Bush Planned to Bomb Al-Jazeera HQS: Mirror - is this a reliable source?

[helderheid]

Additional Reporting By Khaled Mamdouh, IOL Staff

CAIRO, November 22, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - US President George W. Bush planned to bomb pan-Arab satellite channel Al-Jazeera but he was talked out of the idea by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, according to a British daily report Tuesday, November 22, citing a Downing Street memo marked "Top Secret".

"There's no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it," the Daily Mirror quoted an unnamed source as commenting on the leaked memo.

The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and Blair during the Prime Minister's April 16, 2004 visit to Washington reportedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel's headquarters.

According to the Mirror, Blair feared such a strike, in the business district of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Gulf, would spark revenge attacks.

<snip>


http://www.islamonline.org/English/News/2005-11/22/article02.shtml

[helderheid]

1. kick for answers

[GreenPartyVoter]

2. ** hates reporters.. hates 'em. It would not surprise me if he had had

plans of that nature.

[FreedomAngel82]

9. Remember the Italian reporter?

I also remember reading reports that the military would target hotels where they knew reporters were staying.

[mattclearing]

3. The Daily Mirror is a tabloidy British paper...

The best local comparison I can think of is the New York Post.

Edit: For clarity, I totally believe it. It wouldn't be the first time we bombed Al Jazeera.

[bryant69]

6. I'd believe it

But would very much like a more serious source than this.

We might very well get one, however. SOmetimes that's how these stories start.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[julianer]

22. The Mirror is a popular

but serious paper.

It is not a scandal sheet like the Sun or a propaganda vehicle like the Mail.

It has had a checkered history (owned by Robert Maxwell, the Piers Morgan scandal) but it has always prided itself on its serious journalism and has managed to rise above its problems, mostly.

No reason to disbelieve them, now that Morgan is no longer there.

[flyarm]

32. msnbc just reported it a few minutes ago!! but the talking head gal

said the network producers all thought it wasn't an important story...

but ( sorry) i missed whpo the brit was that was talking...and he said this memo was released last JUNE could this have been part of the downing street minutes??

maybe a part we didn't see???

and if you read the " Democracy Now " yesterday..the reporter who went to thailand..from Australia who met with the Rendon group with judy miller ..it was mentioned he was the first "journalist " killed in iraq..hmmmmmmmm all these coinsidences...

MUST READ THIS!!..I WOUL;DN'T SAY IT WAS TRAGIC IRONY..I WOULD SAY..PAUL MORAN RAN INTO THE * SUICIDE BRIGADE!! IF YOU KNOW TOO MUCH ABOUT THE * CABAL..OPPPPPSSS..SUICIDE...
OR WATCH THOSE CAR BRAKES!!..AND DO NOT FLY IN SMALL PLANES...


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/21/1516257

SNIP:

AMY GOODMAN: James Bamford, Paul Moran died in Iraq.

JAMES BAMFORD: One of the biggest and most tragic ironies of the entire war was the fact that this journalist, Paul Moran, who had formerly worked for both the I.N.C. and the Rendon Group and then broadcast -- had the worldwide broadcast rights for this story about al-Haideri, which helped push the U.S. into war with Iraq – into invading Iraq; Paul Moran actually became the very first journalist killed in the war. He was in northern Iraq, and a car bomb exploded very close to him, and he was killed instantly. I think it was within two or three days of the beginning of the war. So, it was a very tragic irony that Paul Moran, who helped generate some of the early publicity for the war ended up being one of the first people killed in the war.

AMY GOODMAN: John Rendon went to his funeral in Australia?



PLEASE PASS THIS DEMOCRACY NOW ..AROUND....

THX FLY

[sabra]

4. So when does * bomb the Mirror?

I wouldn't be surprised what so ever, if there is truth in this story.

[Canuckistanian]

7. LOL!

At this rate, he's gonna need a lot of bombs.

[mattclearing]

14. Well someone anthraxed the Enquirer/Globe company.

And we bombed Al Jazeera's offices in Iraq.

So it's totally not out of the realm of possibility.

[flyarm]

33. IT WAS THE SUN NEWSPAPER IN BOCA RATON FLA

AND THE EDITOR OF THE SUN DIED... the building was closed and only in the recent time is it being cleaned..it was fenced off, and who owns the company cleaning the company and now owns the building..rudy guiliani!!

a hmmmmmmmm moment please...

fly

[Canuckistanian]

5. Yahoo news has it too

And I don't think they use Tom Floco-type sources.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Me either

I've never heard of them having any trouble with news.

[helderheid]

13. thanks! Do you have the yahoo linky?

[IChing]

18. yes,

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5429144

[Lochloosa]

20. here you go

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051122/pl_afp/qatarusbritainmediajazeera_051122063541

[helderheid]

28. thanks - I rated it up!

[Canuckistanian]

25. It's on another thread here

I just saw it a while ago.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. No doubt in my mind

even more now that Bush hates democracy and craves blood. :mad: Remember Rumsfeld and all his anti-Al Jazeera nonsense? It was because they were just showing you the truth. For those who haven't try to find "Control Room". That's a great documentary and shows you why Rummy hates Al Jazeera.

[mattomjoe]

11. I'll second the recommendation for "Control Room"

Very good. It's been a while since I've seen it -- didn't their building get bombed? I can't remember....

[Norquist Nemesis]

24. "Control Room" Documentary is a MustSeeTV!

When I watched it, I tried to make a conscious effort to keep in mind that documentaries are sometimes biased through the eyes of the filmmaker. It really struck me the way the military's PR guy changed. It was obvious that questions had risen in his mind and he was having an increasingly difficult time promoting propaganda...he knew it was propaganda and it wasn't sitting well with his conscience.

Oddly, as soon as they showed the picture of the guy from the military that had joined al Jazeera as a reporter I immediately thought 'hold on!!! Is that the guy that...'. Then I went back and checked Control Room to find that, sure enough! Same guy.

I saw this story through an AFP link, btw. And I thought of CR right away, too.

[pinniped]

12. In *'s feeble mind, any person or entity that reports negatively...

on the * crime family is an enemy of the state.

The proof is there.

In the past, I saw some posts on repuke gunnut sites advocating that something be done about al-Jazeera. If they were mad about them, their fearless repuke leaders were as well.

[librechik]

15. we did bomb Al Jazeera--both in Baghdad and Kabul

look it up, it's true--it's in "Control Room"

[Pab Sungenis]

17. Yeah, but not their headquarters in Qatar.

The rough equivalent would be not liking how the CBC is covering political affairs in the US, so Bush bombs RadioCentre in Toronto.

[librechik]

19. yes--but you see my point

it's not like it was a joke, like I see some of our friends on the other side are pretending. It was an official document.

[Doctor_J]

16. Remember the anthrax attack?

Probably want to be a little bit wary. All the 5 years of censored truth about the BFEE is coming out, there will probably be some hyperbole with it. OTOH, let's not forget that whoever tried to anthrax Rather and Brokaw was never even pursued by the DOJ. Killing reporters is part of the propaganda battle.

[ArkDem]

21. Great Source. You should check out Rense.com for even

better information!

[IChing]

26. This is the same material that came out of the DSM

How about looking at the the LBN thread before you make a debunking statement on the source.
ATF news has picked up this story also, you do know who ATF is?

Did you doubt the DSM memo also? Part that story came out of the Mirror also.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1940762&mesg_id=1940762

[ArkDem]

43. .

:tinfoilhat:

[The Stranger]

23. Bush wanted to install a Christian Broadcasting Station to convert Muslims

[KoKo]

27. DU was onto this when it first broke about the memo. So this is just

coming out because they are prosecuting folks trying to get to who leaked the memo.

[flyarm]

35. yes you are right..this was part of the dsm..the brit on msnbc said

this memo was released in june of this year..and our media is just catching on..aren't they sweet??

and the little talking head on msnbc said to the brit that the news bosses did not think it was an important news piece...

and then they cut to a lady in court in Tampa accused of having a sexual relationship with a minor..

my husband was standing in the kitchen with me watching this and he said..ohhh soooo * bombing a news company isn't news, but a blonde in tampa court isssssss news??


so i thanked hubby for noticing ..and said..well after 5 yrs you are catching on!!....

.....and i asked him if he noticed for 2 months the huge signs i had on my house...about the downing street minutes..

...and all the stickers i have on my car that he complains about...

he left the kitchen a little embarrassed...

but he did notice today................

...........after he he told me all about the boston red sox trade...

fly

[muriel_volestrangler]

40. It's not part of the DSM

it was leaked to a Labour MP in 2004 - who then passed it on to the authorities, without telling the public what it said. 2 people were recently charged with leaking an 'Official Secret'.

[flyarm]

41. well on msnbc the brit that was on said it was out in june of this year..

that it was leaked in june..sorry i didn't catch the brits name..who was being interviewed by remote...i had just turned on...but he said it was leaked in june...

..and that is when the usa msm finally reported on the dsm...

fly

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. Leaked to the MP in May 2004

According to The Mirror, the transcript is the document which allegedly turned up in the constituency office of former Labour MP Tony Clarke in May 2004.

Mr Clarke - who voted against the Iraq War and lost his Northampton South seat in this May's election - said he returned the document to the government because of fears British troops' lives could be put at risk if it became public.

Cabinet Office civil servant David Keogh has been charged under the Official Secrets Act of passing it to Mr Clarke's former researcher Leo O'Connor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4459296.stm

This is a transcript of a Bush/Blair conversation in April 2004, leaked to an MP in May 2004, who then started the police investigation in which the 2 were arrested in August 2004:

O’Connor gave the document to his boss, Tony Clarke, then a Labour MP and an opponent of the Iraq war, who called the police. O’Connor was charged with passing on official secrets. He was arrested in August 2004 and charged last week, along with Keogh, who previously worked for the Foreign Office.
...
Last week several media organisations claimed the information had also been leaked to The Sunday Times. However, the Metropolitan police, Crown Prosecution Service and Clarke said this was not the case.

The 'Downing Street Memo' was about a meeting in 2002, as were the supporting documents. Michael Smith reported on the supporting documents in late 2004 when working for the Telegraph, and on the DSM itself in May 2005, when working for the Sunday Times.

There really isn't a link bewtween these two leaks.

[KoKo]

29. And, here's more about our smart bombs hitting Al-Jazeera in Kabul, Afgh.

The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors, the Mirror said.

During the US military campaign against Afghanistan in2001 , Al-Jazeera gained worldwide fame after being the only news channel on the ground and giving detailed coverage, but the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two US smart bombs.

Chief editor of Arabic daily Al-Quds El-Arabi told Al-Jazeera the reports about the US administration's pondering of bombing the Doha-based all-news channel is just another proof of Washington's "complete negligence" of freedom of the press or human rights.

"Reporters and journalists are now voicing deep anger and fury at the US administration's reported intentions," Abdul Bari Atwan said.

Al-Jazeera has been severely criticized by Washington for its coverage of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

[WiseButAngrySara]

30. I heard this reported on M$M just a while ago...There must be some truth

to it, IMO. MSNBC reported.

[IChing]

31. Was this on TV MSNBC ?

or the internet?

[WiseButAngrySara]

34. It was on TV. I had just turned it on and went to the kitchen for coffee

so I missed part of it, but a UK reporter was interciewed. Sorry I don't have more details. I'll try to find a link!

Edited to add:

I just read post #32, above. They stated the same thing. That post should help...much more so that mine!

[flyarm]

36. it was on msnbc!! n/t

[flyarm]

37. coming on now..and saying its non credible..i hate msm..those fuckers!!

and of course blow job, nora..is on the story.,...

fly

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

38. According to MSNBC, the person who leaked it is being charged. eom

[flyarm]

39. ahhh yes attack the messenger..again, and again and again!!

if you didn't see the democracy now from yesterday..its a must read
transcript!!

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/11/21/1516257

snip:

JAMES BAMFORD: That’s right, exactly, and it didn't seem to make much difference, because they called in the press, and the two people that they called in, ironically one of them was Paul Moran who had formerly worked, not only for the I.N.C., but also for the Rendon Group. So you have a journalist who has the worldwide broadcast exclusive for this interview with this defector who is telling a lot of lies, who actually had formerly worked for the group putting this show on the road, and then they called in Judy Miller, who was going to be granted the worldwide print exclusives. And Judy Miller, in her own words in a memo she wrote to her bureau chief in Baghdad at one point, mentioned that for a decade Chalabi had been one of her key sources and that he was responsible for many of the front page stories on W.M.D. in The New York Times.

So, they called in these two very sympathetic journalists to broadcast this story, and it made huge news. It came out, I think it was December 20, 2001, and again it made a great impact, because this was the first time that an actual eyewitness was able to say that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons. So, this was a major milestone in the road to the war. And from then on, the I.N.C. began coming up with other defectors, and The New York Times and other organizations started promoting the war. But a lot of it had its origins with this first defector, al-Haideri.


snip:




AMY GOODMAN: James Bamford, Paul Moran died in Iraq.



JAMES BAMFORD: One of the biggest and most tragic ironies of the entire war was the fact that this journalist, Paul Moran, who had formerly worked for both the I.N.C. and the Rendon Group and then broadcast -- had the worldwide broadcast rights for this story about al-Haideri, which helped push the U.S. into war with Iraq – into invading Iraq; Paul Moran actually became the very first journalist killed in the war. He was in northern Iraq, and a car bomb exploded very close to him, and he was killed instantly. I think it was within two or three days of the beginning of the war. So, it was a very tragic irony that Paul Moran, who helped generate some of the early publicity for the war ended up being one of the first people killed in the war.

AMY GOODMAN: John Rendon went to his funeral in Australia?



this is a must read!!


hi ommmmmm!!

:hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi:

fly