VZCZCXRO5045
PP RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR
DE RUEHDO #0405 1720749
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 210749Z JUN 09
FM AMEMBASSY DOHA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9162
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE
RHEHAAA/NSC WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS DOHA 000405 
 
SENSITIVE, SIPDIS 
 
FOR NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL KPAO PTER QA
SUBJECT: AJ Director's Take on 6/3 Bin Laden Tapes 
 
---------------- 
(SBU) KEY POINTS 
---------------- 
 
-- (SBU) On the sidelines of Ambassador's meeting with senior Al 
Jazeera (AJ) editors to discuss President Obama's Cairo speech, 
Ambassador pressed AJ Director General Wadah Khanfar on why AJ aired 
messages from Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Zawahiri on June 3 during 
the run-up to the President's speech. 
 
-- (SBU) Khanfar said that AJ had received the Bin Laden tape as an 
exclusive, which explains why no other station ran it.  It was 35 
minutes long, but AJ ran only seven minutes. Asked why Bin Laden 
chose AJ, Khanfar said, "I can't blame him; we have five times the 
audience of our closest competitor, Al Arabiya." 
 
-- (SBU) Khanfar claimed that the timing of the tape's airing, which 
coincided with POTUS's arrival in Riyadh, may have been purposely 
calculated by Bin Laden.  He asserted that the President's schedule 
was not connected to AJ's decision on when to air the tape. 
 
END KEY POINTS 
 
¶1. (SBU) On June 8, Ambassador visited AJ headquarters to discuss 
with senior editors President Obama's June 4 speech in Cairo. 
Before that meeting, Ambassador and PAO took the opportunity to meet 
privately with AJ Director General Wadah Khanfar and press him on 
AJ's airing of recorded messages from Osama Bin Laden and Ayman 
Zawahiri on June 3 during the run-up to the President's speech. 
Ambassador asked why Bin Laden's comments had been given such 
prominence, especially when the President's speech was clearly going 
to be one aimed at reconciliation with the Muslim world. 
 
¶2. (SBU)  Khanfar said that AJ had received the Bin Laden tape as an 
exclusive, which explained why no other station carried it.  The 
entire recording was 35 minutes long, he claimed, but AJ aired only 
a total of seven minutes in several segments during its news 
bulletins.  Asked why Bin Laden chose AJ, Khanfar replied, "I can't 
blame him; we have five times the audience of our closest 
competitor, Al Arabiya." 
 
¶3. (SBU)  Khanfar argued that Bin Laden's prominence on AJ was 
actually reduced by the President's speech.  Normally, he asserted, 
a news story on AJ runs for a 24-hour cycle, but the Bin Laden 
recording ran only from 1500L to 2100L, and was pushed away by much 
more coverage of the POTUS speech. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Ambassador noted that the timing of the Bin Laden 
broadcasts certainly appeared to have been aimed to coincide with 
the President's arrival in Saudi Arabia and the arrival statement he 
delivered there.  Khanfar averred that this may have been Bin 
Laden's goal, but asserted that AJ's decision to air it had nothing 
to do with the President's schedule. 
 
¶5. (SBU) He claimed that AJ had received the tape at 1100L, reviewed 
it at an editorial board meeting, and approved it for airing at 
1300, then had it prepared and ready for broadcast during the 1450 
news bulletin.  This coincided with Obama's 1440 arrival in Riyadh, 
but was not done intentionally.  Khanfar added that Al Arabiya 
included a mention of Bin Laden's recording in its news scroll while 
the President was speaking in Riyadh. 
 
LEBARON