LONDON, Nov 22: A former British defence minister has joined the rally of those calling upon Downing Street to make public a secret memo which detailed the discussions of the US President Goerge W Bush with Prime Minister Tony Blair to bomb the Doha offices of Arabic news channel, Al Jazeera.
According to an exclusive news story of British newspaper, Daily Mirror, the attack on Al Jazeera was averted only after Prime Minister Tony Blair managed to prevail upon the US president not to launch the military strike as it would have unleashed a worldwide backlash.
The newspaper said the spokesman for 10 Downing Street refused to discuss the five page leaked memo but a former defence minister, Peter Kilfoyle, called for the document to be made public.
He said the Downing Street ought to publish the memo in the interests of transparency and to clarify what exactly happened on the occasion.
“It’s frightening to think that such a powerful man as Bush can propose such cavalier actions,” he was quoted as saying by the Mirror.
According to the newspaper, the five-page transcript records a conversation during Mr Blair’s visit to the White House on April 16, 2004. At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault on guerillas in Fallujah.
