CIA Chief Pays Secret Visit To Qatar To Silence Al-Jazeera

Arab Free Voice | May 24 2004

Lebanese media sources reported on Friday that Arab diplomatic sources report that the Director of the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), George Tenet, paid a secret visit to Qatar on Tuesday where he met the Emir of Qatar Shaykh Hamd ibn Khalifah Al Thani and the Qatari Foreign Minister Hamd ibn Jaxim ibn Jabr Al Thani. The US spy chief gave the Qatari leaders a letter from the American Administration that the sources report was couched in undiplomatic, tough, and frank language.

The sources report that the letter contained one paragraph concerned with what it described as “the policy of media incitement pursued by Qatar’s al-Jazeera satellite TV company against the American forces and the American presence in Iraq.”

The sources, reported by the Saudi News Agency WAS say that Tenet asked the Qatari leaders about a “double standard” that he said was practiced by Qatar, since that state had warmly welcomed American military forces on its territory, and eagerly hosts the US Central Command with its vast base. Yet this, Tenet said, was in contrast to what he called the “media incitement policy” that al-Jazeera pursues against the US forces and the American presence in Iraq. Tenet reportedly blamed al-Jazeera’s “incitement” for the “blatantly bloody situation” that exists in Iraq today.