Click here to access article from Mada Masr. See also this piece entitled "Al Jazeera Journalists Stand Trial in Cairo" from Muftah.
Al Jazeera was a very good source of information until in recent years the Qatari Monarch, who owns the media network, began to dislike the way news was reported. This bastion of freedom and staunch ally (sarcasm) of the Empire is now going after their journalists with a vengeance. If the Saudi Monarchy gets their hands on them, they will likely lose their heads--literally.
Of course, Qatar, like most nations of the Middle East (see the Gulf Cooperation Council), was created by British and French powers during the classic colonial period. Thus, these colonial nations with the cooperation of the US didn't hesitate to carve out the nation of Israel during the latter stages of classic colonialism (see the Balfour Declaration). After WWII US capitalists, ruling over the only industrialized nation left intact, decided to mount their own world empire using the leftovers of mainly the British, French, and Japanese.
Hence, it was natural for them to wage war against the independence minded Koreans by installing those Koreans who had collaborated with their Japanese overlords; and when that didn't work, actually installing former Japanese colonial administrators. (See The Origins of the Korean War, v.1 by Bruce Cumings.)
Likewise, the new US imperialists didn't hesitate to take over from the French who couldn't hang on to their colony in Indochina. The Indochinese also wanted their own independent country. Their leader Ho Chi Minh, who had spent a lot of time in the US and was educated in France, was inspired by Western ideals and wanted the same for his country. Even the original Proclamation of Independence of Vietnam was almost a copy of the US Declaration of Independence. However, he was rudely awakened to the fact that such constructions on paper meant little to these empire builders.
When military force wasn't feasible, the empire builders used the CIA and all their subversive strategies to install in many other nations government leaders who would take orders from Washington, Wall Street, and the IMF. And, today they are still using these methods as we are witnessing in Ukraine.
But, I digress. I guess the pointed I wanted to make was this. Much of the world was constructed through violence, and violence (or the threat of violence) is now the number one form of domination by our country over much of the world. That is precisely why we have around 1000 military bases all over the world. Qatar and the other GCC countries are some of the worst examples of illegitimate governments whose citizens must endure the most backward and barbaric forms of government in the latest neocolonial stage under the domination of the US Empire.
The driving force behind this domination is the addiction to wealth and power by a relatively few people whose system of capitalism is the means of delivery of these drugs. We must end their rule and their system by any means necessary--if we are to survive in a peaceful, sustainable world.
