Jazeera fury over 'U.S. bomb' memo

Jazeera fury over 'U.S. bomb' memo

(CNN) -- Employees of the Arabic news network Al-Jazeera have been protesting over a recent report by a British tabloid that the U.S. allegedly planned to bomb the network's headquarters in Qatar -- a report vehemently denied by the White House.

Men and women stood outside Al-Jazeera's Doha, Qatar offices on Thursday holding signs in Arabic and in English, one reading "Don't bomb the messenger." Another sign read "Hostage of Truth" over a photo of Sami al-Hajj, an Al-Jazeera cameraman imprisoned at the U.S. military facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Al-Hajj was detained in Afghanistan, and the network has been asking for his release.

Employees staged similar protests at bureaus in Cairo, Beirut, and Ramallah, with banners condemning U.S. President George Bush



Aidan White, general secretary of the IFJ.

Qatar shock at al-Jazeera bombing report

Qataris, including senior officials, reacted with shock on Wednesday to newspaper reports in Britain suggesting that George W Bush, the US president, had discussed bombing the Doha headquarters of the Arabic satellite TV channel al-Jazeera.

“I thought this was just a rumour, but now the UK has used the secrecy act to stop it, it raises more questions. It makes this high profile and we would be really interested to know what is going on,” a senior member of the ruling Al-Thani family said.

The Bush administration avoided meeting Qatari officials for several months and Washington insisted Qatar should put pressure on al-Jazeera – launched with government funding nine years ago – to tone down its broadcasts out of Iraq.

“It is time for the United States to tell the truth about this attack and to take responsibility for its actions, which appear to be gross violation of international humanitarian law,” said Aidan White, general secretary of the IFJ.