Bombing Al-Jazeera

Aljazeera is pressuring the British government to release the secret memo. Quote from article:

"Journalists' fears that the report may not be so inconceivable are fuelled by previous incidents: a US missile attack on Aljazeera's Baghdad bureau in April 2003 which killed reporter Tariq Ayub, and the US bombing of Aljazeera's bureau in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2001."

If Bush was joking, this incident still looks really bad, considering we've already (accidentally) bombed Aljazeera twice. Another piece by the London Times. Interesting quote:

Frank Gaffney, head of the Center for Security Policy, a Washington-based think tank, last week described Al-Jazeera as “fair game” on the grounds that it promoted beheadings and suicide bombings.

The Times article also discusses events that took place the day before Bush met Blair. Rumsfeld was on TV, describing Aljazeera reporting as “vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable”. Is silencing criticism a great way to spread freedom? Given that Rumsfeld's words were fresh in Bush's mind, it is very plausible that he was serious (and tactless as always) regarding his comments in the memo.

Incidentally, I've found Aljazeera's reporting to be far superior to that of many US news outlets (ie Fox). Its been said that Aljazeera softens up the tone of their English site, though. Not that such matters; its not like our networks weren't extremely biased and horribly ineffective too in the runup to the war.