Saudi Billionaire Forces Fox To Alter French Muslim Riot Coverag
http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=pn1.12.8.05fox%2Ehtm
December 8, 2005 - Washington, DC - PipeLineNews.org - Accuracy in Media (AIM) is urging a full inquiry into a report that a Saudi billionaire caused the Fox News Channel (FNC) to dramatically alter its coverage of the Muslim riots in France after he called the network to complain. The Saudi billionaire, Al-waleed bin Talal, is a friend of News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch and controls an influential number of voting shares in the company.
"This report underscores the danger of giving foreign interests a significant financial stake in U.S. media companies," declared Cliff Kincaid, editor of Accuracy in Media.
The controversial comments came at an Arab media conference featuring representatives of Time magazine, USA Today, PBS, The Wall Street Journal, and other news organizations. The conference and the Saudi Prince's growing influence in News Corporation are among the subjects of a new December-A AIM Report that has just been posted at the AIM website (www.aim.org). The report raises the specter of Arab money influencing News Corporation and other U.S. media companies.
Liberal journalist Danny Schechter, a participant in the conference, reports that Al-waleed, who is a member of the Saudi Royal Family and investor in the Fox News parent company News Corporation, gave an interview boasting that he had called Fox to complain about coverage of the "Muslim riots" in France. He said he "called as a viewer" and "convinced them to change" the coverage because "they were not Muslim riots but riots against poverty and inequality." And "they changed" the coverage, the Saudi reportedly said.
Another report on the comments, carried by the Dubai-based newspaper the Khaleej Times, says that Al-waleed personally called Rupert Murdoch to complain. The Saudi said, "After a short while, there was a change" in the coverage.
An AIM call to Fox News asking for comment was not returned.
This is not the first time that Al-waleed has made controversial statements. His $10 million contribution to a 9/11 fund was rejected when he blamed the terror attacks on U.S. Middle East policy. Fifteen of the 19 terrorist hijackers on 9/11 came from Saudi Arabia.
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Saudi prince advocates strategy of business not boycotts to 'influence American public opinion"
September 25, 2005MIM: Prince Al Waleed bin Talal was recently a guest of the Arab American Anti Discrimination Committee where he pleged millions for a new building for the organisation as well to to other Muslim groups to help Islamise the United States. Al Waleed runs a holding company and is one of the most visible funders of Islamist organisations in the United States. The purchase of large share of Fox News is a sign that militant Islam is making steady inroads into the fabric of American society almost unnoticed.
The purchase of large share of what was considered a conservative station by a Saudi Prince known for his financial support for Islamist activities, shows that Militant Islam not only has come to America, it is taking over significant areas of American life.
See: Saudi prince Alwaleed bin Talal who runs telethons for suicide bombers buys 5% share of FOX News.
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/article/id/671
MIM: Alwaleed bin Talal advocates business instead of boycotts, as the means to conquer America by 'influencing American public opinion,and the Fox aquisition is a continuation of his strategy.
"...Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, a Saudi billionaire and respected economic authority, argued that the boycott movement was totally ineffective in that it failed to hurt the US economy. He said that it was the Arabs who benefit more from extended economic relations with the US because "the trade balance between the Arabs and the US is in our favor." He elaborated by explaining that US trade with the Arab World was no more than 3% of the American total trade volume. The Arabs should concentrate on influencing American public opinion, he said. He pointed to the fact that Israel succeeded in manipulating the events of September 11, to its advantage by branding all Arabs and Muslims as terrorists, then proceeded to war on the Palestinians and massacring them unchecked. (16)" (see complete article below)
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MIM: The original source of this news is from Debbie Schlussel, who first broke the story on her webblog.
http://www.debbieschlussel.com/archives/2005/09/fox_news_fair_a.html
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Saudi Prince Buys Large Share of Fox News
Sunday, September 25, 2005
(IsraelNN.com) Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal has purchased 5.46 percent of the Fox corporation, according to Gulf Daily News, raising concern that the conservative Fox News may soften its anti-terror stance due to the views of the new shareholder.
Al-Waleed, the nephew of the late Saudi King Fahd, was in the news when he visited the World Trade Center's remains just after the September 11th attacks and offered then-New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani a $10 million check for relief efforts. Al-Waleed then released a statement blaming US foreign policy and support for Israel for the attacks.
Giuliani returned the prince's check with a statement that, "There is no moral equivalent for this attack. The people who did it lost any right to ask for justification when they slaughtered . . . innocent people ... Not only are those statements wrong, they're part of the problem."-------------
This article by Stanislav Lunev shows to what extent Prince Bin Talal and the Saudis are part of the terrorism problem.
Saudi Policies at Cross-Purposes With Middle East Peace
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/4/19/02251.shtml
Col. Stanislav Lunev
Friday, April 19, 2002
While the civilized world seeks some way to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East, our so-called friends in the region are doing as much as they can to increase current tensions and fuel violence.
Last week, Saudi Arabia raised more than $100 million for Palestinians in government-organized telethons. Billionaire investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, whose donation for victims of the Sept. 11 attack was rejected last fall by New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, donated $27 million to the Palestinian fund.
In October, Mr. Giuliani initially accepted a check for $10 million from Prince Alwaleed for a New York relief fund but later returned it when he learned about the prince's statement calling on the U.S. to "re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause."
According to the Arab media, the telethons, broadcast live, were an attempt by the Saudi government to show support for the Palestinians. The purpose of the event was to benefit families of "martyrs," a word that has been used by the Palestinians to refer to suicide bombers, and actually to anyone else claiming to be a victim of alleged Israeli perfidy.
Also last week, thousands of protesters rallied despite a Saudi government ban on such demonstrations. Protesters called on Arabs to do more than just donate money, demanded a boycott of Israel and America, and expressed their desire for a jihad (holy war) in Palestine.
It would be understandable if all this had happened in Iraq, Iran and other rogue states that sponsor international terrorism. However, it happened in the country considered by liberal American politicians as our friend and ally in the Middle East and a partner in the anti-terrorism coalition.
It's no secret that Saudi Arabia was called home by 15 of the 19 terrorists responsible for murdering thousands of Americans and hundreds of foreign nationals on Sept. 11. It is also the home of Wahhabism, the fanatical brand of violence-obsessed Islam, which not only exists and prospers on the Arabian peninsula but is exported throughout the world, with cells as far away as Virginia.
It is the country that for many years has used so-called petrodollars to finance special Wahhabism schools throughout the world for training radicalized Islamic students and preparing them for the "holy war" against Christian and Jewish "infidels."
It is Wahhabism that has been responsible for most of the major terrorist attacks against the U.S. and the West during the last decade and now continues its crimes against the civilized world.
Saudi Arabia is a nation whose officials argue that the Palestinians are the "victims" of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, neglecting the fact that Jordan occupied the West Bank and Egypt occupied Gaza for nearly two decades after Arab nations failed to drive Israel into the sea during their first war in 1948.
It was also none other than Saudi authorities who played a major role in torpedoing the land-for-peace offer Israel made in Oslo (1993), at Wye River Plantation, Md. (1998), and Camp David (2000).
At the same time, they supported Yasser Arafat, who uses their agreements to pressure Israel into making more concessions, even while refusing to live up to his own obligations, and responding to Israeli initiatives not with counterproposals, but with deadly jihad.
There is no doubt that during negotiations over the peace process in the Middle East we have to support our real friends in the region who are trying only to survive. However, we have to be very careful in dealing with nations whose leaders look only at their own interests, which contradict our values and principles.
Col. Stanislav Lunev is the highest-ranking Soviet military intelligence officer ever to defect from Russia. Read his gripping story, Through the Eyes of the Enemy.
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MIM: Former NYC Mayor Rudolph Giuliani recognised that Prince Walid's money was tainted and that it would have been a slap in the face of the victims to accept money from someone who shared the same agenda as the hijackers, and actually said that their attacks had been justified.
A list of Waleed's holdings show that many major American companies have been bought by bin Talal who is said to be the 6th richest man in the world.
http://www.militantislammonitor.org/docs?type=1
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AL-WALEED, Amir
Born in 1955, Prince (Amir) al Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul-Aziz, is a son of Amir Talal bin Abdul-Aziz, and of a Lebanese mother, daughter of the first Prime Minister of Lebanon, Riad Solh. He is one of the numerous gransons of the founder of Saudi Arabia, King Abdul-Aziz ibn Saud, and a nephew of King Fahd.
He has no claim to the throne since his father, Prince Talal, fell out of favour in the 1960's when he was one one of the so-called "Liberal Princes" who called for elections in the Kingdom. He nevertheless is one of the most dynamic young Saudi princes in the business world. His wealth is estimated to be worth 14 billion US $. He controls a worldwide investment, banking, construction and leisure empire through a number of compagnies registered in tax havens. More than 120 of these are registered in the Cayman islands under the name "Kingdom 5-KR".
In 1991, he became the biggest shareholder in Citicorp (worth 590 million US $) and went on to play a major role in the rescue and financial restructuring of Eurodisney. In 1995, he sought to acquire part of the Italian Silvio Berlusconi's media empire. In the spring of 1996, he was busy establishing a new investment vehicle intended to promote investment in Saudi Arabia and to boost the activities of the Ryadh stock market.
More recently, he showed interest in the Palestinian territories. In July 1997, he announced plans to invest in a new Palestinian construction firm for Jerusalem (Al Quds Construction and Investment Company) to bolster the Arab presence in the city. He also invested in PADICO, the Palestine Development and Investment Company, which aims to set up projects worth 1 billion US $ in the West Bank and Gaza by 2000. He is the first high profile non-Palestinian Arab investor in the area since the signing of the peace agreements between Israel and the PLO.
Concerning his other interests in the Arab countries, it is worth mentionning that the Saudi "Kingdom Agricultural Development Company " (KADCO), headed by Prince Al-Waleed, purchased a substantial amount of land in Egypt, in the "New Valley development zone" which is to be irrigated by Nile diverted water from Lake Nasser via Sheikh Zayed Canal.
In 2000, Forbes magazine ranked him as the sixth richest businessman in the world.
Kingdom Holdings share in various companies (main holdings, Feb. 2000):
Four Seasons London 100 % George V Hotel, Paris 100 % Nile Plaza Complex, Cairo 50 % Plaza Hotels 42 % ART (Arab Radio & Television) 30 % National Industrialisation Company 30 % Mövenpick Hotels & Resorts 30 % Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts 27 % Rotana Video & Audiovisual Company 25 % Silki La Silki National Communication Ltd 25 % Planet Hollywood 20 % Daewoo Corporation 18 % The Savola Group 18 % Teledesic 16 % Cal Merchant Bank 14 % Nigeria United Bank 13.7 % Disneyland 13 % Senegalese Telecommunication Company 10 % News Corporation 7.5 % Saudi American Bank 7.2 % Donna Karan International 7 % Hyunday 7 % Canary Wharf 6 % Saks Fifth Avenue 6 % Saatchi & Saatchi 6 % Jerusalem Development & Investment Company 5 % Palestine Development & Investment Company 5 % TWA 5 % In April/May 2000, the holding of Prince Al-Waleed increased its share in the so-called "new economy" with new investments totalling more than 1 billion US$. Acquisitions of 50 million US$ each were made in the six biggest ".com" internet companies (Amazon.com, eBay.com, DoubleClick.com, etc). Most of these purchases were made when stock prices of these companies were near collapse.
Sources:
Business Monitor International, Jordan Times, MEED and The EconomistSee also:
Al Saud family.-------------------------------------------------
MIM: An article lamenting the 'suffering' of Muslim women, which explains the need for some of them to become suicide bombers, sums up the virulently anti Western mentality of Saudis who are buying up the United States. To them, fundraising for terrorists and suicide bombers not only do not require justification, they are one of the highest duties and priorities for Muslims. In the warped Islamist weltaanschauung it is Arabs and Muslims who are the victims of 9/11and suicide bombings and killing of infidels is not only a sacred duty, it is every Muslim's right. See: http://www.militantislammonitor.org/docs?type=1
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