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Monday, November 21, 2005

Huh? Bomb Al-Jazeera?


I don't know what to think of this.  A few days after an alleged leak of another , we see now a report that is almost as damaging as the original one.  From the Australian news source, National Nine:
Bush plotted to bomb al-Jazeera: report
Tuesday Nov 22 14:24 AEST

US President George W. Bush planned to bomb pan-Arab television broadcaster al-Jazeera, British newspaper the Daily Mirror said , citing a Downing Street memo marked "Top Secret".

The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveals that Blair talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the anti-war-in-Iraq daily.

The transcript of the pair's talks during Blair's April 16, 2004 visit to Washington allegedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's headquarters.

Blair allegedly feared such a strike, in the business district of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Persian Gulf, would spark revenge attacks.

The Mirror quoted an unnamed British government official as saying Bush's threat was "humorous, not serious". [...] A spokesman for Blair's Downing Street office said: "We have got nothing to say about this story. We don't comment on leaked documents." [...]
I don't know what could be humorous about that.  Plus, there is more text in the original article that casts doubt on any attempt to write this off as a joke.

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Update: here is the CNN story, which includes a link to the video of their newscast. Also, thank you to Bald Headed Freak for linking to this.

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Update: two days later, Washington Post finally writes about the subject...