The Al Jazeera Memo Back From The Memory Hole

By Cernig

Does anyone remember the talk back in November 2005 of a leaked British memo that supposedly contained details of Tony Blair having to talk Dubya out of bombing the Al Jazeera headquarters in Qatar? The story was broken by the UK's Mirror newspaper but both they and other media outlets were quickly muzzled by the Blair government, who threatened them with prosecution if they published the text of the memo.

At the time, the White House said "We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response."

Well, the guys accused of leaking the memo are now on trial in the UK for revealing state secrets:

David Perry QC, prosecuting, said it contained "high-level strategic discussions between world leaders".

Mr Keogh and Mr O'Connor, both of Northampton, are accused of breaching the Officials Secrets Act. Both deny the charges, which carry a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

Mr Perry told the jury the act was not designed merely to protect the government from embarrassing disclosures or acts of betrayal or disloyalty but to protect the state. "We are not talking about what may be embarrassing, a betrayal or act of disloyalty. Even in the age of mass communication, something remains sacred.

"The prosecution say the unauthorised disclosure of information in this case is likely to prejudice the capability of the armed forces either to carry out their tasks or lead to the loss of life or the possibility of loss of life or injury."

Details of the "highly sensitive" memo - sent to specific individuals in the Ministry of Defence and the Cabinet Office, the British ambassador in Washington, the UN in New York and British representatives in Iraq - were not disclosed in court. Some of Mr Perry's opening was put to the jury in camera, with the press excluded.

The court heard how a record of the meeting, held just before the handover of power to the Iraqi authorities , was taken that day by Matthew Rycroft, Mr Blair's private secretary for foreign affairs. Also present were US secretary of state Colin Powell, and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

It was marked "secret and personal" and addressed to Geoffrey Adams of the Foreign Office, with a note which read: "This must not be copied further and must only be seen by those with real need to know."

Even now, revelations of the memo's contents could cause deaths of UK troops (and, presumably, US ones too). Now doesn't that sound to you as if, rather than being an "outlandish" claim, the memo really did contain explosive details?