TNYT: The Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera urged Britain and the United States on Tuesday to investigate a British newspaper report that Prime Minister Tony Blair had dissuaded President Bush from bombing the station’s headquarters in the Persian Gulf.
Mr. Bush was said to have referred to the idea of bombing Al Jazeera’s studios in Qatar, a close Western ally, according to a document quoted Tuesday in The Daily Mirror. The tabloid said it was quoting from a leaked government memo said to contain a transcript of a conversation by Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004.
The Bush administration has frequently depicted Al Jazeera’s broadcasts as showing anti-American bias.
Scott McClellan, the White House spokesman, told The Associated Press via an e-mail message, “We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response.”