The UK Daily Mirror reports:
“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 worldwide backlash.
“A source said: “There’s no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn’t want him to do it.” Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.
“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.”
I watched Control Room again last night, the story of Al-Jazeera during the 2003 Iraq invasion. It’s almost comical watching the US trying to sell its war to the world’s media. Only the compliant US journalists followed the script, while many other journalists simply didn’t believe the prepared lines of “liberation” and “freedom”, especially in the face of mounting civilian casualties.