This entry was posted on
Wednesday, November 23rd, 2005 at
8:58 am and is filed
under The War on Stupid.

Mirror – Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera

BBC – Bush al-Jazeera ‘plot’ dismissed: The White House has dismissed claims George Bush was talked out of bombing Arab television station al-Jazeera by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair. The allegations were made by an unnamed source in the Daily Mirror newspaper. A White House official said: “We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response.” … According to the Mirror’s source, the transcript records a conversation during Mr Blair’s visit to the White House on 16 April 2004, in the wake of an attempt to root out insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja, in which 30 US Marines died… A Downing Street spokesman said: “We have got nothing to say about this story. We don’t comment on leaked documents.” But Mr Kilfoyle – a former defence minister and leading Labour opponent of the Iraq war – has called for the full text to be published.

And, as they’re clearly innocent, they have nothing to fear. I’m sure they’ll publish.

(*cough*)

Mirror (23rd Nov): The Daily Mirror was yesterday told not to publish further details from a top secret memo, which revealed that President Bush wanted to bomb an Arab TV station. The gag by the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith came nearly 24 hours after the Mirror informed Downing Street of its intention to reveal how Tony Blair talked Bush out of attacking satellite station al-Jazeera’s HQ in friendly Qatar.

True or not, this is a very good example of how Blair has been compromised by actions in the lead-up to the Iraq war. All you need to do is take a look at the people we’re being asked to rely on here.

UPDATE – Guardian – Legal gag on Bush-Blair war row: The attorney general last night threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents of a document allegedly relating to a dispute between Tony Blair and George Bush over the conduct of military operations in Iraq. It is believed to be the first time the Blair government has threatened newspapers in this way… Richard Wallace, editor of the Daily Mirror, said last night: “We made No 10 fully aware of the intention to publish and were given ‘no comment’ officially or unofficially. Suddenly 24 hours later we are threatened under section 5 [of the secrets act]”.

Now the question is; will this memo reach Teh Interwebs? Because if it does, it’s all over bar the shouting.

Oi! Mirror peeps! Go long!

UPDATE – You know, I’ve looked at this a number of times and I still can’t spot an outright denial from the White House or Downing St. Perhaps I’m missing something…

UPDATE (24 Nov) – Some extra links for you:
Chicken Yoghurt – Bombing the messenger
Another fantastic photoshop from Beau Bo d’Or
A selection of comments received by Aljazeera.net in response to the article Memo: Bush wanted Aljazeera bombed.
Boris Johnson – I’ll go to jail to print the truth about Bush and al-Jazeera: We all hope and pray that the American President was engaging in nothing more than neo-con Tourette-style babble about blowing things up. We are quite prepared to believe that the Daily Mirror is wrong. We are ready to accept that the two British civil servants who have leaked the account are either malicious or mistaken. But if there is one thing that would seem to confirm the essential accuracy of the story, it is that the Attorney General has announced that he will prosecute anyone printing the exact facts… If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public need to judge for themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.