Britain's Daily Mirror: Bush wanted to bomb al-Jazeera

Yes, that's what it says here.

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.

I wouldn't take this report too seriously, based on the source. The Daily Mirror hired Saddam appeaser Peter Arnett shortly after he was fired by MSNBC. And the Mirror is the same which that two days after Election Day 2004, greeted its readers with the headline: "How can 59,054,087 be so DUMB?"

Technorati tags: Bush al-Jazeera UK Daily Mirror Tony Blair