Washington, May 11 (RHC)-- Leaked documents from Edward Snowden show the U.S. government labeled an Al Jazeera journalist a member of Al Qaeda. According to the Intercept, Ahmad Muaffaq Zaidan was put on a watch list of suspected terrorists in 2012. Zaidan has spent years reporting on al Qaeda and the Taliban, and has interviewed several top figures including Osama bin Laden.

In a statement, Zaidan dismissed the U.S. claims, saying*: "To assert that myself, or any journalist, has any affiliation with any group on account of their contact book, phone call logs, or sources is an absurd distortion of the truth and a complete violation of the profession of journalism.”