Denialism

Al Jazeera’s conspiracy-mongering

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by

MarkH
in

Has anyone else seen that Al Jazeera’s mainpage has a section devoted to conspiracy theories? It prominently features 9/11 conspiracy garbage about WTC7 which has been debunked.

This is something that is neglected about 9/11 conspiracy mongering. When 9/11 denialists like William Rodriguez encourage anti-American sentiments in foreign countries by suggesting Islamic radicals weren’t behind the attacks it doesn’t do anyone any good. I’m not supportive of the US occupation of Iraq, but that doesn’t mean that we should allow the religious radicals that attacked us off the hook. It is possible to be against the Iraq war without suggesting we ignore who actually attacked our country. Sadly, many prominent anti-war activists, including Cindy Sheehan now, are supporting 9/11 truthiness. Religious radicalism should not be given a pass for the murders that occurred in the name of opposing the war, or else we risk never confronting the real obstacles to peace in the world.

**Update** A clarification. A sharp commenter has pointed out that Al Jazeera magazine should not be confused with the satellite channel Al-Jazeera AlJazeera.net. They are independent companies. I think I’ll go email Jeff Goldberg at Slate about this as well who made the same mistake as I did, not being a regular reader of AlJazeera.

Aljazeera.com reads like 9/11 conspiracy site, while Aljazeera.net is considered a legitimate journalistic enterprise. Despite this confusion I think the point remains the same. The consequence of blaming 9/11 on Bush does have the effect of giving religious madmen a pass for the attacks.

Comments

8 responses to “Al Jazeera’s conspiracy-mongering”

  1. triangular gutters

    Wrong al Jazeera. Try english.aljazeera.net.

    Reply
  2. MarkH

    Quite correct I see.

    I was reading on Slate how Al-Jazeera had such a section and I couldn’t believe it. It should be noted that this website is “Al Jazeera Magazine”.

    I’ll try to sort out what the relationships are. My impression was that Al-Jazeera, no matter how maligned by Fox news, was a legitimate journalistic enterprise. I’d be relieved to confirm this is true.

    Reply
  3. Ktesibios

    A few tricks that should become second nature for any skeptical ‘net surfer:

    First, Google is your friend. In this case, a simple search on “Al Jazeera” (use the “with the exact phrase” box on the “advanced search” page) will show, on the first page of results, the existence of Web sites named “aljazeera.net”, “aljazeera.com” and “aljazeerah.info”. The same search also turn up a Wikipedia article where you can find out that the satellite TV network is based in Qatar (you can slag Wiki all you like, but it’s extremely unlikely that they’ll get something like what country a company is located in wrong).

    The next step is a WHOIS lookup of the domains in question. In this case, what comes up for “aljazeera.net” is:

    Registrant:
    Aljazeera Satellite Channel
    IT Section
    QA
    Doha, 23123
    QA

    Domain Name: ALJAZEERA.NET

    Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :
    Admin, Web
    webadmin@aljazeera.net
    P O Box 23123
    Doha, Doha 23123
    QA
    Phone: +974 4876595

    Record expires on 29-Aug-2010
    Record created on 30-Aug-1996
    Database last updated on 19-Apr-2007

    And the results for “aljazeera.com” are:

    Registrant:
    AJ Publishing
    Sheikh Zayed Road
    Dubai, Dubai PO Box 31303
    AE

    Domain name: ALJAZEERA.COM

    Administrative Contact:
    Adams, Danyal domains@aljazeerapublishing.com
    Sheikh Zayed Road
    Dubai, Dubai PO Box 31303
    AE
    +44 207 504 8672 Fax: +44 870 762 5487

    Technical Contact:
    Adams, Danyal domains@aljazeerapublishing.com
    Sheikh Zayed Road
    Dubai, Dubai PO Box 31303
    AE
    +44 207 504 8672 Fax: +44 870 762 5487

    These entries may contain internal evidence that’s useful. In this case, the 974 country code in the contact phone numbers for “aljazeera.net” is that of Qatar. The 44 country code given for “aljazeera.com” is for the U.K.

    Next, do a DNS lookup for the domains you’re interested in. Doing this for “aljazeera.net” yields four IP addresses:

    12.120.13.56
    32.107.37.66
    32.107.56.66
    12.120.9.56

    “Aljazeera.com” yields one IP: 217.206.223.62

    Doing a WHOIS on an IP address usually reveals the owner of the netblock to which it belongs. In the case of “aljazeera.net”, all of the IPs belong to ATT Worldnet. The IP for “aljazeera.com” belongs to a company called “Trident Net” which is located in the U.K.

    So, the information gleaned about “aljazeera.net” is entirely consistent with the Qatar-based satellite TV company- including the entry in the Wikipedia article which states that their latest ISP is ATT Worldnet. “Aljazeera.com” is registered to a different entity, in Dubai, not Qatar, and appears to be administered in London and hosted in Essex.

    These differences are so substantial that the likelihood of the two sites being related is minimal.

    Or, instead of having fun doing all of this ‘net sleuthing (and it is fun), you could jump from the Wikipedia article about Al Jazeera TV to the disambiguation page for “Al Jazira”, where you will find a link to the article on aljazeera.com, which includes the tidbit of information that Al Jazeera TV and AlJazeera Publishing (the owner of the “aljazeera.com” domain) have had a dispute about ownership of the .com domain name, which was arbitrated in the latter’s favor. The WIPO decision in this case is linked to from the Wiki article and should serve as conclusive proof that neither the two Web sites nor the two entities maintaining them are the same or even related.

    Since I’ve had the opportunity to expound a few basic fact-checking techniques that really are useful (and enjoyable) for the skeptical reader, I’ll forget about my usual fee for doing other peoples’ homework for them.

    Reply
  4. MarkH

    Or, instead of having fun doing all of this ‘net sleuthing (and it is fun), you could jump from the Wikipedia article about Al Jazeera TV to the disambiguation page for “Al Jazira”, where you will find a link to the article on aljazeera.com, which includes the tidbit of information that Al Jazeera TV and AlJazeera Publishing (the owner of the “aljazeera.com” domain) have had a dispute about ownership of the .com domain name, which was arbitrated in the latter’s favor. The WIPO decision in this case is linked to from the Wiki article and should serve as conclusive proof that neither the two Web sites nor the two entities maintaining them are the same or even related.

    Al Jazeera is run out of Dubai however, I’m interested in hearing more about them. What’s their story? And I can understand why Aljazeera.net would have a major problem with them, they’re totally riding off the legitimacy of their name.

    I’m not sure it’s a case of totally dismissing the .com site for the .net site, as clearly, they’re not just a hack enterprise. They deserve to be tracked at least as a source of denialist information and since they’re also based out of Dubai, I can’t help but think they have a particular interest in undermining the official 9/11 story. It’s mistake to think of them as “Al-Jazeera”, but what are they exactly? I’m very curious.

    Reply
  5. Thomas

    Considering that “Al Jazeera” only means “the Island” it is no more surprising that there are two companies using the name than that there are two “Apple” companies.

    If you are curious, why don’t you read wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aljazeera_Publishing

    Reply
  6. MarkH

    I did. Al Jazeera.com is an actual news service. It’s just not as widely known as the legitimate aljazeera.net.

    The fact that they’re less well-known doesn’t excuse them from having a “conspiracy” section however. I’m relieved that the more mainstream publication is vindicated from my mistake. I am still disgusted that any purported news service has such a section.

    Reply
  7. Kapitano

    I think you’re being rather hard on Cindy Sheehan. From the quote you link to, she doesn’t agree with the “truthers”, but is trying to keep them on board with vague encouragement while not giving them the means to claim she is one of them.

    She’s trying to maintain a fragile coalition, without giving any one group within it too much power. This entails having people on board one would usually chose not to associate with, while not giving them credibility. A difficult balancing act.

    The neocons needs their useful idiots (namely, christian lunatics), and the left needs its useful idiots (including 9/11 Truthers). Arguably, the left needs them more in the current climate.

    Reply
  8. David Marjanović

    How is aljazeera.net based in Dubai? It’s in Doha in Qatar.

    My limited experience with aljazeera.com is that it’s mainly poorly resourced propaganda…

    Reply

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