Did Bush Try to Order the Murder of Al Jazeera Journalists?

[deminks]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-alterman/did-bush-try-to-order-the_b_48174.html

Eric Alterman

Oh, and one last thing. If you've been following the trial of the two British officials accused of breaking the Official Secrets Act, here, you'll see that not only did George W. Bush and Tony Blair lie about their discussion -- which is no surprise and, I'd submit, no big deal -- but that George W. Bush really did want to murder the Al Jazeera journalists in Doha, Qatar.

Otherwise, what would be the "official secret" that these two patriots are accused of leaking? I salute them, and I only wish our government was peopled with such brave souls. I also wish our media would pay attention to the fact of our having a president who apparently thinks it appropriate to target journalists for deliberate assassination.

link to NYT article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/10/world/europe/10london.html?ex=1336449600&en=b3a06b45eea6c290&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

(end snip) An interesting question. Why all the secrecy, the jail time, if there was nothing to this memo?

[babylonsister]

1. Yes, he did, but they claimed he was 'joking'.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/10/1418221

Pair Found Guilty of Leaking Al Jazeera Bombing Memo
In Britain, two men have been found guilty for leaking a memo detailing a conversation in which President Bush reportedly tells British Prime Minister Tony Blair he wants to bomb the Doha headquarters of the Arabic television network Al Jazeera. David Keogh, a former civil servant, and Leo O’Connor, a former parliamentary researcher, were charged with violating the Official Secrets Act. Most of the trial was held in secret with reporters barred from the proceedings. Bush and Blair’s meeting was recorded by Blair’s adviser on foreign affairs. The memo came with a note reading “This must not be copied further and must only be seen by those with real need to know.”

[SpiralHawk]

5. "It was just a joke. Smirk, smirk, smirk." - Commander AWOL

[EFerrari]

2. One of their photographers has been in Gitmo for years.

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/departments/newsroom/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003552251

[stillcool]

3. Wasn't that part of Shock & Awe

bombing the news agency?

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. This was another bombing

The Al Jazeera office in Kabul was bombed in 2001 (there's video of the BBC broadcasting from next door, when it hit); the Al Jazeera office in Baghdad was bombed in 2003, despite Al Jazeera having providing exact coordinates for it to the Americans (because the US military had said they hadn't known where Al Jazeera was in Kabul, so they couldn't avoid it); this conversation took place in 2004, when Bush was so annoyed at Al Jazeera not toeing the US line that he wanted to bomb their headquarters in Doha, Qatar - a country allied with the US.

There's a bit of a pattern, isn't there?

[stillcool]

6. ah...no wonder I was confused..

bombing Al Jazeera... is almost like spring cleaning

[BuyingThyme]

7. Our media do think it's appropriate to target journalists.

And it's not coincidental that journalists have been killed in this war at a higher rate than any other.