Wadah Khanfar - The US is after our integrity

The US is after our integrity

By Wadah Khanfar
Al Jazeera
Published: December 11, 2010

A lot can change in five years. In December 2005, the Guardian opened its pages for me to respond to a leak - the Bush-Blair memo in which both leaders discussed the possibility of bombing Al Jazeera's Qatar HQ, where more than 1,000 people work. While those who leaked the memo were imprisoned, its detailed contents were never disclosed. Earlier this year I learned from a senior US official that the discussions had indeed taken place.

I was not surprised. Our bureaus in Kabul and Iraq had previously been bombed by the US in an attempt to stifle the channel's independence; one of our journalists in Iraq was killed. But this did not deter us from our mission to provide "the opinion and the other opinion" - our motto; to give a voice to the voiceless; to hold centres of power to account; and to uphold our editorial independence no matter what the cost. We maintained these values even as the US bombed our offices, continuing our coverage of both sides of the story.

Continued. . .