Madrid
A correspondent for the Arab TV station Al-Jazeera was arrested in Spain this week on charges of belonging to al Qaida. Tayssir Alouni, a Syrian with a Spanish passport, was the reporter who scooped the world by getting an interview with Osama bin Laden shortly after the 9/11 attacks. Spanish authorities said they had taped phone conversations showing that Alouni had been giving money and assistance to al Qaida cells in Europe. They said they had been watching Alouni since 2000—a detail that surprised many in Spain, where the reporter was recently allowed to interview Prime Minister Jose Maria Azner. Alouni denies the charges. His Al-Jazeera colleagues pointed out that Western reporters who held secret meetings with militants to get interviews were not arrested.
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