Bush Plot To Bomb Arab Ally
--madness of a war memo--

by-Kevin Maguire and Andy Lines
the Mirror (UK)
22 November 2005

President Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a "Top Secret NO. 10 Memo Reveals."

But he was talked out of it at a White House Summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a world backlash.

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.

A source said last night: "the memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush."

"He made it clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that he would cause a big problem.

A source declared: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."

Yesterday former labour Defense Minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders' conversation.

He said: "Its frightening to think that such a powerful man as Bush can propose such cavalier actions."

"I hope the Prime Minister insists this memo be published. It gives an insight into the mindset of those who were the architects of war."

Bush disclosed his plan to target al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Mide-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Mr. Blair on April 16 last year.

At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault in Insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. al-Jazeera infuriated Washington and London by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims.

Dozens of al-Jazeera staff at the HQ are not, as many believe, Islamic fanatics. Instead, most are respected and highly trained Technicians and Journalists.

To have wiped them out would have been equivalent to bombing the BBC in London and the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq War itself.

The NO. 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors.

In 2001 the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two "Smart" bombs.
In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad centre.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/topstories/tm_objectid=16397937&method=full&siteid=94762-name_page.htm