<p>The US has labelled a journalist, who interviewed Osama bin Laden and for years managed Al Jazeera's bureau in Pakistan, as a member of al-Qaeda and put him on a terrorist list, according to a media report.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al Jazeera's longtime Islamabad bureau chief, has been singled out as a member of the terrorist group in the new document detailing US intelligence efforts to track al-Qaeda couriers by analysing metadata, reported online news site The Intercept.<br /><br />Zaidan, a Syrian national, has focused his reporting throughout his career on the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and has conducted many high-profile interviews with al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.<br /><br />The document obtained by the news site through former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show that Zaidan was the subject of US surveillance as recently as June 2012.<br />"A slide dated June 2012 from a National Security Agency PowerPoint presentation bears his photo, name, and a terror watch list identification number, and labels him a 'member of Al-Qaeda' as well as the Muslim Brotherhood," the report said.<br /><br />"It also notes that he 'works for Al Jazeera'," it said.In a brief phone interview with The Intercept, Zaidan has "absolutely" denied he is a member of al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood.<br /><br />In a statement provided through Al Jazeera, Zaidan noted that his career has spanned many years of dangerous work in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and required interviewing key people in the region —- a normal part of any journalist's job.<br /><br />The document cites Zaidan as an example to demonstrate the powers of SKYNET, a programme that analyses location and communication data (or "metadata") from bulk call records in order to detect suspicious patterns.<br /><br />The NSA uses its version of SKYNET to identify people that it believes move like couriers used by al-Qaeda's senior leadership, according to the presentation.<br /><br />Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst and author of several books on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, told The Intercept, "I've known [Zaidan] for well over a decade, and he's a first class journalist."<br /><br />"He has the contacts and the access that of course no Western journalist has," said Bergen.<br /><br />"But by that standard any journalist who spent time with Al Qaeda would be suspect." Bergen himself interviewed bin Laden in 1997.</p>
<p>The US has labelled a journalist, who interviewed Osama bin Laden and for years managed Al Jazeera's bureau in Pakistan, as a member of al-Qaeda and put him on a terrorist list, according to a media report.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan, Al Jazeera's longtime Islamabad bureau chief, has been singled out as a member of the terrorist group in the new document detailing US intelligence efforts to track al-Qaeda couriers by analysing metadata, reported online news site The Intercept.<br /><br />Zaidan, a Syrian national, has focused his reporting throughout his career on the Taliban and al-Qaeda, and has conducted many high-profile interviews with al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden.<br /><br />The document obtained by the news site through former NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden show that Zaidan was the subject of US surveillance as recently as June 2012.<br />"A slide dated June 2012 from a National Security Agency PowerPoint presentation bears his photo, name, and a terror watch list identification number, and labels him a 'member of Al-Qaeda' as well as the Muslim Brotherhood," the report said.<br /><br />"It also notes that he 'works for Al Jazeera'," it said.In a brief phone interview with The Intercept, Zaidan has "absolutely" denied he is a member of al-Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood.<br /><br />In a statement provided through Al Jazeera, Zaidan noted that his career has spanned many years of dangerous work in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and required interviewing key people in the region —- a normal part of any journalist's job.<br /><br />The document cites Zaidan as an example to demonstrate the powers of SKYNET, a programme that analyses location and communication data (or "metadata") from bulk call records in order to detect suspicious patterns.<br /><br />The NSA uses its version of SKYNET to identify people that it believes move like couriers used by al-Qaeda's senior leadership, according to the presentation.<br /><br />Peter Bergen, CNN's national security analyst and author of several books on al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden, told The Intercept, "I've known [Zaidan] for well over a decade, and he's a first class journalist."<br /><br />"He has the contacts and the access that of course no Western journalist has," said Bergen.<br /><br />"But by that standard any journalist who spent time with Al Qaeda would be suspect." Bergen himself interviewed bin Laden in 1997.</p>