Jordan confiscates video of interview with Prince Hassan
AP
"Jordanian authorities on Saturday confiscated the videotape of an interview with the country's former crown prince by Al-Jazeera Television, the Qatar-based satellite broadcaster and a Jordanian official said.
The tape was confiscated as an Al-Jazeera reporter was about to leave the Hashemite kingdom. No further details about the circumstances of the seizure were immediately known.
Nasser Judeh, the chief Jordanian government spokesman, confirmed the videotape's confiscation but said it had nothing to do with the content of the interview with Prince Hassan, the uncle to Jordan's King Abdullah II and one time heir to the Jordanian throne.
Meanwhile, Al-Jazeera aired a statement by Ghassan Ben Jeddou, the network's bureau chief in Beirut, Lebanon, who had interviewed Prince Hassan in Amman and who said the tape contained remarks by the Jordanian royal claiming that a national security adviser in Saudi Arabia was financing Sunni militants to fight the Iran-backed Hezbollah group. The network identified the Saudi official as Prince Bandar bin Sultan, a former Saudi ambassador to Washington.
In the interview, Prince Hassan also sharply criticized United States policies in the region as destructive, Ben Jeddou said.
Ben Jeddou said that the Jordanian authorities informed the channel's office in Amman that the seizure was an official measure by Jordanian authorities and that they have no problem with al-Jazeera.
Ben Jeddou said the confiscation was a mistake by the Jordanians. The reporter also cited the Jordanians as telling him that there were higher interests for the country than dealing with what you reporters call freedom of journalism.
Hassan was the brother of King Hussein but was dismissed as crown prince in a 1999 royal shake-up by Hussein shortly before his death that year. He is a moderate who does not hold any official role in Jordanian politics but is has considerable influence among decision makers.
A spokesman for Prince Hassan declined to comment the incident."
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A Comment:
Good for Al-Jazeera; just about the only free and courageous voice in the entire Arab world. The fossilized Arab dictators still want to suppress the truth in this day of information! Unbelievable! Have they heard of the internet and satellite T.V.? No wonder the Arab world still lives in the middle Ages.
What Prince Hassan is saying is the truth and has been reported by highly reputable reporters such as Seymour Hersh. Hersh reported a couple of months ago about the Saudi plan implemented in partnership with the U.S. and Israel to finance and arm some Al-Qa'ida affiliated groups in Lebanon to fight Hizbullah. The key Saudi figure is Prince Bandar (Bush). Some of the billions of dollars stolen from Iraq by the U.S. are being laundered by the Saudis and channeled to the "Sunni" groups in Lebanon as well as to some militias which are supervised and trained by the Siniora government.
Here is the link to Hersh's article, titled "The redirection" published by the New Yorker magazine on March 5; it is a must read if you have not read it. It describes in some detail the emerging U.S.-Israel-"moderate" Arabs alliance against Iran and Hizbullah.
So, little boy king, "there were higher interests for the country than dealing with what you reporters call freedom of journalism." Pray tell like what? Like not exposing the rotten Saudi monarchy and the sinister U.S. plans for perpetual war and fragmentation of the Arab world in the service of Greater Israel? You are indeed a dependable puppet in the service of Usrael.
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