal structures that would immunize it against what was presumably an attempt by the owner or by the editors to interfere politically in things that should have been handled in a journalistic manner.” The example Suliman gave was its “clear that killing a dictator, as happened with Gadhafi, is absolutely unacceptable on human rights grounds, revolution or no. And that’s not emphasized. That is: We stressed the necessity of a revolution in Libya and the humanity of the revolutionaries, but said nothing about the murder of a dictator.”Suliman said Al Jazeera did not show the man who shot Gadhafi was killed by another group of revolutionaries. Suliman said in Syria “There are murders, injustices and good things on both sides. But you don’t see that on Al Jazeera. My problem is and was: When I see Al Jazeera’s Syrian coverage, I don’t really understand what’s going on there. And that’s the first thing I expect from journalism.”
Suliman said the developments involve governments “who have fallen out of favor with Qatar rulers – Libya, Syria, Yemen….corresponds with Qatar’s foreign policy…You’ll notice how that corresponds to the state of Qatar’s foreign policy. This is a very serious issue, because we at Al Jazeera were always proud to say: We’re financed by Qatar, but the state never interferes with our reporting. Now we suddenly find ourselves in a situation in which our reporting is precisely aligned with Qatari foreign policy.
Al Jazeera is financed by Qatar and is considered the most influential satellite broadcaster in Arabic…Al Jazeera barely reported about the rebellion in the first few weeks. Some of my colleagues and I protested, pointing out that there was stuff happening in Syria and we needed to report on it, regardless of our personal opinions. Back then, however, the ruler of Qatar was trying to change the Syrian president’s mind and encourage him to take certain steps toward political reform.When Assad didn’t respond, Al Jazeera then said: Now get to work on Syria.”
In 2009, the liberal activist and former Clinton administration official, Jeremy Ben-Ami founded J Street calling the left-wing alternative to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the lobbying group in the United States for Israel. Sadly, Ben-Ami’s father was the executive director of the American League For a Free Palestine, raising money for arms and for the purchase of the Altelena. Ben-Ami said a new organization was needed because of “the arc of conflict involving Israel in the Middle East, though long, was ultimately bent toward peace.” Ben-Ami and J Street put their weight behind Richard Goldstone author of the blasphemous UN Report condemning Israel for human rights violations during the 2009 Gaza War. Goldstone has since retracted his report. J Street involves itself in far-left groups being encouraged to boycott Israel; it urged Obama’s administration to support the UN Security Council resolution condemning Israel’s alleged settlements on the West Bank being illegal; did not pressure ‘Palestinian’ leaders to drop their “right of return” of 1948 Israel-Arab war refugees; J Street did little to fight the global campaign to delegitimize Israel.
Ben Ami said to keep the two state solution alive the peace process needs “a jolt from progressive American Jews in the form of more criticism of the Israeli governments
The Washington Times revealed that George Soros had donated or pledged some $750,000 to the group contradicting Ben-Ami’s earlier avowals George Soros gave J Street nothing. Ben-Ami took full responsibility for not revealing in public the fact that Soros has been providing funds to J Street.
Ben-Ami began his political career by working on Bill Clinton’s first presidential campaign later becoming the deputy domestic policy adviser in Clinton’s White House. Ben-Ami began discussing the creation of a dovish Jewish lobby, reaching out to potential donors and desiging its political structure by merging the three existing left-wing groups: Americans for Peace Now, Israel Policy Forum and Brit Tzedek v’Shalom. Talks failed. Ben Ami decided to set up a new group.
Within two and a half years, Ben-Ami turned J Street into a controversial, player in the pro-Israel scene
J Street’s executive director, Jeremy Ben Ami, is connected to the Tides Center, which is heavily financed by Soros. Ben Ami worked at the radical-led marketing firm Fenton Communications, also has represented Soros himself as well as the billionaire’s Open Society Institute. Fenton Communications crafts public relations strategy for Tides grantees. MoveOn.org is one of the grantees along with United For Justice and Peace. Tides gave a $50,000 grant to the “J Street Education Fund” in 2010, stated mission is to “promote meaningful American leadership to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts peacefully and diplomatically through the use of coalition building, mobilizing public opinion online Hadar Susskind, vice president and managing director of Tides’ Washington, D.C., office served as vice president of policy and strategy at J Street. Soros is a prominent Tides donor. Tides is closely linked to Occupy since the anti-Wall Street movement’s inception. The Tides-funded Adbusters magazine, a central hub for Occupy planning, is reported to have conceived of Occupy Wall Street idea after Arab Spring protests toppled governments in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia. Tides-funded Ruckus Society provides direct-action training, official training resources, including manuals, to Occupy training groups. Tides funds other far-left causes including the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or the implicated in massive voter fraud ACORN.
Prior to founding J Street, Ben Ami served as senior vice-president of Fenton Communications. Fenton Communications is a marketing outfit crafting public relations strategy of Tides grantees. Fenton Communications is tied to Occupy. It helped craft Moveon.org’s attacks on Gen. David Petraeus. Soros affiliate indicted lobbyist Robert Creamer husband of Congresswoman Jan Shakowsky, was present at the Capitol Hill “Dog and Pony Show” protest. Fenton also has represented Soros himself and the billionaire’s Open Society Institute.
Fenton Communications was founded in 1982 by David Fenton, an activist who served as a photographer for Bill Ayers’ domestic Weather Underground terror group. Fenton set up Environmental Media Services in 1994 through the Tides Center. Fenton serves on the board of numerous Tides-funded groups. Fenton’s firm represents more than 30 Tides Center grantees. Fenton has ties to Beth Bogart media reported as helping run Occupy’s PR departments. Beth Bogart Fenton, is co-founder of Fenton Communications. The Social Venture Network, a project of the Tides Foundation, includes on its board Drummond Pike and Medea Benjamin co-founder of Code Pink. Fenton represents the Win Without War group which is funded by Soros and Tides.
In 2009, Fenton, Ben Ami’s former employer, led a major campaign to end Israel’s naval blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip. Fenton Communications is reported to have developed an 18 month communications action plan campaign for the Qatar Foundation called the Al Fakhoora Project. Their goal was to delegitimize Israel’s naval blockade while gathering support for the Hamas-led government. In 2009, Fenton signed contracts for the project worth more than $390,000 with Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al-Missned, the wife of Qatar’s ruler, as well as a separate foundation she chairs. http://www.prweekus.com/pages/login.aspx?returl=/fenton-providing-comms-support-in
qatar/article/151613/&pagetypeid=28&articleid=151613&accesslevel=2&expireddays=0&accessAndPrice=0 In and around 2009, and since, ads for Qatar began appearing in Washington DC downtown Metro stations in proximity to Capitol Hill and the White House such as Navy Memorial station. Ads promoting Qatar began appearing on evening television.
George Soros said if free elections were held in Egypt, “the Brotherhood is bound to emerge as a major political force, though it is far from assured of a majority.” Soros’ formula toward Israel scripted his opinion publicly in an op-ed “Why Obama Has to Get Egypt Right” concerning the revolutions in the Middle East.
Blocks away from the White House where the old Convention Center used to stand in DC, City Lot, as it came to be known once the Convention Center was torn down, the fastest construction in DC’s history has shot up, across the the Hotel on H Street, the Renaissance Hotel and Capitol Brew. Designs indicated commercial and residential plans. A little reading a Qatar connection emerged. A Qatar project funded by a shariah compliant bank……. No. No word yet…. but neither was the Community Center on Mass Avenue NW divulged to be a mosque….
History marches on along with time and hatred… and questions, more questions
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