Al-Zawahiri, Bush and Aljazeera
In the miscellaneous department, Ayman al-Zawahiri, the number two man in al-Qaeda, released a video tape Thursday that was shown on Aljazeera. At least in the afternoon and evening, what was interesting was that Aljazeera led with President Bush’s reactions to the new tape. Only after extensively reporting and translating his speech in Arabic did they play a brief excerpt from the al-Zawahiri videotape. It was almost like watching American television. I take it this presentation strategy is a response to the enormous pressure the Qatari government, which hosts and largely owns Aljazeera, has gotten from the Bush administration over its anti-Americanism.