The Al Jazeera Invasion

You may not have heard of Wadah Khanfar, but this week, he becomes one of the world's most influential news executives. Besides being head of the 10-year-old Qatar-based Al Jazeera television channel since 2003, the Palestinian-born former reporter is now the overall boss of the network's global channel, Al Jazeera English, that goes on the air starting Wednesday. In an interview with TIME's Scott MacLeod, Khanfar, 38, explained the English channel's alternative agenda, and defended the Arabic channel against charges of bias and sensationalism.