Bush Talked of Bombing Al-Jazeera

The Daily Mirror reported that Bush spoke of targeting Al-Jazeera’s headquarters in Doha, Qatar, when he met Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004. The Bush administration has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of being nothing more than a mouthpiece for anti-American sentiments.

The Daily Mirror attributed its information to unidentified sources. One source, said to be in the government, was quoted as saying that the alleged threat was “humorous, not serious,” but the newspaper quoted another source as saying that “Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair.”

Here’s the article from The Daily Mirror. Yes, it’s the same rag that had the infamous cover after last year’s election reading, “How could 58 million people be so dumb?”

The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.

Well, duh! It’s, for all intents and purposes, what’s been going on in Iraq for almost three years! It’s why there are nearly 30,000 dead civilians!

The following quotes are from a piece on the ABC (US) News website…

A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been “humorous, not serious”.

But another source declared: “Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men.”

Let me put it like this: It’s one thing when a columnist like Ann Coulter suggests Timothy McVeigh should’ve blown up the New York Times building. It’s another thing when the so-called “leader of the free world” suggests blowing up the Al-Jazeera building.

“I think they ought to clarify what exactly happened on this occasion,” he said. “If it was the case that President Bush wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera in what is after all a friendly country, it speaks volumes and it raises questions about subsequent attacks that took place on the press that wasn’t embedded with coalition forces,” the newspaper quoted Kilfoyle as saying.

Sir Menzies Campbell, foreign affairs spokesman for the opposition Liberal Democrats, said Tuesday that, if true, the memo was worrying.

“If true, then this underlines the desperation of the Bush administration as events in Iraq began to spiral out of control,” he said. “On this occasion, the prime minister may have been successful in averting political disaster, but it shows how dangerous his relationship with President Bush has been.”

Lord knows there’s been some scrutiny surrounding Tony Blair’s relationship with GWB. Heck, I’ve been somewhat critical of it myself. For a while, it definitely looked like Blair was like GWB’s little poodle, especially in regards to Iraq. Whether or not he’ll see to having the full memo published is yet to be seen. If it is published, I think it’ll be even more damning than the one that was published back in May of this year.