MPs leaked Bush plan to hit al-Jazeera

[Roland99]

· Transcript of meeting with Blair passed to US contact
· Official and aide already charged over document

David Leigh and Richard Norton-Taylor
Monday January 9, 2006
The Guardian

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1682258,00.html?gusrc=rss

Two Labour MPs have defied the Official Secrets Act by passing on the contents of a secret British document revealing how President George Bush wanted to bomb the Arabic TV station, al-Jazeera.

The document, a transcript of a meeting between Mr Bush and Tony Blair in April 2004 when the prime minister expressed concern about US military tactics in Iraq, is already the subject of an unprecedented official secrets prosecution in Britain, against an aide to one of the MPs and another man.

...

Asked if he had broken the act in the same alleged way as Mr Clarke's aide who is facing charges, he said: "I don't know. But I'd be very pleased if Her Majesty's finest approached me about it."

The two MPs decided in October 2004 to reveal the contents of the transcript of the Blair-Bush meeting to John Latham, a Democrat supporter living in San Diego, California. They hoped to influence the impending 2004 US election, Mr Kilfoyle said.

[TomInTib]

1. Pushing back. If only our representatives had the cojones.

"But I'd be very pleased if Her Majesty's finest approached me about it."

Other countries' reps are going to have to do it for us.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

2. We have less freedoms in the U.S. than the UK has?

They felt safer turning over those documents. If someone had done this here, they'd likely not be heard from again and be taken to some Arabic country to be beaten to a pulp by the CIA.

[mantrid]

10. Peter Kilfoyle is a very good man

In fairness, most of our MPs in Britain haven't got anything like his level of cojones either.

[muriel_volestrangler]

11. Welcome to DU!

If you haven't spotted it, there's a 'United Kingdom' forum (last one in the 'State and Country' section) where UK subjects that might not be of interest outside the country get discussed. We're all friendly, but it helps if you like tea ... :-)

[mantrid]

12. Thanks for the heads-up

And I do indeed enjoy few things more than a nice cup of tea!:)

[UpInArms]

3. unfortunately, this did not hit the US press until long after 11/04

:(

And, I should add - no one here (excluding DUers) really seems to care that Dimson wants to stop all the news that he and his cabal don't like.

[MissWaverly]

4. it wasn't suppresed, the dem they gave it to held it for a year

and then gave it back because it was a "leaked document" He didn't tell anybody about it.
I don't understand the logic, it's okay for Bush to talk about blowing up al jazeera
but it's wrong to leak info about this.

[EFerrari]

5. Coersion? And the question would be, which way is it going?

Was the Dem threatened or was he trying to make a deal? Was he being set up to embarrass Kerry?

In this filthy climate, who knows what was behind this. :(

[MissWaverly]

9. he was 71 years old, a retired electrical engineer

maybe he just felt he was in over his head, remember we are better informed than most,
most only know what they can pick up from CNN which is zilch.

[PatGund]

6. Oh wonderful....

The outcry over this here in Doha had just started to die down. We're at the start of the five day Eid ul-Adha holiday, and this hits the papers. (Rolls eyes)

Wonder if I'm going to get yet another "nothing to worry about, everything is fine, but you may want to stay in your apartments this weekend" email.......

[Roland99]

7. Good luck.

[PatGund]

13. Thanks

Sure enough we got an email from the embassy once again saying there was nothing to the rumours, but since "certain elements" may believe them, US citizens resident in Doha may wish to keep a low profile this holiday weekend......(grumble)

[stop the bleeding]

8. Oh Really?!?!?!? - most interesting - nominated !