Between us, if I'm offered a job at Fox News, I'll take it. Instantly. I will send my children to go to America after high school, I will pay for them to go, to exchange the Arab nightmare for the American dream.
-- Samir Khader
History tells us that human beings have short memories. Who thinks now in the United States about what happened in Somalia in 1993? Nobody. Who thinks about what happened in Bosnia/Herzegovina? Nobody thinks about that. History is written by the victors. All that will be left from this war are just scripts and some history books, and that's it. Life will continue. We'll go on. There will be other problems, there will be other things to think about. There will be one single thing that will be left: victory, and that's it. People like victory, they don't like justifications. You don't have to justify it, once you are victorious, that's it.
-- Samir Khader
As long as we reported on Iraqi casualties the Americans were quiet. But when we showed American prisoners and the dead, U.S. authorities went crazy. They were trying to show their people that this is a clean war. When we showed American prisoners, they said Al Jazeera is violating the Geneva Convention. That’s just not true. But when they showed the dead bodies of the sons of Saddam, they said that was all right because how else are the Iraqi people going to know that the danger has ended.
-- Samir Khader
If the West is genuinely interested in democracy then they will have to suffer hundreds of Al Jazeeras. There is Abu Dhabi television, Al-Arabiya (but that is under Saudi patronage), and there is a channel out of Lebanon (but they are politically close to Hezbollah). They are all very good as journalists but they are all part of the state.
-- Samir Khader
The Internet is an American creation and it is now being used by an enemy of America. I would like to ask someone at the FBI why are they not able to catch Al Qaeda when they upload a message?
-- Samir Khader
Ever since the fall of the Soviet Union, we in the Arab world have had the feeling that the U.S. is looking for an enemy. Sometimes they call it bin Laden, sometimes extremist Islam, sometimes Iraq.
On the other hand, when "the events of Falluja" took place the U.S. military treated me like a king. They were very polite. Very often we get a call from them in the Baghdad office inviting us to be embedded with them on an operation. Sometimes we go, sometimes we don’t – after all, it’s a military operation and therefore dangerous. Anyway, on the ground it’s different: the U.S. military shows us respect and is very cooperative, while it’s the Bush administration that says the negative things about us.
-- Samir Khader
Usually a free press is the product of a free society. But we are a free press in an undemocratic society. We have become an example. Maybe our standards of journalism are obvious to an American journalist but these standards were completely absent in the Middle East. For example, we tackle questions about sexuality, religion, and corruption, all of which were taboo subjects. So to have a new channel trying to break down these taboos was difficult. Everyone was against us, because we were trying to transgress the norms of society. But as time has passed we feel that our viewers have become more aware. Before Al Jazeera, if you asked an average person in the Middle East what they thought of American values they would have said that Americans support the Israelis against the Palestinians. I think our average viewer will now say that is true, but only a part of the reality, and that America is other things as well, that there is a difference between the American government and the American people and their values.
-- Samir Khader
There are two ways of describing this war. One is "War in Iraq," and the other is "War on Iraq." For Al Jazeera this is a war on Iraq. Even if some in mainstream media here were willing to question the validity of this war they were unable to do it because of a fear of being labeled unpatriotic. This is my personal opinion, and I’m not speaking for my employers. The American media have not done their job. They have been afraid of this issue: "How dare you not support our troops?" I am sorry, but you are sending your children to fight an unjust war. If this is a war for democracy why not invade Saudi Arabia? Why not Egypt, why not Libya? Why Iraq?
If somebody asks what you associate with war you may answer guns, tanks, soldiers, aircraft, bullets or bombs…but what about the human cost? What about the death of soldiers and civilians? I don’t understand how an American can believe that the US can wage a war using its young, without any of them getting hurt or killed. This is war and it will cost American and Iraqi lives, more Iraqi than American.
-- Samir Khader
Let’s not forget the war started in Afghanistan. We were there. And people in the States did not want to see it. I cannot forget that all the U.S. networks, and the BBC – which I believe has the best standards in journalism – used to take our pictures of the effect of the bombing in Afghanistan and show, for example, a school that was bombed by the Americans and the bodies of children lying on the premises; then they said that these pictures have been broadcast by Al Jazeera but "these allegations cannot be verified by independent sources." Fuck you! You have the pictures. What do you mean independent sources! C’mon!
Sometimes I feel that executives in these big media organizations are just jealous. They don’t have access. They cannot imagine that people of the Third World can think. They think that an Egyptian journalist or an Algerian journalist cannot do a good job. I remember we had an Afghani journalist who was reporting for us on the Taliban and he went to Peshawar and managed to meet a lieutenant of bin Laden and then managed to meet bin Laden. But when we narrated the story on Al Jazeera, the first reaction from an American network was "how could an Afghan journalist who lives under the Taliban show such initiative!"
-- Samir Khader
Rail: Which country in the Middle East do you find it hardest to get access to?
Khader: Saudi Arabia. Because I am an employee of Al Jazeera they don’t even allow me to perform Haj in my private capacity! This is my duty as a Muslim! (laughs). It’s very hard for all journalists to work in Saudi Arabia. For all journalists anywhere you can work as long as you don’t cross the red line. In Saudi Arabia the red line is the ground under your feet. Our mission is to look for these red lines everywhere and then cross them. What is the point of going to a country and talking about the achievements of the government? Every government in the world is supposed to achieve. As an employee of Al Jazeera, I get deported from 15 of the 22 Arab countries. Our journalists also run into trouble in India. We have to sign an agreement that we will not report on Kashmir. Among the countries that we do have access to are Iran and Pakistan. In Pakistan we were the only camera crew allowed in the area where the Pakistan Army is conducting an operation against Al Qaeda in the tribal territories. And in Iran we are allowed access everywhere.
-- Samir Khader
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