By Kenneth J. Theisen, 5/11/07
On May 10, 2007, two British men were sentenced to prison
for leaking a memo which discussed an April 16, 2004 meeting between British
Prime Minister Tony Blair and George W. Bush in which Bush allegedly proposed
bombing Al Jazeera’s headquarters in Qatar. At the time, Al Jazeera, an Arab TV
station, was highly critical of the Bush regime’s actions throughout the Middle
East and in Afghanistan.
In April 2004, the Bush regime had
launched a major assault against Falluja, Iraq and the Bush regime was angry
that Al Jazeera was actually reporting the actions of the U.S. military and the
resulting casualties, rather than staying behind in Baghdad hotels like much of
the media.
David Keogh, a government communications officer was
sentenced to six months in prison and Leo O’Connor, a politician’s researcher,
received a three month sentence for their role in the leak. They were accused
of violating the U.K.’s
Official Secrets Act. Much of the trial was held in secret because the contents
of the leaked memo were considered highly sensitive. The memorandum was marked
“Secret-Personal,” and was restricted to senior British officials
before it was leaked.
After the leak the White House called the claims that Bush
made such a proposal as “outlandish and inconceivable” but it did not
directly deny the allegations. Instead it said, “We are not going to
dignify something so outlandish with a response.”
What gives credibility to the alleged contents of the memo
are two previous U.S.
attacks on Al-Jazeera. The station’s Kabul, Afghanistan office was destroyed by two U.S. “smart” bombs in 2001, despite the fact
that the Al-Jazeera had given the U.S. military the coordinates of
the office to avoid just such an “accidental” attack. Then in 2003, Tarq Ayyoub, an Al Jazeera
reporter, was killed in a US
missile attack on the station’s Baghdad
center. Was Bush discussing a third “accidental”
attack with Blair in 2004?
According to the Daily Mirror, a British media outlet, the
memo described Blair arguing with Bush and ultimately talking him out of the
attack. One source told the Mirror that Bush was joking but another said he was
absolutely serious.
What is outrageous is that those who leaked the memo are
going to prison rather than Bush and Blair who unleashed an illegal war against
the people of Iraq.
Kill the messenger seems to be the message.