The controversial Arab satellite channel has been called "the mouthpiece of Osama bin Laden" for broadcasting al-Qaida leader's statements.

"If al-Jazeera is accused of being a mouthpiece of al-Qaida for airing these tapes, by the same argument, the networks that rebroadcast that could be called the loudspeaker of al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden," al-Jazeera talk show host Hafez al-Mirazi said.

"We cover (the tape) and then we move on. But these (U.S.) stations used to come to our offices paying thousands of dollars to purchase the rights to air our footage!"

Al-Jazeera broadcast an audiotape Thursday of a voice the CIA later confirmed was bin Laden speaking on the war in Iraq and warning of more terrorist attacks on the United States.

The station's coverage of the Palestinian intifada and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks made it the target of criticism from the Bush administration. Despite that, however, al-Jazeera now has more than 40 million viewers, with 200,000 of them in the United States.

The Washington bureau where al-Mirazi started working with four others now has a staff of 24. They boast more in-depth coverage of Washington politics than major broadcast networks.

"Every year we cover the State of the Union from gavel to gavel," he said.

In a study by the University of Maryland, al-Jazeera was cited by 45 percent of Arab viewers polled as a primary source of news. Despite that, however, it is criticized by many Arab regimes.

The station is largely funded by subsidies from Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, the emir of Qatar. The Saudis have forbidden companies to advertise on al-Jazeera and only a small percentage of the station's profits come from advertising. Other revenues come from subscription fees and broadcasting deals with other stations, and on days like Thursday, the network receives thousands of dollars from other stations to use its exclusive footage.

The station was founded in 1996 and built up with staff that had come from the failed BBC World Service Arabic language channel, which had begun in 1994. The emir of Qatar invited journalists and producers from the BBC project to use the country as a base of operations and funded the satellite technology. The channel was supposed to operate commercially within five years, but due to the lack of advertisers, the emir continues to fund Al Jazeera.

The channel strives to serve an Arab audience and have "the view and the other point of view." Al-Mirazi said this came out of CNN coverage of the Persian Gulf War in 1991.

"Having Bernard Shaw describing the night of January 15, 1991, as similar to the sky of Washington during (fireworks) the night of the Fourth of July," explained Al-Mirazi, made the Arabs feel the need to have a media give their own perspective.

Despite al-Jazeera's target audience, the channel was not entirely well received in the Arab world for its coverage of Israel. Its shows, which often gives airtime to Israeli leaders, translated from Hebrew, offered an outlet for the Israeli point of view. It was banned in several countries and labeled an "agent of the CIA."

At first there was positive feedback from the West.

Thomas Friedman, The New York Times columnist, wrote in 1999 that al-Jazeera was "the freest, most widely watched TV network in the Arab world." That same year Friedman's colleague, John F. Burns praised it as "hard-hitting" and lauded its "feistiness."

"The early views were positive," said al-Mirazi. "You know everyone was talking about us rocking the boat."

But after its coverage of the Second Palestinian Intifada, the mega-terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 and the 2003 Iraq war, it became the target of negative press and was the subject of the documentary "Control Room."

"We saw this criticism, and it was 'So what else is new?'" said al-Mirazi. "You can't escape criticism no matter what."

The film, directed by Jehane Noujaim, brought coverage of the war in Iraq to American viewers through the lens of the Arab media, just as the Arab world had experienced the television coverage of the Gulf War through the lens of CNN. The central location of the film is Qatar's capital city, Doha, location of Al Jazeera and U.S. Central Command.

Capt. Josh Rushing, a Marine assigned to act as an escort for al-Jazeera and media spokesman for Central Command during the filming of the documentary. After the release of the film, Rushing's superior officers took issue with the candid interviews he gave to newspapers and statements he made on camera and he was ordered to stop all communications with the press. Rushing has since left the Marine Corps and will be working for al-Jazeera International, the channel's English-language station set to premier in May. Former ABC "Nightline" reporter Dave Marash and BBC broadcaster David Frost have also signed on with the new channel.

And on Thursday al-Jazeera was the first station to broadcast the latest bin Laden tapes which had been sent directly to their office, al-Mirazi said.

"Now, how we get the tape -- that is the $64 million question," he said, jokingly. "The tapes are sent by mail to our headquarters or dropped at our offices in the region, such as in Pakistan. We just broadcast them."

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