Call for clarity over Al-Jazeera bombing reports
A Labour MP has tabled an early day motion calling on the prime minister to clear up reports that George Bush wanted to bomb Arabic news agency Al-Jazeera.
Former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle made the move following reports in the Daily Mirror earlier this week that the US president made the suggestion during a face-to-face meeting with Tony Blair, who persuaded him against it.
The conversation is alleged to have taken place in April last year, as the US was launching its assault on insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah. Mr Bush was reportedly outraged by Al-Jazeera’s coverage of events and wanted to bomb the agency’s headquarters in Qatar.
Officials in Washington have rejected the claims, but al-Jazeera has said it is taking the suggestions very seriously. A senior member of the news agency is urgently seeking a meeting with Mr Blair over the issue.
Attorney general Lord Goldsmith has warned newspaper editors that they could be charged under the Official Secrets Act if they publish any more material from the note detailing the conversation between Mr Bush and Mr Blair.
But yesterday Lib Dem MP David Heath said this move was an attempt to “gag” the press, “not on the grounds of national security, but on the grounds of potential embarrassment to the prime minister or to any presidents with whom he happens to have conversations”.
Commons leader Geoff Hoon defended Lord Goldsmith, saying he had a “legal responsibility” that “is done with great restraint and only in certain limited circumstances, but it is an important power that must be exercised from time to time”.
Mr Kilfoyle’s early day motion calls on the government to publish the record of the discussion between the two leaders, both to clarify the Al-Jazeera issue and also clear up reports that Mr Blair did nothing to restrain the US assault on Fallujah.
Both these issues were “absolutely vital” in terms of understanding not only why we went to war, but also “how this war is being conducted in the mindsets of the people responsible”, he told Today.
He added: “I think there’s a lot of support for transparency and indeed it’s the government’s own case which has been argued quite rightly and consistently for a long time that we ought to be transparent in these matters.”
Mr Kilfoyle condemned the use of the Official Secrets Act, saying: “Certainly this is not about national security. This is about political embarrassment in my view and what the government want to do, understandably perhaps, [is] to minimise that embarrassment.
“It doesn’t imperil national security. The information is out there in the public domain and it seems ludicrous, for example, that the media can’t discuss it in its entirety.”
