Reporter
Tariq Ayub died in a US
strike on Aljazeera's Iraq bureau
Britain's Daily Mirror newspaper has been ordered to cease publishing further details from an allegedly top secret memo revealing that US President George Bush wanted to bomb Aljazeera.
The gag order from Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith came nearly 24 hours after the paper published details of what it said was a transcript of talks between Bush and the British Prime Minister Tony Blair.
In those talks, which took place during the prime minister's April 2004 visit to Washington, Blair is said to have talked Bush out of launching "military action" on the television channel's headquarters in Doha, Qatar.
"No 10 did nothing to stop us publishing our front page exclusive yesterday (Tuesday)," the Daily Mirror said on Wednesday, referring to the British prime minister's office.
But the attorney-general warned that publication of any further details from the document would be a breach of the Official Secrets Act.
He threatened an immediate High Court injunction unless the newspaper confirmed it would not publish further details.
"We have essentially agreed to comply," the paper reported.
"We made No 10 fully aware of the intention to publish and were given 'no comment' officially or unofficially, Daily Mirror Editor Richard Wallace was quoted as saying.
"Suddenly 24 hours later we are threatened under Section 5 [of the Official Secrets Act]."
According to Britain's Guardian newspaper, it is the first time that the Blair government has threatened to prosecute a newspaper for publishing the contents of leaked government documents.
'Inconceivable'
The White House has dismissed the Daily Mirror report, calling it "outlandish".
"We are not going to dignify something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Tuesday.
Aljazeera itself, whose coverage of the war in Iraq has been criticised by the US, says it is also investigating the report.
"If the report is correct then this would be both shocking and worrisome not only to Aljazeera but to media organisations across the world," the station said in a statement.
Following the Mirror's report there have been calls to release the transcript.
"If true, then this underlines the desperation of the Bush administration," said Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell.
"On this occasion, the prime minister may have been successful in averting political disaster, but it shows how dangerous his relationship with President Bush has been."
The Mirror on Tuesday quoted a source as saying: "The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush.
"He made clear he wanted to bomb Aljazeera 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."
Previous attacks
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Reporter
Tariq Ayub died in a US |
The threat by Bush also "casts fresh doubt on claims that other attacks on Aljazeera were accidents", the Mirror said in its report on Tuesday.
It cited the 2001 direct hit on the channel's Kabul office in Afghanistan.
In November 2001, Aljazeera's office in Kabul was destroyed by a US missile. None of the crew was at the office at the time.
US officials said they believed the target was a "terrorist" site and did not know it was Aljazeera's office.
In April 2003, an Aljazeera journalist, Tariq Ayub, died when its Baghdad office was struck during a US bombing campaign.
In its statement on Tuesday, Aljazeera said that if the Mirror's report was true, it would "cast serious doubts in regard to the US administration's version of previous incidents involving Aljazeera's journalists and offices."
Charges
A British civil servant has been charged under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking the government memo.
The Daily Mirror said the memo, stamped "Top Secret", turned up last year at the Northampton office of then Labour MP Tony Clarke.
Civil servant David Keogh, 49, is now accused of passing the memo to Leo O'Connor, who once worked for Clarke.
Both Keogh and O'Connor are due to appear in court next week on charges under the Act.
Clarke, who opposed the invasion of Iraq and who lost his seat at the last election, returned the memo to Downing Street.
Aljazeera + Agencies
source: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/171A7C64-F5C0-41EF-A613-EBA745ACEF7A.htm 23nov2005
London — US President George W Bush had planned to bomb pan-Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, as it infuriated Washington by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims, a British tabloid claimed on Tuesday.
But, he was talked out of it at a White House summit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash, reported the Mirror.
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 Blair on April 16 last year, it claimed.
At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault on insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.
Quoting a source and a 'top secret" no 10 Downing Street memo, the report 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 mid-east and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation, the report said.
"Bush 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," a source told the tabloid.
A government official suggested that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious". But another source declared, "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."
According to the report, former Labour Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle on Monday challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders' conversation.
"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."
Al-Jazeera infuriated Washington and London by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims. The station, watched by millions, has also been used by Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda to broadcast atrocities and to threaten the West.
Al-Jazeera's headquarters is in the business district of Qatar's capital, Doha. Its single-storey building would have made an easy target for bombers. As it is sited away from residential areas, and more than 16 km from the US' desert base in Qatar, there would have been no danger of "collateral damage."
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 report said.
The no 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors. In 2001, two "smart" bombs knocked out the station’s Kabul office.
In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad centre.
source: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=58762 23nov2005
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