10.14.2005
From US Marines to Al-Jazeera (Guardian.co.uk)
Julian Borger in Washington
Thursday October 13, 2005
The Guardian
'Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," President George Bush told the world after September 11 2001, and he has made it clear ever since that he means it. But in that black and white universe, where do you put Josh Rushing?
Rushing is a blue-eyed son of Texas, a marine for all his adult life whose clean-cut friendly charm made him the ideal public face for the US military during the Iraq invasion. But he has now joined the Arab television channel al-Jazeera as an "on-screen personality", a move which, in the eyes of many Americans, is one step short of signing up with al-Qaida.
Article continues
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has accused the Qatar-based satellite channel of lying to the world and spouting terrorist propaganda. Its journalists have been boycotted by American officials and thrown out of Iraq. One of its reporters has recently been jailed for seven years by a Spanish court for collaborating with al-Qaida.
In joining al-Jazeera's forthcoming English-language service, Rushing points out that he is in good journalistic company. He will be surrounded by former BBC employees, including Sir David Frost. But they are Europeans and journalists, two species generally associated with perfidy in the minds of the American right. Rushing is an American and a marine. For many conservatives here, he has joined a pantheon of turncoats alongside Benedict Arnold (who switched to the British side halfway through the war of independence) and "Tokyo Rose" (who broadcast for the Japanese in the second world war).
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | From US marines to al-Jazeera) ¶ 08:07
Thursday October 13, 2005
The Guardian
'Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists," President George Bush told the world after September 11 2001, and he has made it clear ever since that he means it. But in that black and white universe, where do you put Josh Rushing?
Rushing is a blue-eyed son of Texas, a marine for all his adult life whose clean-cut friendly charm made him the ideal public face for the US military during the Iraq invasion. But he has now joined the Arab television channel al-Jazeera as an "on-screen personality", a move which, in the eyes of many Americans, is one step short of signing up with al-Qaida.
Article continues
The US defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, has accused the Qatar-based satellite channel of lying to the world and spouting terrorist propaganda. Its journalists have been boycotted by American officials and thrown out of Iraq. One of its reporters has recently been jailed for seven years by a Spanish court for collaborating with al-Qaida.
In joining al-Jazeera's forthcoming English-language service, Rushing points out that he is in good journalistic company. He will be surrounded by former BBC employees, including Sir David Frost. But they are Europeans and journalists, two species generally associated with perfidy in the minds of the American right. Rushing is an American and a marine. For many conservatives here, he has joined a pantheon of turncoats alongside Benedict Arnold (who switched to the British side halfway through the war of independence) and "Tokyo Rose" (who broadcast for the Japanese in the second world war).
(More ... Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | From US marines to al-Jazeera) ¶ 08:07
