It's killing me!! What in the world could be in these documents?

[CatWoman]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/frontpage/story/0,16518,1648593,00.html

The attorney general last night threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents of a document allegedly relating to a dispute between Tony Blair and George Bush over the conduct of military operations in Iraq.

It is believed to be the first time the Blair government has threatened newspapers in this way. Though it has obtained court injunctions against newspapers, the government has never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked documents, including highly sensitive ones about the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.

Richard Wallace, editor of the Daily Mirror, said last night: "We made No 10 fully aware of the intention to publish and were given 'no comment' officially or unofficially. Suddenly 24 hours later we are threatened under section 5 ".

Under section 5 it is an offence to have come into the possession of government information, or a document from a crown servant, if that person discloses it without lawful authority. The prosecution has to prove the disclosure was damaging.

[Loonman]

1. Gotta be the real McCoy about Bush wanting to bomb AlJ

Only reason I can think for Tony to get all fascist.

[CatWoman]

3. but I think it goes deeper than that -- it has to

[BronxBoy]

14. I think so too

If Bush is that f****g stupid to propose this at a meeting where they were f*****g taking minutes, what else was said?

He probably has a few and the motor mouth started running...

:rofl:

[Quakerfriend]

2. I've heard the documents reveal the Bush plan to bomb

Al Jazeera.

[MasonJar]

4. Damaging to whom, our (ig)noble leader? Why doth Tony pro-

test so much?

[CatWoman]

5. BINGO!!!!!!

[leftchick]

6. "fuck al juhzeera! We are taking them out!"

just a hunch.

[Octafish]

7. Counterpunch: Targeting Al Jazeera

An excellent overview, IMFO...

UK Media Gagged Over Contents of Bombing Memo

Targeting Al Jazeera

By LINDA S. HEARD
Counterpunch
November 23, 2005

On Tuesday, Britain's Daily Mirror published an explosive story riddled with implications concerning the character and intent of the US president when pursuing his so-called 'war on terror', and perhaps, shedding light on the bombing of Al Jazeera's offices in both Kabul and Baghdad.

Twenty-four later, the Mirror and all other British papers had been subjected to a "gag order" under Section 5 the Official Secrets Act at pain of prosecution.

"The Daily Mirror was yesterday told not to publish further details from a memo marked 'Top Secret', which revealed that President Bush wanted to bomb an Arab TV station," wrote Kevin Maguire in Tuesday's edition of the paper.

"The gag by the Attorney General Lord Goldsmith" the same attorney general who changed his pre-Iraq War legal opinion after being badgered by US government lawyers to do so "came nearly 24 hours after the Mirror informed Downing Street of its intention to reveal how Tony Blair talked Bush out of attacking satellite station Al Jazeera's HQ in friendly Qatar" in the spring of 2004.

The White House has characterized the Mirror's reporting as "outlandish", but if that's the case, one wonders why Downing Street has gone into crisis mode not only prosecuting two of its own civil servants David Keogh and Leo O'Connor under the Official Secrets Act but also threatening editors of British newspapers with prosecution an historical first according to Richard Taylor-Norton of the Guardian.

CONTINUED...

http://www.counterpunch.org/heard11232005.html

What's in the memo? Same thing that was in the Downing Street Memo: Evidence that George Bush is a nutjob.

[redacted]

8. CW, Did you see this report yet?

Watch Frank Gaffney and London's Al-Jazeera Chief get into it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5440715

[CatWoman]

9. no, I didn't see this

thank you very much :hi:

[King Coal]

10. Maybe Blair says that Bush is an idiot.

Maybe he was really talking down to Bush while telling him he can't bomb a news organization.

Hi Cat!!!

:hi:

Happy Thanksgiving!

[Blue_In_AK]

11. They keep saying he was "joking"

Probably like he was joking about how much easier for him it would be if he were a dictator. Asshole.......

[PassingFair]

12. The April/May time line corresponds with

the leveling of Fallujah. You know, white phosphorus, wounded Italian journalists, etc.

Bet there's PLENTY in those transcripts. From Wikipedia:

When the U.S. Army entered the town in April 2003, they positioned themselves at the vacated Ba'ath Party headquarters — an action that erased some goodwill, especially when many in the city had been hoping the U.S. Army would stay outside of the relatively calm city. A Fallujah Protection Force composed of local Iraqis was set up by the U.S.-led occupants to help fight the rising resistance.

On the evening of April 28, 2003, a crowd of 200 people defied the Coalition curfew and gathered outside a local school to protest the presence of U.S. Coalition forces in the city. This developed into an altercation with U.S. troops in the city in which 15 Iraqi civilians were killed by U.S. gunfire. There were no coalition casualties in the incident. Resistance and insurgency grew more violent as month progressed, leading to a failed US attempt to recapture control of the city in Operation Vigilant Resolve, a seige of the city called Operation Plymouth Rock and a successful recapture of the city in November 2004 called Operation Phantom Fury. The tactics used by the invading forces have been criticized by some as war crimes, particularly the capturing of Fallujah General Hospital and the acknowledged use of incendiary weapons such as white phosphorus and chemicals said to be "Napalm-like".

[bigbrother05]

13. kick