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Blair Prevented Bush from Bombing al-Jazeera in Qatar
(Kevin Maguire And Andy Lines, Mirror.co.uk, 22 November 2005)
Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret" No 10 memo reveals. . . . But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash. . . . A source said: "There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency. . . . The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation. . . . A source said last night: "The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush. . . . "He made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem. . . . "There's no doubt what Bush wanted to do - and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it." . . . "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men." . . .
Yesterday former Labour Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders' conversation. He said: "It's frightening to think that such a powerful man as Bush can propose such cavalier actions. . . . "I hope the Prime Minister insists this memo be published. It gives an insight into the mindset of those who were the architects of war." . . . Bush disclosed his plan to target al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Mid-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Mr Blair on April 16 last year. . . . At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault on insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. . . . Al-Jazeera infuriated Washington and London by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims. . . . Dozens of al-Jazeera staff at the HQ are not, as many believe, Islamic fanatics. Instead, most are respected and highly trained technicians and journalists. . . . To have wiped them out would have been equivalent to bombing the BBC in London and the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq War itself. . . . The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors. . . . In 2001 the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two "smart" bombs. In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad centre.

posted by Lorenzo 11:06 AM