You know something juicy is going to be dispensed when the Judge orders journalists and members of the public out of the court and carries on behind closed doors.
Such was the state of affairs at the trial of two Civil Servants accused of breaching the Official Secrets Act after leaking a conversation between George W Bush & Tony Blair to an anti-war MP.
The prosecution has called it 'potentially life threatening' while the defence has said that it would destroy the reputations of both men involved. The judge agreed that its contents were so sensitive that the press could not report what was said.
The defence has described the contents as "abhorrent" and "illegal" and would exposed Mr Bush as a "madman".
The Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, claimed the disclosure of the document would have a "serious negative impact" on UK-US diplomatic relations.
The media are today arguing for a lift in the restrictions but the current thinking from journalists I have spoken to today is that there were plans to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in Qatar. If true, fresh doubts will resurface over claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors.
In 2001 the station's Kabul office was 'accidently' knocked out by two bombs. In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in another 'accidental' missile strike on the station's Baghdad centre.
3 comments:
It is understandable that sometimes, a government needs to keep some secrets. There is a point, however, when to much secrecy in government is detrimental to a free society, and we have been in that realm since day 1 of the Bush administration.
The memo would expose Mr Bush as a madman? I think we know that already, memo or no memo...
What an insult to all self-respecting madmen!
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