21 de abril de 2007

About Bush Bombing Al Jazeera

In London, a British government official and a former political researcher are on trial this week for leaking a classified memo that revealed President Bush wanted to bomb the headquarters of Al Jazeera in Doha. Bush reportedly made the comment to British Prime Minister Tony Blair in a meeting in April 2004. A memo discussing Bush's comments was then leaked to the British newspaper the Daily Mirror. On the day before Bush met with Blair, then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld characterized Al Jazeera's reporting on the Iraq war as "vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable." Rumsfeld said "It's disgraceful what that station is doing." The U.S. never attacked Al Jazeera's Doha headquarters but it has targeted Al Jazeera on other occasions. Investigative journalist Ron Suskind has revealed the U.S. deliberately bombed Al Jazeera's offices in Kabul Afghanistan in 2001 in order to send a message to the network. In April 2003, Al Jazeera correspondent Tareq Ayyoub was killed by a U.S. missile while reporting from Al Jazeera's offices in Baghdad.