By Jeremy Schupbach jshoebox@mac.com Spanish courts this week convicted an Al-Qaida leader, Imad Yarkas, of conspiracy to commit murder in connection to the September 11 attacks. Twenty-one other alleged terrorists were tried along side Yarkas. 16 were convicted.
Among those convicted in the conspiracy was a reporter for Al-Jazeera, Tayssir Alouny. Alouny was given seven years for his role in the conspiracy. He was accused of arranging the meeting in which last-minute details of the attacks were finalized.
Al-Jazeera professed to be shocked by the conviction. But instead of denouncing Alouny as the terrorist in reporter’s clothing, the news organization immediately denounced the Spanish courts, and accused the judge of fabricating a sentence to save face. They plan to appeal his conviction
This is not the first time a media entity and radical Islamists appear to have colluded. The conviction of Alouny is not far removed from the story surrounding Dilpazier Aslam, the 27-year-old British Muslim member of the Islamist "radical, but to date non-violent Islamist group," Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Aslam, you may recall, wrote the deplorable column following the bombings in London for which he was justifiably fired from his internship at The Guardian. At first the editor there resistedfiring their "diversity hire" and defended his writings, preferring to appear culturally sensitive in these politically correct times. But public outrage in the wake of both the bombing and the column by The Guardian's terrorist apologist, made his firing inevitable. And welcome.
Now Al-Jazeera is stepping to the plate to defend its own terrorist. This time it appears that the "journalist" in question was no mere apologist, but an active conspirator. Questions already surround the integrity of Al-Jazeera as a news organization -- for a rundown visit MEMRI -- and this conviction only reinforces what is becoming obvious:
Al-Jazeera is no impartial organization, reporting the news. Nor is it any longer just an enabler and apologist for terrorists. It has stepped from the realm of legitimate news organization and stands on the brink of becoming an active participant in the Islamofascit war against the West. Perhaps it is time to acknowledge the headlines are now very literally, the frontlines in the war on terror.