World Opinion Roundup by Jefferson Morley at the Washington Post broke the story that the Brits had invoked the Secrecy Act to prevent the leaked memo from being published.   The leaked memo that stated that Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazerra TV in Qatar.     - fc

U.K.: Media Gag Order Over Leaked Memo

Britain's attorney general yesterday told the Daily Mirror and other newspapers not to publish further details from a top-secret memo that detailed a meeting between President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair in which Bush expressed a desire to bomb an Arab TV station.

The cover of yesterday's Daily Mirror.

According to the Mirror, "the five-page memo -- stamped 'Top Secret' -- records a threat by Bush to unleash 'military action' against the TV station [al-Jazeera], which America accuses of being a mouthpiece for anti-US sentiments."

The White House has dismissed the story as "unworthy of comment."

Aljazeera says it is "going through a due diligence process of verifying the details."

Continue Reading... at World Opinion Roundup

Juan Cole at Informed Comment has some interesting words about the situation.   Seems like Professor Cole is pulling fewer punches these days since the public has started to awaken from the con job of the NeoCon Dreams of world domination.   Why did it take so long and cost so many lives is the real question.   It seems that VietNam was such a distant memory for so many people that the lesson was forgotten.   Sad...

Bush as Press Assassin?
Baathist in a Mirror

The US military hit the Aljazeerah offices in Baghdad on the 9th of April, 2003, a year Bush's conversation with Blair.* That attack killed journalist Tarek Ayoub, who had a 3 year old daughter. He had said earlier, "We've told the Pentagon where all our offices are in Iraq and hung giant banners outside them saying `TV.''' Given what we now know about Bush's intentions, that may have been a mistake.

One of the misdeeds attributed to Syria or pro-Syrian forces is the attempt to assassinate the Lebanese journalist and fixture on LBC, the Lebanese satellite channel, May Shidyaq (Chidiac). If the British report is true, Bush really is just a Baathist in the mirror.

Continue Reading... at Juan Cole

The Booman Tribune has a timeline of the Bush Administration with respect to Al-Jazerra.   It is worth taking a look at too.   It provides more specific details of the interaction.   - fc