The war against "Terrorvision"
Google Box | 05.12.2005 00:54 | Repression | Terror War
Al Jazeera Logo
On Friday, Ramzy, who is also the editor of Palestine Chronicle went to the US Embassy in Brunei to have extra pages added to his passport, only to be told that he was on a "list". His passport has been confiscated and he has had to remain in Brunei, with instructions to return to the Embassy on Monday for further information. He cites his two years with Al Jazeera as a possible reason for the unexpected and serious development.
The Al Jazeera news station has become a new story in its own right in recent weeks, with two UK civil servants charged under the Official Secrets Act for leaking a document in which, allegedly, Bush threatened to BOMB the Al Jazeera HQ in Qatar , an ally of America's.
Meanwhile, BBC radio news this evening (Sunday 4th Nov) is reporting that the wife of Norman Kember , the kidnapped 74 year old British Volunteer with the Christian Peacemaker Teams in Iraq, has been appealing for Mr. Kember's release on Al Jazeera. The CPTers have been accused of spying, and reports indicate that their kidnappers will not release them until all prisoners in Allied and Iraqi jails are freed .
Al Jazeera last week carried footage of a bombing incident in which 10 US Marines are believed to have have died. Al Jazeera, claimed the footage, shot by the Islamic Army of Iraq, was of an incident near Fallujah last Thursday.
Al Jazeera has been a thorn in the side of the US/UK coalition's attempts to manage news coverage of the occupation through the use of embedded journalists.
The station has also aired videos, purported to be messages from missing bogeyman Osama Bin Laden. Tayseer Alouni,the Al Jazeera reporter who interviewed Bin Laden in 2001 was recently sentenced to seven years in Spain for "alleged collaboration with Al Qaeda"
Commenting in The Nation , Jeremy Scahill noted the implications of the Bush War on Al Jazeeera:
"Nothing puts the lie to the Bush Administration's absurd claim that it invaded Iraq to spread democracy throughout the Middle East more decisively than its ceaseless attacks on Al Jazeera, the institution that has done more than any other to break the stranglehold over information previously held by authoritarian forces, whether monarchs, military strongmen, occupiers or ayatollahs. The United States bombed its offices in Afghanistan in 2001, shelled the Basra hotel where Al Jazeera journalists were the only guests in April 2003, killed Iraq correspondent Tareq Ayoub a few days later in Baghdad and imprisoned several Al Jazeera reporters (including at Guantánamo), some of whom say they were tortured. In addition to the military attacks, the US-backed Iraqi government banned the network from reporting in Iraq."
The future isn't looking too bright for Al Jazeera reporters right now. One can only wonder what independent news source the self-proclaimed defenders of "freedom and democracy" will attack next.......
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2 memo psyop by the media
05.12.2005 01:44
there are 2 memos:
the first was published in the Sunday Times more than 18 months ago.
[Iraq in the Medium Term]
The Times reports charges being brought to the same people for the leaking of this memo -
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Researcher on secrets charge
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A FORMER MP's researcher charged with breaking the Official Secrets Act behaved "perfectly correctly" and is "incredibly unlucky" to have been caught up in the scandal, according to his one-time employer, writes Robert Winnett.
Leo O'Connor, 42, is alleged to have been passed a top secret document about the Iraq war by David Keogh, a 49-year-old Cabinet Office civil servant.
O'Connor gave the document to his boss, Tony Clarke, then a Labour MP and an opponent of the Iraq war, who called the police. O'Connor was charged with passing on official secrets. He was arrested in August 2004 [?] and charged last week, along with Keogh, who previously worked for the Foreign Office.
Clarke, who lost his seat in the last election, said last week O'Connor had acted properly and had remained in his employment until his electoral defeat. He added: "I remain 100% supportive of him and he is incredibly unlucky."
The document is said to be the transcript of a conversation between Tony Blair and President George Bush in spring 2004. It is believed to show Blair disagreed with Bush over their strategy on Iraq.
The men also revealed sensitive information on the situation in Iraq, including intelligence sources and details of future military movements.
Last week several media organisations claimed the information had also been leaked to The Sunday Times. However, the Metropolitan police, Crown Prosecution Service and Clarke said this was not the case.
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now looky here at this BBC report : same thing
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BBC story: Two charged 'over Iraq memo leak'
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The memo suggests Foreign Office doubts over US tactics in Iraq
Two men have been charged under the Official Secrets Act following the leak of a secret government memo.
The document involved - the Foreign Office's Iraq in the Medium Term - referred to "heavy-handed" US tactics, a government source told the BBC.
Its contents were reported in the Sunday Times in May last year.
Ex-civil servant David Keogh and former MP's researcher Leo O'Connor, both from Northampton, will appear before Bow Street magistrates on 29 November.
Political researcher
Mr Keogh, 49, is a former Cabinet Office communications worker.
Mr O'Connor, 42, worked as a researcher for Tony Clarke, the former MP for Northampton South.
The pair received police bail.
Mr Keogh was charged with an offence under section three of the Official Secrets Act, Mr O'Connor under section five.
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The BBC reported that Keogh and O'Connor were being prosecuted over the Times leak [Iraq in the Medium Term], quoting a government source
The Sunday Times report and an associated confidential memo are claimed to be related to the recent UK Official Secrets Act ban on publication of a Blair-Bush memo in which Bush suggests bombing Al Jazeera headquarters in Qatar.
The two memos appear to be different, the one below is said to be 6-pages, the Blair-Bush memo said to be 5-pages. The [Iraq in the Medium Term] memo does not mention Al Jazeera.
The original Mirror story
links the two researchers who are reported above as leaking the
[Iraq in the Medium Term] memo
to a memo NO HAS EVER SEEN involving Bush / Blair bombing Al Jazeera
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EXCLUSIVE: BUSH PLOT TO BOMB HIS ARAB ALLY
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Madness of war memo
By Kevin Maguire And Andy Lines
PRESIDENT 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.
A source said last night: "The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush.
"He made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem.
"There's no doubt what Bush wanted to do - and no doubt Blair didn't want him to do it."
A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been "humorous, not serious".
But another source declared: "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."
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."
Bush disclosed his plan to target al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Mid-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Mr Blair on April 16 last year.
At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault on insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.
Al-Jazeera infuriated Washington and London by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims.
The station, watched by millions, has also been used by bin Laden and al-Qaeda to broadcast atrocities and to threaten the West.
Al-Jazeera's HQ is in the business district of Qatar's capital, Doha.
Its single-storey buildings would have made an easy target for bombers. As it is sited away from residential areas, and more than 10 miles from the US's desert base in Qatar, there would have been no danger of "collateral damage".
Dozens of al-Jazeera staff at the HQ are not, as many believe, Islamic fanatics. Instead, most are respected and highly trained technicians and journalists.
To have wiped them out would have been equivalent to bombing the BBC in London and the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq War itself.
The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors.
In 2001 the station's Kabul office was knocked out by two "smart" bombs. In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station's Baghdad centre.
The memo, which also included details of troop deployments, turned up in May last year at the Northampton constituency office of then Labour MP Tony Clarke.
Cabinet Office civil servant David Keogh, 49, is accused under the Official Secrets Act of passing it to Leo O'Connor, 42, who used to work for Mr Clarke. Both are bailed to appear at Bow Street court next week.
Mr Clarke, who lost at the election, returned the memo to No 10.
He said Mr O'Connor had behaved "perfectly correctly".
Neither Mr O'Connor or Mr Keogh were available. No 10 did not comment.
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The second memo
the 'al jazeera' memo
led to the bringing of charges???
nope
where is this strange 2nd memo that the mirror has detailed?
is it with the fake abuse photos?
this is a deliberate attempt at confusion
as a diversion tactics in an act of statist
protectionism/psyops
me
leave off them!
05.12.2005 09:49
Terrorvision rock! shame they have split up now... :-(
jimbo