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Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera station
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| MisterOpus1 |
Not that I'm a big fan of Al Jazeera, but this kind of thought without understanding what kind of a serious ing backlash it would have brought is just nothing shy of incredibly frightening.
Actually, no, that's too kind - it's downright ing idiotic.
| quote: | Warning over Jazeera bombing report 2 hours, 40 minutes ago
Britain has warned media organizations they are breaking the law if they publish details of a leaked document said to show U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Arabic television station Al Jazeera.
The government's top lawyer warned editors in a note after the Daily Mirror newspaper reported on Monday that a secret British government memo said British Prime Minister Tony Blair had talked Bush out of bombing the broadcaster in April last year.
Several British newspapers reported the attorney general's note on Tuesday and repeated the Mirror's allegations, which the White House said were "so outlandish" they did not merit a response. Blair's office declined to comment.
Al Jazeera, which has repeatedly denied U.S. accusations it sides with insurgents in Iraq, called on Britain and the United States to state quickly whether the report was accurate.
"If the report is correct then this would be both shocking and worrisome not only to Al Jazeera but to media organizations across the world," the Qatar-based station said in a statement.
The story would also be a shock for Qatar, a small Gulf state which cultivates good relations with Washington.
The Mirror said the memo came from Blair's Downing Street office and turned up in May last year at the local office of Tony Clarke, then a member of parliament for the town of Northampton. Clarke handed the document back to the government.
Leo O'Connor, who used to work for Clarke, and civil servant David Keogh were charged last Thursday under Britain's Official Secrets Act with making a "damaging disclosure of a document relating to international relations."
WHITE HOUSE SUMMIT
The Mirror said Bush told Blair at a White House summit on April 16 last year that he wanted to target Al Jazeera. The summit took place as U.S. forces in Iraq were launching a major assault on the insurgent stronghold of Fallujah.
The paper quoted an unnamed government official suggesting Bush's threat was a joke but added another unidentified source saying the U.S. president was serious.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response."
The attorney general told media that publishing the contents of a document which is known to have been unlawfully disclosed by a civil servant was a breach of the Official Secrets Act.
Kevin Maguire, the Mirror's associate editor, said government officials had given no indication of any legal problems with the story when contacted before publication.
"We were astonished, 24 hours later, to be threatened with the Official Secrets Act and to be requested to give various undertakings to avoid being injuncted," he told BBC radio.
Al Jazeera said that, if true, the story would raise serious doubts about the U.S. administration's version of previous incidents involving the station's journalists and offices.
In 2001, the station's Kabul office was hit by U.S. bombs and in 2003 Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a U.S. strike on its Baghdad office. The United States has denied deliberately targeting the station.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051123..._usa_jazeera_dc |
Another damning memo. This wreaks of insanity to me, though. How ing stupid could Bush be to think this would be a prudent plan?
Incidentally, the 2 British journalists who leaked this memo are being prosecuted under the British Official Secrets Act. And here Blair is threatening to arrest any other journalist who decides to print the story, yet he tries to claim the story is wrong.
So how can one arrest someone on a story under the Official Secrets act if, indeed, it is a false story? How could it be "secret" then, if it is actually a false one? Just a thought.
And anyone else note the irony of Blair threatening to harm journalists over a story of Bush wanting to harm journalists?
This story is ing unbelievable. |
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| Jackson |
Now i dont know loads about Al Jazeera and the kinda things the publish/broadcast. But it seems quite ironic that the US, a country that is such a strong believer in human rights such as Freedom of Speech would want to destroy a news agency.
Just a thought.... |
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| Lepanto |
| quote: | Originally posted by Jackson
Now i dont know loads about Al Jazeera and the kinda things the publish/broadcast. But it seems quite ironic that the US, a country that is such a strong believer in human rights such as Freedom of Speech would want to destroy a news agency.
Just a thought.... |
that's because Dubya believes in so such things. He ing ruined everything that great leaders of the past gave their lives for. |
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| HardTranceProd |
Haha.
Opus, the feeling I get from your posts is you're extremely stressed out. Am I right? ;)
Take a vacation and travel, there's more to the world than the United States (and its politics) :) |
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| josh4 |
| ^hes just mad no one replied to his thread on the same topic |
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| trancaholic |
But...gays can't marry. What's so hard to understand?:conf:
Seriously, the US seems to be having some troubles accepting foreign news media: After the incident described below, Denmark received a confidential letter from the US asking us to shut down the privately owned Roj TV. Sort of like a fatwa.
| quote: | Turkish premier slams the door
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan rushes in anger out of a Copenhagen press briefing with Danish colleague after seeing a Kurdish reporter there
Freedom of the press has become the focus of Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Denmark. First he took up the opportunity to criticise a Danish newspaper's decision to print caricatures of Muslim prophet Mohammed.
Then, on Tuesday afternoon, after discussing the matter with Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen, Erdogan made his angry exit out of the Prime Minister's Office after noticing a reporter from a disputed Kurdish television station amongst the journalists waiting for the premiers' joint press meeting.
The press meeting came to nothing, and journalists' focus turned instead towards the Kurdish reporter, who was there to report on the meeting for Roj TV, which the Turkish government claims has ties to terrorist organisations.
Erdogan came to Denmark late on Monday and had lunch on Tuesday with Rasmussen, discussing daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten's decision to run a series of cartoons of Mohammed.
Turkey is amongst the Muslim countries that have demanded that Rasmussen's government take action against Jyllands-Posten, but he has stated that the freedom of press is more important than Muslim sensibilities.
Earlier today, Erdogan said at a debate meeting that respect for other cultures and religions had always been at the heart of Turkish culture.
Turkey is currently striving to convince European nations that it is democratic enough to be fit to enter the European Union. |
Source |
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| St_Andrew |
| quote: | Originally posted by HardTranceProd
Haha.
Opus, the feeling I get from your posts is you're extremely stressed out. Am I right? ;)
Take a vacation and travel, there's more to the world than the United States (and its politics) :) |
I would be stressed out too if Bush was my president ;)
Anyway, this doesnt suprise me anymore. It's really sad nontheless, and it is as Opus points out quite obviously true. And really, the other incidents with al jazeera were probably intentional as well... |
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| Renegade |
This is sickening if true. I mean, what the hell were they thinking? What good could they have possibly hoped to have come from bombing the largest, most independent media organisation in the Arab world? Why, most worrying of all, would it not surprise me if this was true?
| quote: | Originally posted by St_Andrew
And really, the other incidents with al jazeera were probably intentional as well... |
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003...9567667355.html
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| shaolin_Z |
:mad: :mad: :mad: :whip: :whip: :whip:
There. I have now expressed my disgust and outrage in both threads about this topic. |
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| daffodil |
Well, the U.S. did kind of bomb Iraqi television http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003...ain546081.shtml
| quote: | | The U.S. Air Force has hit Iraqi TV with an experimental electronmagetic pulse device called the "E-Bomb" in an attempt to knock it off the air and shut down Saddam Hussein's propaganda machine, CBS News Correspondent David Martin reports. |
This type of weapons technology is also useful on humans, where the microwave radiation causes extreme pain but no lasting damage. Finally, a viable option for crowd control!
I'm interested in Britain's "Official Secrets" policy. The doctrines of British and American publishing law are substantially different, in this case because Americans have the precedent of the stolen classified Watergate papers. Of course, we now have the "enemy combatant" doctrine to take care of those pesky details. |
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| occrider |
| quote: | Originally posted by daffodil
I'm interested in Britain's "Official Secrets" policy. The doctrines of British and American publishing law are substantially different, in this case because Americans have the precedent of the stolen classified Watergate papers. Of course, we now have the "enemy combatant" doctrine to take care of those pesky details. |
I'm actually not quite up to par on these differences ... would you care to elaborate? Glad to have you back! |
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| LazFX |
Haven't you "people" learned anything??
The US can do no wrong!!!!!
We are always right!!!
All other countries are poo poo heads..
:rolleyes: |
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