London Daily Mail: Blair talked Bush out of bombing Qatar TV station

[Guest guest]

" King Daevid MacKenzie " <echoesmaster

Tue, 22 Nov 2005 07:39:47 -0600

[Air_America_Radio] London Daily Mail: Blair talked Bush out

of bombing Qatar TV station

 

 

 

 

'Blair talked Bush out of bombing'

07:20am 22nd November 2005

http://tinyurl.com/budvg

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=3693\

50 & in_page_id=1770

 

There were calls for Downing Street to publish the transcript of a

conversation between Tony Blair and US President George Bush, amid

claims that the Prime Minister persuaded Mr Bush not to launch a

military strike on a TV station in a friendly Arab state.

According to unnamed sources quoted in the Daily Mirror, the memo -

stamped Top Secret - records Mr Bush suggesting that he might order

the bombing of Al-Jazeera's studios in Qatar.

And it allegedly details how Mr Blair argued against an attack on the

station's buildings in the business district of Doha, the capital city

of Qatar, which is a key ally of the West in the Persian Gulf.

 

Al-Jazeera had sparked the anger of the US administration by

broadcasting video messages from al Qaida head Osama bin Laden and

leaders of the insurgency in Iraq, as well as showing footage of the

bodies of US servicemen and Iraqi civilians killed in fighting.

 

According to the Mirror's source, the transcript records a

conversation during Mr Blair's visit to the White House on April 16

last year, in the wake of a failed attempt to root out insurgents in

the city of Fallujah, in which 30 US Marines died.

A spokesman for 10 Downing Street refused to discuss the leaked memo.

But former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle - a leading Labour opponent

of the Iraq War - called for the document to be made public.

 

" I believe that Downing Street ought to publish this memo in the

interests of transparency, given that much of the detail appears to be

in the public domain, " he told the Press Association. " I think

they ought to clarify what exactly happened on this occasion. If it

was the case that President Bush wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in what is

after all a friendly country, it speaks volumes and it raises

questions about subsequent attacks that took place on the press that

wasn't embedded with coalition forces. "

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell told

PA: " If true, then this underlines the desperation of the Bush

administration as events in Iraq began to spiral out of control. 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. "

 

 

 

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King Daevid MacKenzie, WLSU-FM 88.9 La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA

heard occasionally at http://www.radio4all.net

" You can live in your dreams, but only if you are worthy of them. "

HARLAN ELLISON