More bad news for Bush: Did he want to bomb Al Jazeera in Qatar?

That's the question raised by a news report in a British paper, the Daily Mirror:

Bush Talked of Bombing Al-Jazeera, Newspaper Reports: White House Dismisses 'Outlandish' Charge Reportedly in Leaked British Memo AOL News/AP by Robert Barr

A civil servant has been charged under Britain's Official Secrets Act for allegedly leaking a government memo that a newspaper said Tuesday suggested that Prime Minister Tony Blair persuaded President Bush not to bomb the Arab satellite station Al-Jazeera.

The Daily Mirror reported that Bush spoke of targeting Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar, when he met Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004. The Bush administration has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of being nothing more than a mouthpiece for anti-American sentiments.

The Daily Mirror attributed its information to unidentified sources. One source, said to be in the government, was quoted as saying that the alleged threat was "humorous, not serious," but the newspaper quoted another source as saying that "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair."

Blair's office declined to comment on the report, stressing it never discusses leaked documents.

Here is the Daily Mirror report: Exclusive: Bush Plot to Bomb His Arab Ally/Madness of war memo by Kevin Maguire And Andy Lines Daily Mirror 11/22/05

President Bush 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. ...

Yesterday former Labour Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders' conversation. He said: "It's 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."

I can't claim any particular insight to this story.  It's obviously one that's worth following.  And hopeless our own Potemkin press corps in America will do so.  The Daily Mirror is a tabloid-style paper.  But they are not just a gossip sheet.  They do legitimate news reports and have broken some important stories over the last few years.

The AOL/AP story by Robert Barr adds this bit of relevant history:

Al-Jazeera offices in Iraq and Afghanistan have been hit by U.S. bombs or missiles, but each time the U.S. military said they were not intentionally targeting the broadcaster.

In April 2003, an Al-Jazeera journalist was killed when its Baghdad office was struck during a U.S. bombing campaign. Nabil Khoury, a State Department spokesman in Doha, said the strike was a mistake.

In November 2002, Al-Jazeera's office in Kabul, Afghanistan, was destroyed by a U.S. missile. None of the crew was at the office at the time. U.S. officials said they believed the target was a terrorist site and did not know it was Al-Jazeera's office.

Al Jazeera's English version is here: Memo: Bush wanted Aljazeera bombed 11/22/05.

Aljazeera has said in a news statement that it is investigating the report and urged the US and British governments to challenge it. ...

Blair's former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the transcript.
 
"I believe that Downing Street ought to publish this memo in the interests of transparency, given that much of the detail appears to be in the public domain," Kilfoyle told the Press Association.

"I think they ought to clarify what exactly happened on this occasion. If it was the case that President Bush wanted to bomb Aljazeera in what is after all a friendly country, it speaks volumes and it raises questions about subsequent attacks that took place on the press that wasn't embedded with coalition forces."

Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman Sir Menzies Campbell told the Press Association: "If true, then this underlines the desperation of the Bush administration as events in Iraq began to spiral out of control.

"On this occasion, the prime minister may have been successful in averting political disaster, but it shows how dangerous his relationship with President Bush has been."

On the subject of Al Jazeera, I can't speak for the Arabic version of Al Jazeera.  And I can't claim to have done any kind of comprehensive survey.  But my own impression of the articles on their English-language site is that they are fairly straightforward news reports.  I haven't encourtered any stories that seemed to be based on careless reporting or that read like propaganda.  The above story does include a long quote at the end from the chief editor of the London-based Islamist newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi.

[11/23/05: Josh Marshall comments on this and on the Daily Mirror's mixed track record in this 11/22/05 post]