Jarallah was born in 1942, and according to a leaked US diplomatic cable from 1989 is "a Kuwaiti of relatively recent Saudi origin [and] relatively humble background". In 1963, Al-Jarallah started his journalism career as a junior reporter in the Kuwaiti daily
Al Rai Alaam, eventually becoming Managing Editor and Deputy Editor-in-Chief. In 1965, he left the newspaper to join the weekly magazine
Al-Seyassah as Editor-in-Chief. In the late 1960s, Al-Jarallah was able to "parlay a winning personality and a friendship with the then-minister of information
Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah] into a publishing empire". In 1968, he bought
Al-Seyassah, a weekly magazine at the time, from
Abdulaziz Al-Masaeed with a bank loan and then secured the license from his friend the minister to turn the weekly magazine into a daily newspaper. In 1977, Jarallah expanded
Al-Seyassah into a media group, which also published the English-language
Arab Times newspaper and the weekly magazine
Al-Hadaf (), In 1977, the assets of
Al-Seyassah were estimated at more than five million
Kuwaiti dinars ($17.25m), which included what was described as the most modern printing press in the Middle East. In 2011, Al-Jarallah received a
Challenger 605 business jet from
Bombardier Aerospace.
Assassination attempts On April 23, 1985, Al-Jarallah faced an assassination attempt when a gunman opened fire on him outside his offices. He was shot six times, and was rushed to the nearby Al-Razi Hospital by his driver, seriously injured. An organization under the name Arab Revolutionary Brigades claimed responsibility. It was suspected that Palestinian militant group
Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) was behind the assassination attempt. Leaked US diplomatic cables describe observers connecting this assassination attempt to some of Al-Jarallah's political views. On 11 December 2003, Al-Jarallah's secretary at Al-Seyassah was injured when he opened a large envelope addressed to Jarallah, sent from
Beirut,
Lebanon. The envelope bomb contained the plastic explosive
Semtex. The motive and source of the bombing was unclear, however it has been reported that the pro-Saudi newspaper led by Al-Jarallah had been critical of religious extremists and terrorism in
Saudi Arabia, and supported the U.S.-led
war in Iraq. ==Editorial views==