PRESIDENT BUSH’S threat to bomb the headquarters of al-Jazeera, reportedly made during a conversation with Tony Blair last year, could have been dismissed as a tasteless joke were it not for the deep antagonism between Washington and the Qatar-based Arabic satellite news channel.

Ever since the 9/11 attacks, al-Jazeera has been the target of criticism by US authorities, who regard the channel as the mouthpiece of al-Qaeda.

Al-Jazeera carries exclusive interviews with senior al- Qaeda figures such as Osama bin Laden. Most recently it broadcast an interview with Ayman al-Zawahiri, bin Laden’s deputy, in which he claimed responsibility for the July 7 attacks in London and threatened further violence against Britain and America.

The television scoops have brought al-Jazeera fame and notoriety in equal measure.

During the US-backed overthrow of the Taleban in Afghanistan, al-Jazeera broadcast footage of civilian casualties of US bombing and regular interviews with al-Qaeda and Taleban leaders. During one air strike the al-Jazeera bureau in Kabul was knocked off the air by a US smart bomb.

During the invasion of Iraq in 2003, al-Jazeera broadcast footage of captured and dead US soldiers. The Pentagon accused the channel of breaking the Geneva conventions on the treatment of prisoners of war. When US forces entered Baghdad the al-Jazeera bureau was again hit by American fire and one of its reporters, Tareq Ayyoub, was killed. The Pentagon insisted that neither attack was deliberate, but al-Jazeera was sceptical, particularly as it had given the co-ordinates of its Baghdad office to the US military to avoid being hit.

But al-Jazeera also has some explaining to do about its links with terrorist organisations. One of its cameramen has been held at the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay since 2002 and Taysir Alouni, its star correspondent in Kabul and Iraq, was sentenced to seven years in prison in Madrid last month after he was found guilty of collaborating with al-Qaeda.

Last year al-Jazeera’s office in Baghdad was closed by the US-backed Iraqi authorities after it was accused of biased reporting in favour of the insurgency. Since then it has continued to broadcast exclusive footage provided by insurgent groups of attacks against coalition and Iraqi forces and the execution of hostages.

Al-Jazeera has had similar run-ins with the authorities in Algeria, Bahrain, Canada, Jordan, Kuwait, Iran, Tunisia and Saudi Arabia. But it shows no signs of changing its approach to broadcasting and is planning to expand its operations with the introduction next year of an English language television news channel.

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