Al-Jazeera Memogate Update
Last week I wrote about the mysterious British document that supposedly memorializes a conversation in April 2004 in which Tony Blair had to talk President Bush out of bombing the Qatari headquarters of the Arab television station Al-Jazeera. I noted that I was highly skeptical of the account, if for no other reason than I could not believe that even Bush would be that insanely stupid.
Well, it seems that at least a few credible voices suspect that the story may in fact be true. Steve Clemons, who is in London investigating the matter, writes:
And yesterday Christopher Hitchens wrote the following in a column at Slate.
Should this story turn out to be true, it would be a debacle of epic proportions, even greater than Abu Graib. The fallout would be intense and far-reaching; it would be a huge setback to our efforts to win over the hearts and minds of Muslim people.
Well, it seems that at least a few credible voices suspect that the story may in fact be true. Steve Clemons, who is in London investigating the matter, writes:
I thought that there must have been some
missing context -- like humor wrongly
applied -- or some other explanation.
As I have dug into the details of this memo,
the legal action the UK is taking against a
couple of bureaucrats who leaked its
supposed contents, and other details
regarding Prime Minister Blair's reaction,
I am now gaining confidence that this memo
recounts something quite serious.
And yesterday Christopher Hitchens wrote the following in a column at Slate.
It comes on the heels of a credible report
about a threat, from President George W.
Bush, to bomb the Qatari headquarters of
Al Jazeera. The British government, from
whose inner circle the relevant memo has
been leaked, might have taken credit—in
that Tony Blair appears to have dissuaded
Bush from this course of criminal insanity—
but instead has threatened to use the Official
Secrets Act against the newspaper that
published it, thus somewhat strengthening
the supposition that the story is true. Since
certain people and places associated with
Al Jazeera have been hit in the past, it
appears more plausible than ever in
retrospect that some deliberate "targeting"
may have been involved.
Should this story turn out to be true, it would be a debacle of epic proportions, even greater than Abu Graib. The fallout would be intense and far-reaching; it would be a huge setback to our efforts to win over the hearts and minds of Muslim people.
posted by A.L. at 12:37 PM
4 Comments:
It's funny that Hitch gets upset - now - But that's because he values words and he sees Bush, by implication, devaluing his currency.
But Bush could careless- when he says he is opposed to what his own Pentagon did, all you have to do is listen to his own admirers, and they defend the practice - Bush's supporters assume he is lying about this, just as the assumed he was lying about being upset about Abu Ghraib - afterall, they defended these practices and supported Bush, even though Bush was disavowing them.
It shows you thay his own support base has assumed deception at its fundament. It's very decadent - they have crossed the consciousness Rubicon.
Words are meaningless for Bush - His Dad and Reagan supported all the anti-communist militias in Africa during the 80s. When Bush went to Africa, he gave verbal praise to many of these African leftists that his own political allies built their careers by vilifying - Yet, no one seemed to mind, because everyone assumed he was just saying what ever the hell sounded cool at the moment.
And what exactly is so bad about blowing up a propoganda arm of our enemy?
Wasn't it open season on Tokyo Rose in WW2?
Hey, AL - regarding your above piece on limbo, agnosticism, and empricism:
If you come to my blog - you will see a chart on the recent post (Metrics 1965)
That will show you the limits of empiricism - at least fake empiricism, just like limbo by have been fake metaphysics, but told a conforting metaphorical truth, just like the metrics is supposed to do.
What does that ^^^ have to do with al-Jazeera?
We'll you express concern about the Muslim faitful keeping their hearst and minds open to us after hear Bush wanted to grease them in oil rich friendly Dubai.
If they think you are just a pure rationalist empiricist, they may not take heed your words - they may say you as too modernists, a bit too sophesticated -
The chasm between logos and mythos, for limbo, became to wide after "sitting in limbo" was set to reggae music - so by removing limbo - you remove the limbo from limbo and restore limbo.
Which brings us to Hitch - how can their be no God - the pleasure of watching Hitch try to pivot and squirm away from Bush and his Molochy neocons is just too deep and sublime to have happened by accident.
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