More On Bush's Plan to Bomb al-Jazeera

This is starting to look pretty bad:

Claims that George Bush planned to bomb the Arabic TV news station al-Jazeera have fuelled concerns that an attack on the broadcaster's Baghdad offices during the war on Iraq was deliberate.

An international journalists group today demanded "complete disclosure" from the British and American governments over reports that the US considered attacking the al-Jazeera HQ in the Qatar capital, Doha.

The International Federation of Journalists claimed that 16 journalists and other media staff have died at the hands of US forces in Iraq, adding that the deaths had not been properly investigated.

If a story like this had come out a year ago, it would have gotten very little coverage in the mainstream U.S. press. But I have a feeling that this story has some legs over here. And it certainly appears to be legitimate. As Kos points out: "If the story has no merit, why would the British government threaten newspapers with prosecution under the Official Secrets Act?"

Could the U.S. have attacked al-Jazeera's Kabul and Baghdad offices deliberately? I would certainly hope not. But then again, the Bush Regime blew the cover of one of its own covert agents in order to retaliate against a critic here at home, so who knows what it is capable of doing abroad. The Arabic TV news station wants some answers:

Al-Jazeera said it had given the location of its offices in both Kabul and Baghdad to the authorities in Washington, but it had still been attacked.

"We have been campaigning vigorously for an independent inquiry into what happened in Baghdad on April 8 [2003]. Now is the time for the US to take responsibility and tell the world what actually happened," said Mr White.

"The public has a right to know whether politicians would seriously consider killing journalists in order to stifle independent or critical voices. In this particular case the family, friends and colleagues of the victim also have a right to justice.