2 MPs passed AlJazeera doc to Dem in Oct '04 hoping to influence election

[kpete]

MPs leaked Bush plan to hit al-Jazeera


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


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.

The information was then acquired by Mr Clarke, who in turn consulted his parliamentary colleague, Peter Kilfoyle. The two politicians decided to pass on the information to a contact in the US.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.



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

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. So, this John Latham sat on this for a year... did not pass it on

to newspapers before the election. and he is a DEMOCRAT?

Oh, I see. he is from DNC.

[Straight Shooter]

2. Latham, a "retired electrical engineer"

Why him? What qualified him to be entrusted with such explosive documents?

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Interesting

I wonder why him too. :shrug: It doesn't make any sense to me.

[Wilms]

3. Very strange story... n/t

[kpete]

4. I Agree

REALLY STRANGE...

[kpete]

5. from Kos

As revealed in tomorrow's Guardian the two MPs sent the transcript to


John Latham, a Democrat supporter living in San Diego, California. They hoped to influence the impending 2004 US election ...

In San Diego, Mr Latham, 71, a retired electrical engineer and a "contributing member" to the Democrat National Committee, told the Guardian that the MPs also wanted him to send letters with the information to newspapers in Los Angeles and New York. At a meeting at the House of Commons, he had been introduced to Mr Clarke by Mr Kilfoyle. Mr Latham, a British expatriate, and Mr Kilfoyle had attended the same school.

Mr Latham said he had never met Mr Clarke before. He added: "He mentioned that the document was a transcript of a meeting in Washington DC between Bush and Blair. There had been a proposal to take military action against al-Jazeera at their headquarters in Qatar. This was defused by Colin Powell, US secretary of state, and Tony Blair."

Mr Latham decided not to write to US newspapers at the time, in October 2004. As a result, details of the Washington meeting between Mr Bush and Mr Blair remained secret for more than a year.

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/1/8/233925/6579

[Wilms]

6. And I wonder...

Did Mr Latham decide not to contact K/E at the time, too, in October 2004?

:shrug:

[Karmakaze]

7. Hmmm

I wonder if certain communications may have been monitored, and a certain Democrat may have received a friendly visit informing him that exposing secret documents of an allied nation was rather hazardous to the health?

[Wilms]

8. San Diego and Gitmo have similar climates...

but I see what you're saying.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

9. also does he live in a certain congressional district

which is now sans-Congressman?

[blm]

10. Or he contacted Terry Mac and Bill Clinton who advised - Don't go there.

DNC was still very much under the command of Clinton.

[0rganism]

12. I wonder if the bush/ANG document fiasco influenced his decision

IIRC, that was in circulation in September or thereabouts. Maybe he didn't feel confident the information wouldn't backfire, at that point.

[toymachines]

11. They should have passed it to this san diegan

I sure as hell woudln't have sat on it.

[Wilms]

14. .

[stickdog]

15. Weird story.

No John Latham or J. Latham from CA is shown as contributing to the DNC in any of the last 3 election cycles:

http://www.opensecrets.org

[Wilms]

16. Nice catch. n/t