The Al Jazeera bombing memo is an unpublished memorandum made within the British government which purports to be the minutes of a discussion between United States President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. The Daily Mirror published a story on its front page on 22 November 2005 claiming that the memo quotes Bush speculating about a US bombing raid on Al Jazeera world headquarters in the Qatari capital Doha and other locations. The story claims that Blair persuaded Bush to take no action. The President of the United States (often abbreviated POTUS) is the head of state of the United States. ... George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is the 43rd and current President of the United States. ... In the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister is the head of government, exercising many of the executive functions nominally vested in the Sovereign, who is head of state. ... The Right Honourable Anthony Charles Lynton Blair (born 6 May 1953) is the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury and Minister for the Civil Service. ... Alternate newspaper: The Daily Mirror (Australia) The Daily Mirror is a British tabloid daily newspaper, known for taking a left-of-centre editorial line. ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Al Jazeera logo Al Jazeera (الجزيرة), meaning The Island or The (Arabian) Peninsula (whence also Algiers) is an Arabic television channel based in Qatar. ... Doha, Qatar Doha (Arabic: الدوحة;, Ad-Dawḥah or Ad-Dōḥah), population 339,847 (2004 census), is the capital of Qatar, and is at 25. ...

Details of the memo

Cover of the Daily Mirror with story headline.

The five-page memorandum is said by the Mirror to be a record of the meeting between the two leaders which took place on 16 April 2004 at the height of Operation Vigilant Resolve, an assault on Fallujah by U.S. Marines and Iraqi security forces. Al Jazeera reporters were in the city providing video footage of the resistance. The day before the meeting, U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld described Al Jazeera's coverage as "vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable."^[1] Image File history File links MirrorUK_Bush_AlJazeera_plot. ... Image File history File links MirrorUK_Bush_AlJazeera_plot. ... April 16 is the 106th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (107th in leap years). ... 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Operation Vigilant Resolve was an abortive US operation to retake the Iraqi city of Fallujah during the 2003 occupation of Iraq. ... This article is about the city of Fallujah in Iraq. ... United States Marine Corps Emblem The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is the second smallest of the five branches of the United States armed forces, with 170,000 active and 40,000 reserve Marines as of 2002. ... The United States Secretary of Defense is the head of the United States Department of Defense, concerned with the armed services and The Secretary is a member of the Presidents Cabinet. ... Donald Henry Rumsfeld (born July 9, 1932) is a US politician currently serving as the 21st United States Secretary of Defense since January 20, 2001, under President George W. Bush. ...

The White House has dismissed the allegations made in the article.^[2] Given that Qatar is an ally of the United States and the United Kingdom in the Iraq War, many commentators have speculated that even if the reports of the memorandum are accurate, they may simply be recording a statement which the President did not intend to be taken seriously. A White House official told CNN "We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response," and a Pentagon official called the Daily Mirror report "absolutely absurd."^[3] A BBC News correspondent has suggested that if President Bush did indeed make the comments they were intended as "some kind of joke."^[4] The southern side of the White House The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the President of the United States of America. ... It has been suggested that 2003 Invasion of Iraq be merged into this article or section. ...

Writing in The Independent on 28 November Andreas Whittam Smith countered, observing that "official note takers don't normally record jokes". He also pointed to the alleged leaker's "25 years' experience of tough postings in place such as Islamabad and Khartoum, ... often involved in intelligence work" and concluded that he "must have felt exceptionally troubled by what he was seeing."^[5] The Independent is a British compact newspaper published by Tony OReillys Independent News & Media. ... November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Andreas Whittam Smith, CBE, financial journalist, was one of the co-founders of The Independent newspaper in October 1986, and is a former president of the British Board of Film Classification. ...

According to a report in The Daily Telegraph^[6]: website = www. ...

"People who have seen the document say the real reason that it is being suppressed by the Government is because it contains a potentially damaging private discussion between the two leaders about the controversial United States attack on the Iraqi city of Fallujah last year."

The report also stated that, when questioned about the matter at the Commonwealth conference in Malta, Blair branded the claims a "conspiracy theory." This proposed logo for a U.S. government agency was dropped due to fears that its pseudo-Masonic symbolism would provoke conspiracy theories. ...

Official secrets and UK publication ban

Over 300 websites have added this graphic and listed their names at blairwatch.co.uk to express their willingness to publish the memo, despite the threat of prosecution.

David Keogh, a civil servant at the Cabinet Office, and Leo O'Connor, a research assistant to former Labour MP Tony Clarke, have been charged under the Official Secrets Act for the unauthorised disclosure of the memo (Keogh under section three, O'Connor under section five). When O'Connor gave the memo to Clarke, Clarke returned it to Downing Street. All news organizations in the United Kingdom have been warned by Attorney General Lord Goldsmith against further publication of information from the leaked memo; Goldsmith has mentioned the possibility of prosecution under section five of the Official Secrets Act, 1989 if published details from the memorandum are considered to damage interests of the United Kingdom abroad^[7]. On 29 November 2005, Keogh and O'Connor appeared in Bow Street magistrates' court in central London. Following a 15 minute hearing the case was adjourned until 10 January. (CNN) Image File history File links Illpublish. ... Civil servant David Keogh and parliamentery researcher Leo OConnor have been charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act in the United Kingdom. ... The Cabinet Office is a United Kingdom government department. ... Leo OConnor served as a political researcher to the former Labour MP for Northampton South Tony Clarke. ... The Labour Party is the principal centre-left political party in the United Kingdom (see British politics). ... Anthony Richard Clarke (born September 6, 1963) is an English politician, and was Labour member of Parliament for Northampton South from 1997 until 2005. ... Leo OConnor and David Keogh have been charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act in the United Kingdom. ... The Official Secrets Act is any of several Acts of the United Kingdom Parliament for the protection of official information, mainly related to national security. ... Downing Street For a wider coverage of London, visit the London Portal. ... In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney General is the main legal adviser to the government, and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions. ... Lord Goldsmith Attorney General Peter Henry Goldsmith, Baron Goldsmith, PC (born 5 January 1950), is the current Attorney General of England and Wales. ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... January 10 is the 10th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

Boris Johnson, the Conservative MP for Henley, editor of The Spectator and a supporter of the war, has stated that he will publish the memorandum if he receives a copy of it in the hope it will put speculation about what Bush may or may not have actually said to rest^[8]. Ian Hislop, editor of Private Eye, made a similar promise on the 25 November edition of Have I Got News For You (recorded the previous day) in an exchange between Johnson and himself. Boris Johnson on the cover of his 2002 book Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964 in New York City), better known as Boris Johnson (and occasionally as Bo-Jo within the UK tabloid press) is a British Conservative politician and journalist, with a distinctive scatty and eccentric... The Conservative Party is the largest political party on the right-of-centre in the United Kingdom. ... A Member of Parliament, or MP, is a representative elected by the voters of an electoral district to a parliament; in the Westminster system, specifically to the lower house. ... Henley is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. ... The Spectator is a conservative British political magazine, established 1828, published weekly. ... Hislop (left) with Angus Deayton and Paul Merton on the set of Have I Got News For You Ian Hislop (born July 13, 1960) is the editor of British satirical magazine Private Eye; a team captain on the popular satirical current affairs quiz Have I Got News For You and... Private eye may mean: Look up Private eye on Wiktionary, the free dictionary Private Eye a fortnightly British satirical magazine-newspaper, edited by Ian Hislop (as of 2005) A private investigator, a private detective for hire (see also crime fiction and detective fiction) Private Eye, a song by Alkaline Trio... November 25 is the 329th (in leap years the 330th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Have I Got News For You (sometimes abbreviated to HIGNFY) is a long-running UK television topical panel game. ...

Previous U.S. bombings of Al Jazeera offices

Al Jazeera's offices have previously been hit by United States weaponry, although there is no proof that they were ever deliberately targeted. On 13 November 2001 a US missile hit Al Jazeera's office in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the US invasion of that country. Although no Al-Jazeera staff were hurt in the attack, the building was destroyed and some employees' homes were damaged. At the time, Mohammed Jasim al-Ali, managing editor, said that the coordinates of the office were well known to everyone including the Americans^[9]. November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 48 days remaining. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ...

On 8 April 2003 a US missile hit an electricity generator at Al Jazeera's office in Baghdad. The resulting fire killed reporter Tareq Ayyoub and wounded another staff member^[10]. On 24 February, Mohammed Jasim al-Ali had sent a letter with the coordinates of the offices to Victoria Clarke, the US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs^[11] (the location had not been officially requested by the US government). This incident, which occurred during the US assault on Baghdad and after criticism of Al Jazeera's coverage from those supportive of the war aims of the United States forces, gave rise to suspicions that the network had been targeted. April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Tareq Ayyoub (طارق ايوب) (also spelled Tarek Ayyoub) was an Arab television reporter of Palestinian nationality, employed by Al Jazeera, and previously by Fox News. ... February 24 is the 55th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ...

Pentagon advisor Frank Gaffney published an opinion piece on 29 September 2003 calling for both Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya to be "taken down" "one way or another" because they constitute "enemy media"^[12][13]. Frank J. Gaffney Jr. ... September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Al-Arabiya is an Arabic-language satellite news channel based in Dubai, United Arab Emirates which began broadcasting in February 2003, launched with an investment of $300 million from the Saudi-owned MBC, the Lebanese Hariri Group, and others. ...

Footnotes

1. ^  Scahill, Jeremy, “Did Bush Really Want to Bomb Al Jazeera?”, Yahoo! News, 2005-11-23.
2. ^  Barr, Robert, “Report: Bush Talked of Bombing Al-Jazeera”, Washington Post, 2005-11-22.
3. ^  “'Bomb Jazeera' memo: Media warned”, CNN, November 24, 2005.
4. ^  “Bush al-Jazeera 'plot' dismissed”, BBC, 22 November 2005.
5. ^  Whittam Smith, Andreas, “Secrets, lies and war crimes”, 28 November 2005.
6. ^  Kite, Melissa, “Bush plot to bomb al-Jazeera is a conspiracy theory, says Blair”, 27 November 2005.
7. ^  Rosemary Bennett,Tim Reid, “Editors are threatened over TV station bombing claim”, The Times, November 23, 2005.
8. ^  Boris Johnson (November 24, 2005). Bush and Al-Jazeera. URL accessed on 2005-11-29.
9. ^  “Al-Jazeera Kabul offices hit in US raid”, BBC, 13 November 2001.
10. ^  “Al-Jazeera 'hit by missile'”, BBC, 8 April 2003.
11. ^  “Did the U.S. murder these journalists?”, San Francisco Bay Guardian, April 26, 2003.
12. ^  Gaffney, Jr., Frank, “Take Out Al Jazeera”, Fox News, September 29, 2003.
13. ^  Schmeltzer, Eric, “Neocons Floated Idea of Bombing Al Jazeera Before”, 2005-11-29.

2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... November 24 is the 328th day (329th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 22 is the 326th day (327th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 24 is the 328th day (329th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 48 days remaining. ... 2001: A Space Odyssey. ... April 8 is the 98th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (99th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... April 26 is the 116th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (117th in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... September 29 is the 272nd day of the year (273rd in leap years). ... 2003 (MMIII) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 29 is the 333rd (in leap years the 334th) day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ...

References

• Wallis, William; Khalaf, Roula. "Qatar shock at al-Jazeera bombing report", Financial Times. November 23, 2005. Retrieved November 27, 2005.
• Jenkins, Simon. "Blair's slow, embarrassing death by a thousand leaks", The Times Online (UK). November 27, 2005. Retrieved November 27, 2005.
• Regan, Tom. "British paper: Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera", Christian Science Monitor. November 23, 2005. Retrieved November 27, 2005.
• Percy, Karen. "Al Jazeera wants answers over alleged US bomb plot", ABC Radio's The World Today. November 28, 2005. Retrieved November 28, 2005. (text transcript, audio recording)

The Financial Times (FT) is an international business newspaper printed on distinctive salmon pink semi-broadsheet paper. ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Times is a national newspaper published daily in the United Kingdom. ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Christian Science Monitor (CSM) is an international newspaper published daily, Monday through Friday. ... November 23 is the 327th day of the year (328th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 38 days remaining. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 27 is the 331st day (332nd on leap years) of the year. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australias national public broadcaster. ... November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... November 28 is the 332nd day (333rd on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Wikinews has news related to this article:

Alleged Bush-Blair Al-Jazeera bombing transcript leaked

• White House Press Briefing Transcript of questions on memo, 30 November.
• Bush Plot to Bomb His Arab Ally - original story by the British tabloid, The Daily Mirror (online), by Kevin Maguire and Andyntent/view/full/70736/ Media gagged over Al Jazeera memo] - IFEX

Image File history File links Wikinews-logo. ... Wikinews is a free content news source and a project of the Wikimedia Foundation. ... November 30 is the 334th day (335th on leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 31 days remaining, as the final day of November. ... Newspaper sizes in August 2005. ... Alternate newspaper: The Daily Mirror (Australia) The Daily Mirror is a British tabloid daily newspaper, known for taking a left-of-centre editorial line. ... The International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX), founded in 1992, is a global network of more than 60 Non-governmental organisation that promotes and defends the right to freedom of expression. ...

Al Jazeera website coverage (in English)

• Memo: Bush wanted Aljazeera bombed
• Aljazeera probes Bush 'bombing' memo
• UK gags paper over Aljazeera memo
• An uneasy relationship
• Comments: Bush, Aljazeera memo
• US, UK asked to explain Jazeera memo