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By Shavana Abruzzo
Brooklyn Daily
Al Gore — the former veep, author, Nobel Prize winner, Oscar awardee, multi-millionaire, and green-energy mogul who uses twice as much electricity in his home than the average American household does in a year — can now add a new title to his resume: piggish, American sellout.
Gore netted himself a tidy $100-million profit by unloading his sinking cable channel Current TV on Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani — the emir of oil-rich, Shariah law-driven Qatar, who owns the Arab news channel Al-Jazeera, and is looking to expand its English presence in the living rooms of America to bolster his nation’s image as a freedom fighter.
Al-Jazeera’s pro-Islamic bend was witnessed by former “Nightline” reporter Dave Marash who quit Al-Jazeera English after reportedly discovering its “stereotypical,” anti-American bias.
The Arab news network also commemorated the 10th anniversary of America’s worst day in an editorial entitled, “Let’s forget 9-11 — if we have any respect for history or humanity, we should remove 9-11 from our collective consciousness.”
That’s only the half of it.
Sheik Hamad is a www.nytimes.com/2012/10/24/world/middleeast/pledging-400-million-qatari-emir-makes-historic-visit-to-gaza-strip.html?_r=0">ruthless despot who seized power in 1995 by deposing his father in a palace coup — presumably to help along the terror group’s goal to destroy Israel.
Moreover, Qatar is classified by the U.S. State Department as a “country for men and women subjected to forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution.”
Yet Gore sees no problem allowing Hamid to disseminate news to Americans — and he’s not the first to do business with him.
Qatar has already made shocking inroads into American society — exactly six blocks from the White House.
It has put up $700 million for $950 million of retail, apartments, and office space project under construction in Washington, DC, in exchange for strict religious and moral stipulations, including no banks or bars in the vicinity.
Are conservative, religious Muslims now calling the shots in America?
The sheik has sought to promote freedom by supporting the revolutions in Libya and Yemen, and calling for the Syrian government’s ouster — but the reality is something else.
Last November, a Qatari court imposed a life sentence on an artist — who hadn’t been allowed to enter a plea or challenge the vague charges against him — after he recited poems that included derogative passages about the ruling family, prompting a backlash from global watchdogs who blasted the regime for being hypocritical.
“Qatar, after all its posturing as a supporter of freedom, turns out to be determined to keep its citizens quiet,” said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, which monitors how nations treat their citizens. “The alleged mockery of Qatar’s rulers can hardly compare to the mockery this judgment makes of the country’s posture as a regional center for media freedom.”
The good news is that Time Warner Cable, the nation’s second-largest cable TV provider, dropped Current TV immediately after the sale became final — at least someone knows an agent of propaganda when it sees one.
Gore, by contrast, kvelled Al-Jazeera will “tell the stories that no one else is telling.”
Would those include telling Americans why it doesn’t report on Qatar’s human rights abuses?
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Reach reporter Shavana Abruzzo at sabruzzo@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-2529. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/BritShavana