Amanpour grows increasingly agitated with Sawiris, who supported the ouster of Mohammed Mursi and is in obvious agreement with the actions being taken against the group since (he also objected to Amanpour’s claim that he “bankrolled” Mursi’s ouster). Amanpour, who likes to fancy herself as an objective reporter, clearly holds the opposing view; she’s even more emotional than is Sawiris in the exchange.
Beginning at the 2:35 mark, the exchange gets a bit testy. Amanpour refers to the jailed reporters as her “colleagues” while objecting to their detention. Soon thereafter, Sawiris asks her if the journalists are with Al-Jazeera. Amanpour’s response to that question is very telling because she didn’t answer the question. She had to have known that had she responded in the affirmative, the subsequent follow-up by Sawiris would have involved the group’s connection to the Brotherhood.
A shocking assertion is made by Amanpour beginning at the 4:45 mark. After Sawiris explains that al-Jazeera is engaged in incitement by airing falsified stories and using propaganda, Amanpour expresses solidarity with the jailed al-Jazeera, saying that “we deny” such allegations “on behalf of our colleagues”. That is clearly advocacy journalism and expresses support for the Brotherhood’s propaganda arm.
The last 90 seconds of the interview are perhaps the most compelling and Sawiris introduces a subject the Brotherhood is very sensitive about. It begins with Amanpour obviously objecting to the terrorist designation that was given to the Brotherhood. During his response, Sawiris refers to the allegedly recorded phone calls between Mohammed Mursi and al-Qaeda number one, Ayman al-Zawahiri. It takes a while for Amanpour to respond to the claim but when she does, she indignantly accuses Sawiris of having no proof.
Did she receive those instructions through her earpiece?
The larger issue here is that there are plenty of Arabic reports that back up what Sawiris was saying. We covered some of them here. Instead of telling Sawiris he has no evidence, perhaps Amanpour should have asked him if he had any. If there is any, it should be Amanpour’s job as a “journalist” to investigate the claims. Then again, if she’s compromised by CAIR’s influence, that’s not part of her agenda.
Adding further credibility to Sawiris’s claim is that Mursi’s former Chief of Staff Rifaa El-Tahtawi and Ayman al-Zawahiri are first cousins.
In Amanpour’s business, those are called leads. In her world, however, they’re apparently unfortunate inconveniences that pose harm to CNN’s propaganda.
We have long suspected that Muslim Brotherhood front groups in the U.S. – particularly the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) – has undue influence at CNN. Back when Walid was smeared by Drew Griffin and Anderson Cooper, we received very credible information from a very reputable source that CAIR operatives were involved in that smear job.
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Shoebat Foundation. Mr Shoebat is a former Muslim Brotherhood member, now peace activist