John R. Bradley, Managing Editor

JEDDAH, 3 October 2003 — Al-Jazeera bowed to pressure from the United States government last month by immediately pulling two cartoons deemed “inflammatory” by Washington from its websites, a senior source in the news organization has told Arab News.

The two cartoons were pulled “without any hesitation” from both the Arabic and English language websites after a US government official complained about them, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

One cartoon was of so-called “green card soldiers”, young Latino men shown going through an immigration tunnel to emerge from the other side as US soldiers ready to leave for military service in Iraq. The other was of the Twin Towers imploding, and two giant fuel pumps rising to replace them from the ashes. Neither cartoon is now available in Al-Jazeera websites’ cartoon archive.

“The journalists on the Arabic language website didn’t give a damn,” the source said, “but those on the English site were furious. However, their complaints were dismissed.”

The revelation that Al-Jazeera was so easily cowed by US pressure over the “offensive” cartoons will be seen by many to undermine its combative and independent image.

Officials at the US State Department contacted by Arab News yesterday refused to comment, and Al-Jazeera failed to reply to e-mails and answer phone messages.

Al-Jazeera and the Dubai-based Al-Arabiya are currently under a two-week ban from covering the US-backed Iraqi Governing Council after broadcasting material said by the US to have incited “anti-coalition violence” in the war-ravaged country. However, the ban was largely seen among Arabs as mirroring the kind of censorship that existed in Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Al-Jazeera journalist Tayssir Alounni is also under arrest in Spain for allegedly having participated in a Syrian-dominated Al-Qaeda cell in Madrid, suspected of having links to the cell in Hamburg responsible for the Sept. 11 attacks. Alounni’s incarceration last month set off an outcry in the Arab world, which has interpreted the case as one where politics, religion and terrorism have converged.

But it is now clear that Al-Jazeera is buckling under US pressure, to the extent that it will compromise on its principles.

There are also reports of “a storm of controversy” over alleged attempted US interference in the issuing of religious edicts by Al-Azhar in Cairo, Islam’s foremost authority.

Al-Azhar’s Grand Imam, Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, annulled an edict on Aug. 28 issued by a less senior imam which called for Arab states to boycott the Iraqi Governing Council.

Reporting an “internal Al-Azhar crisis”, the London-based pan-Arab Al-Hayat daily claimed Tantawi had issued his statement after a meeting with US Ambassador to Egypt David Welch. The Egyptian media, including Al-Arabie newspaper, accused Welch of having pressured Tantawi to annul the edict.

Both Al-Azhar and Welch have denied the allegations.