ABSTRACT
This chapter examines whether Al Jazeera acted as a delivery system or as mouthpiece for bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network. During the war on Afghanistan, Al Jazeera transmitted the first video message from Al Qaeda and bin Laden. More than anything else, the Palestinian intifada preceding the American War on Terrorism had shaped Arab public opinion in relation to Washington. Journalists and officials at Al Jazeera headquarters in Qatar believe the attack was a punishment because Al Jazeera covered the war in Afghanistan in a way which did not please the American administration in its efforts to build a coalition. According to Tayseer Allouni, Al Jazeera crew were warned on several occasions by the Taliban to leave the county because they had broken the law through filming. When the strikes on Afghanistan started, Allouni appeared on the screen with the other version of the story—“the version of the victims” as he put it.
