Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Society Pakistan & World Affairs
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**DOHA (AFX) - The Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera urged the White House and Downing Street today to challenge a UK newspaper report that US President George W. Bush had planned to bomb the Qatar-based station.

‘We sincerely urge both the White House and Downing Street to challenge the Daily Mirror report,’ the Qatar-based network said in a statement.**

The UK tabloid newspaper, citing a Downing Street memo marked ‘Top Secret’, reported today that UK Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station.

‘Before making any conclusions, Al-Jazeera needs to be absolutely sure regarding the authenticity of the memo and would hope for a confirmation from Downing Street as soon as possible,’ it said.

'If the report is correct then this would be both shocking and worrisome not only to Al-Jazeera but to media organisations across the world.

‘It would cast serious doubts in regard to the US administration’s version of previous incidents involving Al-Jazeera’s journalists and offices,’ the news channel said.

The television station’s coverage of the war in Iraq has drawn criticism from Washington since the invasion.

A five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and Blair during the prime minister’s April 2004 visit to Washington allegedly shows that Bush wanted to attack the station’s Doha headquarters and other offices.

The Mirror, which opposed the US-led invasion of Iraq in March 2003, also quoted an unnamed British government official as saying Bush’s threat was ‘humorous, not serious’.

But another source said: ‘Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men.’

The Mirror said the memo turned up in the office of then British MP Tony Clarke, a member of Blair’s Labour Party, in May 2004.

Civil servant David Keogh, 49, is accused under the Official Secrets Act of handing it it to Clarke’s former researcher Leo O’Connor, 42. Both are bailed to appear in a court in London next week.

A Downing Street spokesman said: ‘We have got nothing to say about this story. We don’t comment on leaked documents.’

**The Mirror said the memo ‘casts fresh doubt on claims that other attacks on Al-Jazeera were accidents’. It cited the 2001 direct hit on the channel’s Kabul office.

Al-Jazeera reporter Tariq Ayub was killed on April 8, 2003 when a US missile slammed into the station’s Baghdad bureau, while another employee, Rashid Hamid Wali, was shot dead while filming clashes in the Shiite city of Karbala in May 2004.**

Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’
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Whose the terrorist now!**

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Hum............. very bad

JHUMKA JAAN
JHUMKA JAAN
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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

i found it hard to believe that Al-Jazeera actually bought the accident story at the time, when they had given the exact location of thier office in kabul and Iraq. Both came under attack. Same with the palestine hotel where journalist were shot directly at. Its pretty obvious americans do not take kindly to journalists who arent embedded and have an opposing view. During war, propaganda is everything. Al-Jazeera was at the frontline, albeit on the otherside, hence it was an obvious target. I cant understand how Al-J accepted the excuses so easily.

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

What a complete pile of crap.

Have I mentioned lemmings lately?

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Technically, what “can” it do against US except complain more???

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

The following is what channel 4 of UK says. still think it is a pile of crap.

Gagging the media?

It’s rare indeed for a British government to threaten the media with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. In this instance, if we publish material relating to secret memos involving Bush and Blair, the content, or some of it, already appears to have surfaced in the Sunday Times, attracting neither injunction nor prosecution.

This is heavy-handed gagging stuff and the essence of it all seems to be to save the Government and George Bush’s blushes rather than national security. Bush apparently jokes about bombing the TV station al- Jazeera, an ill-judged joke given that his forces have already killed al-Jazeera personnel in Iraq, doing just that. There’s something suspect about this, and we are, needless to say, digging.

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

I see someone doesn’t like to believe this possible. However it’s not like the US hasn’t bombed media b4.

Specifically concerning A-Jazeera, in 2001, the station’s Kabul office was hit by U.S. bombs and in 2003 Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a U.S. strike on its Baghdad office

...Son vs. Daughter...
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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Exactly!
Watch documentary “control Room” It shows the footage of Tariq right before he was killed from US air strike.

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

and?

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

^mental block?

The Avatar Changers
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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Everything in Iraq is peaceful, soldiers were welcomed with shower of flowers.

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Al Jazeera is a very disturbing problem to those who would like to control information reaching arabic people, as it presents other informations than those screened cautiously for american "friends"...hence the threats...
that story is maybe true maybe wrong nonethless they (Al Jazeera staff) should be carefull disturbing a government cold bloody killings dozen thousands of innocents is a risky job anyway

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

don’t worry these right wing nutters from da states just can’t handle the truth :bukbuk:

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

and?... Bush probably did say it a half-joking way, but as a mouthpiece of the opposing side the fact is they're a semi-valid target

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

You can’t hide the truth even if the amerikan terrorist governent threatens to blow you up!

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

if u really think that way, don’t complain next time American civilians get killed

I really don’t think you have watched 10 mins of Al-Jazeera in your life, u just believe what the US govt tells you :rolleyes:

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

if it was serious it was idiotic
if it was a joke it was moronic.

Niether would suprise me.

'Nuff Said

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

I dont think they ever bought the story that it was an accident but at that time without any solid proff, documentation or anything of that sort it would just be one parties word agasint the other. Al-Jazeera knew all along that the U.S forces would not hesitate eliminating them. This (leaked story) is just an oppurtunity for Al-Jazeera to say “oh we actually believed you when you said it was an accident”. Both parties know whats at stake all along, both parties know they will hurt each other as much as they can. It was the U.S turn first to bomb em and then laugh about it, now it’s Al-Jazeera’s turn to make sure that the international press publishes more of this so the hatred for the U.S government all over the world increases.

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Its no accident the worlds most famous terrorists Bush and Blair have planned to bomb aljazeera history as usual is a witness to this.

They agreed to bomb the headquarters of Serbian television during the Kosovo war.

In 2001 they sent a cruise missile to flatten Al-Jazeera’s offices in Kabul, whose co-ordinates they knew, after the station had filmed the casualties of cluster bombs.

When Al-Jazeera showed footage of captured US servicemen in Iraq in 2003, the Pentagon bizarrely cited the Geneva convention. There followed a direct hit on the Al-Jazeera office in Baghdad, killing its correspondent. The station was later banned from operating in Iraq because of its “bias”. No charge of bias was laid against any western news media.

To all those giving the yanks and the brit governments the benefit of the doubt stop being so stupid please!

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Re: Bush wanted ‘to bomb Al-Jazeera’!

Update: we have progress guys. The mirror has been gagged.

UK press gags news outlets over minutes of meeting discussing al Jazeera bombing

Larisa Alexandrovna

The Mirror, a UK publication which reported Tuesday on an alleged US plan to bomb an Arab TV station seen as anti-US, has been gagged from reporting any further on the memo and its contents by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith, RAW STORY has learned.

The publication reported on the contents of a five page memo, stamped Top Secret, alleging that President Bush had threatened to undertake military action against al-Jazeera, a TV station located in the country of Qatar. While al-Jazeera is seen by some in the Bush administration to be largely anti-West, Qatar is an American ally.

According to sources familiar with the case, it was the recent attack on Fallujah that had Bush concerned about what al-Jazeera might report.

The memo, according to sources familiar with the case, was not in the possession of the editors and writers of the Mirror, which would violate the UK Official Secrets Act.

The Mirror was contacted on Tuesday evening by the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, who told the Mirror that they were not to report any further findings from the memo even though on Monday, prior to the running of the story, the Mirror had contacted Downing Street and informed officials that the publication would be running the story.

According to The Mirror’s political editor, Kevin Maguire, Lord Goldsmith “… threatened an immediate High Court injunction unless the Mirror confirmed it would not publish further details. We have essentially agreed to comply,” stated Maguire in a recent editorial.

…

Bombings now Suspect

According to the Guardian, in reaction to the article in the Mirror, the International Federation of Journalists is demanding complete disclosure with regard to the death of 16 journalists and media staff, including al-Jazeera cameraman Tarek Ayoub, who was killed when the station’s Baghdad office was hit during a US air strike in April of 2003.

All media outlets had to provide the US military with their locations in Baghdad and neighboring cities. Al-Jazeera provided the location of its Baghdad office to Washington prior to the bombing on its Baghdad office.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/UK_Press_Gagged_by_Attorney_General_1123.html