Blair Faces Questions Over Alleged US Plan to Attack al-Jazeera

[babylonsister]

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/05/12/1145/
or
http://www.guardian.co.uk/guardianpolitics/story/0,,2078045,00.html

Blair Faces Questions Over Alleged US Plan to Attack al-Jazeera
by Richard Norton-Taylor

LONDON - The government is to be questioned in parliament next week over what discussions Tony Blair had with George Bush about plans to bomb the Arabic television satellite station al-Jazeera, at a particularly delicate time in the war in Iraq.

Peter Kilfoyle, a former Labour defense minister, is to table questions after repeated allegations that Mr Bush made the threat at a meeting with Mr Blair in the White House in April 2004. He said yesterday he would also ask Mr Blair what he knew of US plans to attack the Iraqi town of Falluja at that time.

Mr Kilfoyle said he would also ask Mr Blair about what Mr Bush wanted UK troops to do in Iraq outside the area of initial deployment, in the south-east of Iraq. It is known that al-Jazeera was criticized by the Bush administration and US generals in Iraq because of its coverage of American military tactics and captured US soldiers. It is understood the US military had already threatened to close down the al-Jazeera bureau in Baghdad.

It was reported at the time that the US general Mark Kimmet had demanded the removal from Falluja of al-Jazeera.

snip//

Mr Kilfoyle has said there are unanswered questions about the talks between Mr Blair and Mr Bush on the attack on Falluja and what he calls “the subsequent deaths of many hundreds of civilians”. A Foreign Office memo entitled Iraq: The Medium Term, dated May 19 2004 and leaked to the Sunday Times, referred to “heavy-handed” US tactics that had “fueled” opposition and “lost us much public support inside Iraq”.

It said the treatment of detainees at Abu Ghraib “sapped the moral authority of the coalition” and Britain was struggling to get the US to adopt the more tactful approach it wanted.

[Kagemusha]

1. Why would Blair have to answer? It's s-e-c-r-e-t

So why would he?

[babylonsister]

2. Maybe to redeem himself? Not that that's possible... nt