On a muggy, Washington day last month, this former Marine with blue eyes and Texan charm sat down with me over tea in his office to discuss his new book, Mission Al Jazeera: Build a Bridge, Seek the Truth, Change the World.
How did you end up as a reporter for Al Jazeera?
I'm from Lone Star, TX. Mom and Dad live there. Dad's a firefighter and Mom's on city council. I've been a Marine my entire adult life. So I came to know Al Jazeera as a spokesperson for the U.S. Military at U.S. Central Command. In 2004, after I came back from the war, a movie, Control Room, came out about me. So life in a very odd way had given me a platform. I was the only person in the world to be inside the Pentagon, the Administration and Al Jazeera, all at the same time. I felt a sense of civic responsibility to tell what I knew about the network. The Pentagon wasn't comfortable with my position. One thing leads to another, and now I'm the new face of Al Jazeera English. I'm not sure Al Jazeera would actually agree with that, but they don't get to choose. (Laughs)
What did you learn about Al Jazeera that most Americans don't know? Isn't it linked to Al Qaeda?
Well, only in the American mindset, where you believe there are only two political and philosophical positions in the world, do you assume that if you're not with the American government, you're with Al Qaeda. The truth is that no one in authority likes Al Jazeera. Al Qaeda has called Al Jazeera pro-Western and pro-Zionist. They've called for attacks against Al Jazeera in Qatar. All governments don't like Al Jazeera, because Al Jazeera's mandate is to speak truth to power.
In Control Room, an American journalist asks an Al Jazeera manager about the network's alleged lack of objectivity. The Al Jazeera manager responds, "Your objectivity is almost a mirage."
Objectivity is tricky. These news organizations that claim complete objectivity might be setting themselves up as liars. Al Jazeera Arabic's coverage of the Iraq invasion was so different from the Western media because Al Jazeera reporters set out to give the Iraqi people a voice. If Al Jazeera hadn't, those people may not have had a voice. So much of the Western press was entrenched with U.S. forces and receiving the Western version of the war.
As you say, you shed the uniform but not the purpose. As a former Marine, do you belong to both worlds?
It's hard, though. I'm caught between being a spokesman and being a journalist. Am I a cultural ambassador between the two worlds? If I am, that's not the work of a journalist. And if I'm a journalist then I'm putting the pieces out there as my best attempt at objectivity. And I think sometimes I win at it and sometimes I fail. You can see me just as an individual at Al Jazeera and conflicted by it and constantly asking myself that.
How well is America fighting the greater jihad, which, as you define it in the book, is the personal battle of self-identity?
I think that maybe that language may throw people off, calling it jihad, but essentially what it just means is that there are two wars going on in America. One is defending it against the physical threat of its foreign enemies and the other is the battle for what America really represents: the soul of America. Is it an open country? Is it all the things it represented in the past that may be changing in this time period? Right now, I have to say things look pretty grim.
What is the Fox News effect?
It is the audience that shapes the medium. It's a profit model. They've got to do it, but it may not be the best thing for our country. There comes a point where the populace says, we need the real information, too. And we have to remember what we stand for: we're an open society where anyone can become anything. We represent liberty and human rights. We've got to stop representing torture and a country that worries more about illegal aliens than how you set up a new Ellis Island.
Some people say the images of burned hospitals, American dead, and bombings shown on Al Jazeera are inciting violence in Iraq.
That wasn't the official reason Al Jazeera was thrown out of Iraq three years ago, but it was the unofficial reason. Has the violence lessened since then? Of course not.
In your book, you say that appearing on Arab media sources and getting rid of this "no comment" policy from the military is essential to military success in the region. This way, resistance fighters are not the only ones expressing opinions on Arab media.
Let's say a Marine squad gets get fired on from a mosque. Now, according to the rules of engagement, they can return fire. When they go to clear the area, a reporter shows up with a camera. If they find out he's Al Jazeera, then they won't talk to him. Meanwhile, an Iraqi is telling the Al Jazeera reporter: "The Americans attacked the mosque. They're attacking Islam." He gives a great emotive interview on camera. But there are bullet holes in the wall across from the mosque. The reporter starts calling the public affairs office in Baghdad, where it is extremely difficult to get a hold of anyone.
Is it understaffing -- or is the United States giving journalists the run around?
It's a complicated system that even I don't understand, and I was a part of it! This public affairs office is saying one thing and this one is saying another. This Al Jazeera guy's trying to figure it out all on his own with a satellite phone on the ground, and he won't get an answer if he's from the network. Now, it's up to this guy. Well, screw it, he says, you don't want your side of the story out, you don't get your side of the story out. He goes with the firefight, the emotive guy. This might inspire someone to defend the faith in Iraq.
So you think the military would be able to reduce concerns about the U.S. if it engaged with Arab media, even calming outrage about public scandals like Abu Ghraib and accusations of torture.
In its sometimes C-SPAN-like way, Al Jazeera showed all of the congressional hearings about Abu Ghraib. An army officer I know was with a Kuwaiti defense minister while he was watching the hearings on this huge-screen TV. The Kuwaiti minister seemed surprised that the U.S. government was holding itself accountable. The horrors of Abu Ghraib are an old story. It's always been full of torture, but the fact that the U.S. government is trying to hold people accountable and that someone in the government is saying, "This is not what America represents," is a silver lining to a really bad story.
