Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Further Misadventures of The Bush & Blair Team
It Gets "Curiouser and Curiouser"
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"The Queen had one way of settling all difficulties, great or small. “Off with his head!” she said without even looking around." (Lewis Carroll ,1832–1898, British author, mathematician, clergyman. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). Lot of buzz about the existence of a secret memo reported to contain details of a meeting between Prime Minister Blair and President Bush in April 2004 when the president expressed his desire to bomb al Jazeera TV station in Doha, Qatar. The British press has been muzzled by invocation of Official Secrets Act from publishing the details. "World News Roundup" by Jefferson Morley in the Washington Post covers the subject well. Additional coverage by John Plunkett in The Guardian and by Rosemary Bennet and Tim Reid in Times Online.
Excerpts:
Excerpts:
- Under a front-page headline “Bush plot to bomb his ally” in the Daily Mirror yesterday, a secret minute of the conversation in April 2004 records the President allegedly suggesting that he would like to bomb the channel’s studios in Doha, capital of Qatar. Richard Wallace, the 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.” (Times onLine Nov.23, 2005)
- An international journalists group today demanded "complete disclosure" from the British and American governments over reports that the US considered attacking the al-Jazeera HQ in the Qatar capital, Doha. The International Federation of Journalists claimed that 16 journalists and other media staff have died at the hands of US forces in Iraq, adding that the deaths had not been properly investigated. (The Guardian, Nov.23, 2005)
