Al-Jazeera has a new blog, Don’t Bomb Us – A blog by Al Jazeera Staffers:
“Would you like to bomb us?”
Originally uploaded by aljazeerastaffer.
“These are the men and women who bring you the news at Al Jazeera. We have a diverse staff complement. Our people are made up of dozens of nationalities…
Come and have a look at who we are (here is our flickr photoset). We are not afraid of your threats – we are journalists. And there thousands like us around the world. You may be able to kill some of us – but you will never kill us all.”
I’m listening to that unelected party hack Lord Goldsmith on the Today programme, being inteviewed by John Humphries about the leaked memo alleged to detailed Bush’s plan to bomb Al-Jazeera –
Lord G: ‘I wasn’t intending to gag newspapers… Humphries: But you did. Lord G: I am acting in my independent role to protect the administration of justice…. to protect the law… editors should take legal advice’. Humphries: But isn’t the Official Secrets Act to be used only in matters of national security? Lord G: Yes. Humphries: It’s not being used to save embarassment of a politician then? Lord G: Nonsense.
I’ll leave the morality of a US president ordering the bombing of independent journalists to the many blogs who discuss it in depth: suffice it to say that it’s wrong. What’s very interesting is the way the Blair government is behaving – proving its complicity in crime yet again in invoking the Official Secrets Act to cover up Bush’s crimes.
Goldsmith knew damned well he was fooling no-one this morning, if the sheer lazy arrogance in his voice was any guide. His protestation that he was not acting politically rings hollow when one remembers that he’s the first Attorney General to be a purely political appointee, chosen by Blair, rather than to have been picked from the ranks of sitting MP’s.
After the recent revelations by former Ambassador Sir Christopher Meyer, Tony and his closest cronies know that we all know exactly how whipped they are by the Rethugs in Washington, all because of Blair’s original decision to capitulate to the PNACers. Blair has entwined his administration so closely with Bush’s, in so many ways, he can’t extricate himself now. Hence the lack of even minimal dissembling this morning, that sense of Goldsmith just going through the motions, knowing the game is up.
Go Boris, Go!
Which brings me to Boris Johnson, who couldn’t just go through the motions if he tried, judging by last night’s performance on Have I Got News For You. (He’d have to actually know what the proper motions are first.) Boris was his usual plummy, daffy self, tail wagging like an overactive labrador puppy, hair irrationally blond and exuberant. In between indiscretions and gaffes he re-iterated the call he made on his blog and in his leader in the Telegraph, that he will spite the Official Secrets Act and publish the memo, if only someone will send it to him (and of course if Ian Hislop doesn’t get it first).
Amusing as it is to see Boris ( and he really is rather a dear, despite being an adulterous Tory) playing the part of stout defender of press freedom, he’s only doing something that every UK editor should have done the moment the Attorney General tried to gag this story. I can’t exonerate him totally from the suspicion of grandstanding – come on, would Blair really attempt to send a sitting Opposition MP to jail? – think of the PR- but even with that caveat, what Boris Johnson has done is admirable compared to the utterly craven capitulation to Goldmsith’s edict by the ‘broadsheet’ editors.
Let’s not forget that this isn’t just another nice juicy political scandal, ammunition to use against Bush & Blair. People are being extra-judicially murdered for just doing their jobs as journalists. All those people in that Al-Jazeera flickr album and writing on the blog and the unnamed and unpictured Al-J stringers all over the world risk their lives to report the facts. They all have homes and families and pets and lives and dreams and no-one has the right to take that away. As the FCC takes the view that we’re all journalists now, bloggers should show their solidarity by republishing the memo as soon as it becomes available.
You may be able to kill some of us – but you will never kill us all.”
