Gagging on the truth?

Well, well. The plot thickens.

So now the British government has slapped a gag order on the press, citing the Official Secrets Act. All this to prevent them from printing what's in a memo whose contents were leaked to the Daily Mirror. It reported on Tuesday that U.S. President George W. Bush wanted to bomb Al-Jazeera headquarters in Qatar but British Prime Minister Tony Blair talked him out of it.

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.

So while Bush is attempting to brush off the incident, the British government is appearing more as though it has its hand in the cookie jar with damage control its first priority.

When asked to comment on the memo Downing Street refused to do so saying it doesn't comment on leaked documents. Be that as it may - and provided the Mirror story is false - then, surely, an absolute denial by the Prime Minister would put the story to bed and quash the rumors.

But gag order or not this story doesn't look like it's going to disappear into the ether like so many others.

More here.

(Britain's) attorney general told media that publishing the contents of a document which is known to have been unlawfully disclosed by a civil servant was a breach of the Official Secrets Act.

Kevin Maguire, the Mirror's associate editor, said government officials had given no indication of any legal problems with the story when contacted before publication.

"We were astonished, 24 hours later, to be threatened with the Official Secrets Act and to be requested to give various undertakings to avoid being injuncted," he told BBC radio.

Al-Jazeera said that, if true, the story would raise serious doubts about the U.S. administration's version of previous incidents involving the station's journalists and offices.

Remember: Al-Jazeera bureaux have been bombed, its staffers killed or imprisoned, and its operations repeatedly shut down by the U.S.

Here, via Bill Doskoch, is Al-Jazeera's Yousri Fouda talking to Democracy Now's Amy Goodman about all this:

Well, obviously, we haven't seen the documents yet. There's still a case pending, and you have just mentioned the latest episode of events, which media have been just gagged from reporting any further on this story. I'm still hoping, to tell you the truth – we’ve been, what now, nearly 48 hours since this revelation, and we haven't yet seen anybody hit the roof in the White House or Downing Street, stepping out and saying, no, it's not true, or if it's true, that the President actually did not mean it. I'm still hoping at the bottom of my heart that this will happen.

That said, let's all remember that the Mirror was the paper that got punk'd last year over fake photos of British soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners.

But, given the U.S. military record with Al-Jazeera, and Bush's sentiments  ...

In his 2004 State of the Union Address President Bush referred to Al-Jazeera and others as "hateful propaganda" coming from the Arab world, and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has called the network "a mouthpiece for al-Qaeda and a vehicle of anti-American propaganda."

... I detect the stench of truth to this allegation.

Come back Eason Jordan. All is forgiven!

Comments

[Bill-Muskoka]

Seems like they are trying the old line of 'Neither confirm nor deny'? Unfortunately, the very fact that prosecution is happening 'confirms' the existence of the secret document, thereby negating the need to 'deny' its contents. Obviously, the document portrays precisely what is claimed.

Oh my, where is 'Q', 'M', and '007' when they are so drastically needed?

The claim against al Jazeera by Bush of being a 'hateful propaganda machine' is clearly the same as the bumper sticker says 'Counterfeiting is Illegal: The Government Doesn't Like Competition'

[Bill-Muskoka]

Fascinating! I tried going to a Jazeera's website,

http://english.aljazeera.net/HomePage

which is usually right there and got this Error Message

"Status : 504 Gateway Time-Out

Description : Unable to connect to origin web server. The web site you are attempting to access is currently unreachable. This may be due to a network outage, or the web site might be experiencing technical difficulties."

Could it be that the Bush covert ops team has blocked access?

[Greg Soucie]

What I find interesting is the CNN take on this. I'm not a full time media critic but I read Al Jazeera's response to the story which was essentially "we can't belive this, we'd like an official denial". They haven't had it. CNN states that the White House "vehemently denied" the report. Well no, in point of fact, they did not. They called it outlandish and absurd which is not at all the same thing. Not to mention the gag order from Downing Street as opposed to anything resembling a denial. The previous posted Bill-Muskoka is absolutely correct. There is simply no reason for the legal threats without the allegations being truthful. If true, I'd like to think that this would be sufficient to bring down Bush. Unfortunatly, due to a most excellent anti-Al Jazeera campaign by Rumsfeld, Cheney and others in the current administration, I think most Americans belive what they have heard. I wonder what Josh Rushing thinks about all this? Try dropping him a line Antonia, it'd make a great story.

[Diana-Marie]

I believe the Guardian (quoted from Al Jazeera item) today nails it down thus:
"....fears of fresh revelations about disputes between Bush and Blair on the Iraq conflict could damage the two nations' relations, prompted the unprecedented gagging of the media."
Nothing must be allowed disrupt the 'special relationship' between UK/US no matter the cause, no matter the price.

[Dana]

Al Jazeera's up now.

CNN is very uneven and unstable in their coverage.

They're operating like a station with multiple owners each of which mandates a particular and peculiar coverage style and angle.

They're not performing much like a network that wants to be known as the definitive and trustworthy hard news source yet.

I periodically see that peek out from behind the masks but then one of the bimbos or hunks is back on air and the network rushes right back into the arms of mammon again.

[Bill-Muskoka]

Greg Soucie,

Thank you kind Sir!

Unfortunately, the U.S., unlike our civilized country, has no ready means to remove a president. That requires impeachment by the Congress and with a Republican controlled House and Senate the chances are less than us winning the Lotto 649 or Super 7. In a word...NIL!

There is, however, an election next year that may change the balance of power in the Congress.

Now, and I say this having been born there and lived many decades in the U.S, DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH!

The American people are not far from our thinking. They may drift astray at times, given the choice between two candidates that could star in the sequel to 'Dumb and Dumber', but they will rebound with sanity. I hope?

Oh Canada!...I am so proud to be a Canadian and see we have true democracy, even when it is brainless...its a 'kinder and gentler' brainless! Its also far more entertaining! LOL

[Bill-Muskoka]

Dana,

Its probably a 'computer glitch' at CNN causing it. Its very difficult to keep the sub-routines working for the max Headroom talking heads, eh? LOL