The Prime Minister's Official Spokesman DENIES the Bush Blair Conversation refers to bombing al-Jazeera!?
Presumably in response to questions following last night's Newsnight report, the BBC have just reported that the UK government have for the first time issued an outright denial that the so called al-Jazeera memo contains any reference to the bombing of al-Jazeera!
Maybe the PMOS should speak to the Cabinet office. When they were asked to disclose any notes or memos that record President Bush's discussions with the Prime Minister about the bombing of the al-Jazeera television station in Qatar under the Freedom if information act they refused, but said:
Maybe the PMOS should talk to Peter Kilfoyle MP, because he says that he not only saw it, but leaked it.
Maybe the PMOS should talk to Leo O'Connor's lawyer, because the document was disclosed to him as part of the trial of the two men charged with leaking the document. He said of what he was shown:
Could this be the lie they get caught in?
Downing Street has denied for the first time claims US President George Bush had to be talked out of bombing the TV station al-Jazeera by Tony Blair.
Tony Blair's official spokesman said a memo about the Bush-Blair conversation does not refer to bombing al-Jazeera.
On Tuesday, the Downing Street spokesman said: "We are saying this because a specific allegation, despite our firm denial, has been repeated over and over again."
There is nothing in this morning's briefing from the PMOS, and no afternoon briefing on the Number 10 website, yet...
Of course, this denial could be an exercise in semantics, without the full text of what the PMOS said, we don't know.
Could it be that instead of 'bombing', the memo talks about 'attacking', or plans to 'take off air' or some other euphemism?
Either way, the PMOS should be thanked for helping push the story up the News agenda... and the fact they feel the need to issue a denial of whatever kind this is would suggest they are feeling the pressure.
There is, of course, an easy way to clear this up...
UPDATE:
More from Reuters:
The prime minister's Downing Street office has received a request from the Arabic broadcaster to see a record of a conversation between Blair and Bush, which a MP said described a plan by the U.S. president to bomb the channel.
"We will reply properly in terms of any request to us but it is not the practice and will not be the practice to release conversations between the prime minister and other world leaders," Blair's spokesman told reporters.
"But what we can confirm is that the memo does not refer to bombing the Al Jazeera station in Qatar, despite the various allegations," he said, adding: "I'm not aware of any suggestion of bombing any Al Jazeera station."
He declined to say what was contained in the memo.
Presumably if it really
Presumably if it really doesn't contain anything about bombing al-Jazeera, they'd release it to their pet pressmen. After all, making the blogosphere, Kilfoyle, the BBC and the Daily Mirror look stupid in one fell swoops must be awfully tempting...
but the BBC and The Mirror
but the BBC and The Mirror are Tony's best buddies!