Back in 2003, when our glorious forces liberated the people of Iraq from oppressive state surveillance by a strongman not afraid to invade countries without a reason, some of our brave teenage warriors apprehended an Al-Jazeera reporter and tried to interrogate him on the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden. The reporter didn't budge, just like one of his co-conspirators who was arrested in Afghanistan in 2001 and sent to Guantanamo for six years. Had the NSA had the same capabilities it does today, it would have been unnecessary to interrogate those two reporters, and we could have saved all those tax dollars spent on keeping that guy down in Cuba.
Though I disagree with keeping reporters in Guantanamo because of how expensive it is and because reporters are notoriously bad at revealing their sources, I believe that we should arrest the new real prince of terror. Sheik Tamim of the Qatari fiefdom has inherited at the mere age of 33 a gas-rich, terror-exporting syndicate comparable only to North Korea. If you're not familiar with the kingdom of Qatar, you should know that it is located right there dab-smack in the middle of terrorism. Furthermore, Al-Jazeera is run by Sheik Tamim's father's cousin, making him an associated force.
The Sheik's family uses Al-Jazeera to export Sunni sectarianism; sectarianism which could lead to the convenient collapse of the Assad regime in Syria. You see, the Sheik in Qatar needs to bring down the Alawite regime in Syria because those pesky kinda-Shiites would rather let the Iranians or Russians put a pipeline through their territory. With every Sunni foreigner that came into Syria, and with every Al-Jazeera report promoting sectarian violence, did the Sheiks in Qatar alienate secular Syrians. The Syrians tuning into Al-Jazeera as a revolution began around them were afraid that their secular dictatorship would revert into religious authoritarianism and fragment, just exactly as has happened. Kissinger is now openly calling for the Balkanization of Syria.
However, the decision concerning what ultimately happens in Syria depends on Sheik Tamim, or Obama. The Sheiks may already be filthy-rich, but 90,000 dead Syrians is nothing because a pipeline to Europe will make them even richer. And those Sheiks and their Al-Jazeera and their backing of Sunni rebels means that Russia and the US are almost at each other's throats and on the verge of a new Cold War.
So, reporters get arrested, but the real Prince of Terror gets a profile in the BBC which states the following:
"Qatar became an influential regional player under the rule of Sheikh Hamad,
backing the Arab Spring revolutions and siding with rebels fighting against
authoritarian governments in Syria and Libya.
The BBC's profile on the guy now behind the Sunni insurgency then goes on to dovetail about his interest in sports, not how he will shape the civil wars in the Middle East. No mention is made whether Sheik Tamim is financing Al-Assir in Lebanon, and potentially destabilizing another country.
