A few months after the 7/7 bombings, the Guardian published an article by Saad al-Faqih, Al Qaeda’s representative in Europe, who is subject to a United Nations and United Kingdom asset freezing order. We wondered if these restrictions had made if difficult for the Guardian to get the usual contributor’s fee to the fellow.
Similar difficulties may well have arisen, in connection with the Guardian’s commissioning of an op ed piece from Hamas’ Osama Hamdan, who is also on the Treasury’s sanctions list.
It isn’t a serious question. I expect that Hamdan was happy to forego monetary compensation, in exchange for the opportunity to threaten his opponents with what he euphemistically called “practical measures”.
Nice one, Guardian!
