With more than fifty million viewers, Al-Jazeera is one of the most widely watched news channels in the world. It’s also one of the most controversial. Now, journalist Hugh Miles uncovers the true story behind the Arab world’s most influential outlet. Financed by one of the wealthiest countries in the world, Al-Jazeera quickly established itself as the premier news channel in the Islamic world by covering events Arabs cared about in ways they had never seen before. However, accusations of ties to Al-Qaeda continue to plague the news channel. Its journalists have been accused of spying for everyone from Mossad to Saddam Hussein, sometimes simultaneously, and a star Al-Jazeera reporter is still awaiting trial in Spain for being an active member and recruiter for a Spanish-based Al-Qaeda cell. With unprecedented access to the news channel’s key players, reporters, producers, and financiers, journalist Hugh Miles uncovers the full, behind-the-scenes story of Al-Jazeera’s meteoric rise and how its influence is shaping the course of the Arab world. Al-Jazeera us an eye-opening look at a television network that not only covers the news but also makes the news. "An uncomfortable and indispensable book. Miles bluntly challenges assumptions many Americans hold about that part of the world. Indispensable because it gives readers a more vivid, accurate understanding of that world." Al-Jazeera The Inside Story of the Arab News Channel That Is Challenging the West By Hugh Miles Grove Press Copyright © 2005 Hugh Miles All right reserved. ISBN: 9780802142351 Chapter One A Seed Planted in the Desert Qatar is ruled by the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and his tribe, the Al Thani. In proportion to the country's small size, the Al Thani family is the largest of all the ruling families in the Middle East. It also has a reputation for being the most argumentative. Transition from one ruler to another has rarely been smooth and the family's propensity for spilling one another's blood won them the title `the thugs of the Gulf' from one pre- independence British administrator. The previous Emir was Sheikh Hamad's father, Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani. He seized power in a coup immediately after Qatar's independence in 1971 and for the next twenty-three years presided over important developments in Qatar's infrastructure, domestic and foreign policies, effectively creating the modern state. In later years the old Sheikh developed a fine taste for luxury, spending more and more time out of the country, often on the French Riviera. Today's Emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, is the eldest of Sheikh Khalifa's five sons. His first exposure to democracy was on a trip to London when he was still a boy and legend has it that the concept seemed so ridiculous to him that he had to be led in hysterical laughter from the balcony of the House of Commons after witnessing his first parliamentary debate. He later went to Britain's Sandhurst military academy, until he returned to Qatar in 1977, when he became Minister of Defence. He still has a house near Windsor, Berkshire. In 1995 the elderly Sheikh Khalifa briefly returned to Qatar after one of his many trips abroad, demoted one son from his position as Prime Minister and promoted another in his place. Crown Prince Hamad was rattled by his father's habit of arbitrary promotion and dismissal. Thinking that one day this might put his own claim to the throne in jeopardy, he proclaimed himself the new Emir on 27 June that year, while the old Emir was in Switzerland on holiday. It is said that Sheikh Khalifa learned of the coup while listening to the radio in his hotel room in Geneva. Others say his son told him on the phone and then promptly hung up. If it had happened today he probably would have heard about it on Al-Jazeera. The coup ushered in a year of strife and bickering between father and son. Sheikh Khalifa, who had every intention of clinging on to power, embarked on a tour of the Gulf to stir up dissent against his own son, whom he publicly disowned. Rumours of plots against the young Emir's life abounded, climaxing in a foiled counter-coup attempt on 14 February 1996. It was said that the Sheikh had taken many billions of dollars - possibly as much as twenty-five billion - out of the Qatari government coffers. It was now Sheikh Hamad's turn to act. With the help of the Washington law firm Patton Boggs, he froze the money that his father had ladled out of the national reserve, thus ending his dream of a return to power. Sheikh Hamad quickly consolidated his position as Emir politically by ceding some of his power to a broader authority and by constitutionally safeguarding the role of Prime Minister. On acceding to power Sheikh Hamad was, at just forty-four, the youngest ruler in the Gulf. The other Arab countries, with the exception of Oman, were governed by rulers in their sixties, seventies or eighties, many of whom had held power fo