CNN defends airing of bin Laden interview

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Posted 7:44AM on Saturday, February 2, 2002

NEW YORK - CNN expressed resolve, regret and a bit of pique Friday after an influential Arab station cut its ties with the news network in a rift over an interview with Osama bin Laden. The disagreement began after CNN aired excerpts from the interview apparently made last October by the Arab satellite outlet Al-Jazeera. For undetermined reasons, Al-Jazeera chose not to air the tape or, for some weeks, confirm its existence. CNN said it received the 60-minute interview, during which bin Laden declares that killing innocent civilians ``is permissible in Islamic law,'' through unofficial channels. It began airing portions of the video Thursday. According to CNN, Al-Jazeera accused the American network of obtaining the tape illegally. ``Al-Jazeera will sever its relationship with CNN'' and will take action against ``organizations and individuals who stole this video and distributed it illegally,'' CNN quoted the Qatar-based station as saying. ``It's a shame that it came to that,'' CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan said Friday, ``but once the tape came into our hands, it would have been journalistically irresponsible to ignore it.'' Al-Jazeera is a 24-hour station owned by Qatar's government but known for a fairly independent editorial line. It reaches more than 35 million Arabs, including 150,000 in the United States. Since the start of the Afghan campaign, CNN and Al-Jazeera have had an agreement to share material. Jordan said that deal gave CNN the right to all Al-Jazeera's material and that it had done nothing illegal. The station's editor-in-chief, Ibrahim Helal, could not be reached for comment on its relationship with CNN or why the station never aired the interview. Initially, Al-Jazeera denied such an interview existed. But last month, Helal said he had several videos of bin Laden, possibly including a taped interview, that were not broadcast because they were deemed not newsworthy or of poor technical quality. ``I think Al-Jazeera has some tough questions to answer'' as to why it never made the tape public, Jordan said. The Arab station has repeatedly broadcast exclusive footage of bin Laden making statements on terrorism. Al-Jazeera also aired a video, released by the United States, showing the al-Qaida leader appearing to discuss the planning of the Sept. 11 attacks. But then, Jordan said, ``the one and only interview (with bin Laden) is not only buried as if it never took place, but Al-Jazeera misled people as to whether it took place.'' U.S. officials have urged American networks to be careful in airing Al-Jazeera's bin Laden videos, saying he could use them to send coded messages to his fighters. Government and intelligence officials apparently knew of the interview soon after it was completed.CNN said the U.S. government had a copy and British Prime Minister Tony Blair quoted the interview in a speech last November.