I'll go to jail to print the truth about Bush and al-Jazeera

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

(note: this is written by Boris Johnson, Tory MP and editor of the right-wing magazine "The Spectator". It's also published in the right-wing paper "The Telegraph".)

(...)

Some of us feel that we have an abusive relationship with this war. Every time we get our hopes up, we get punched by some piece of bad news. We yearn to be told that we're wrong, that things are going to get better, that the glass is half full. That's why I would love to think that Dubya was just having one of his little frat-house wisecracks, when he talked of destroying the Qatar-based satellite TV station. Maybe he was only horsing around. Maybe it was a flippant one-liner, of the kind that he delivers before making one of his dramatic exits into the broom-closet. Perhaps it was a kind of Henry II moment: you know, who will rid me of this turbulent TV station? Maybe he had a burst of spacy Reagan-esque surrealism, like the time the old boy forgot that the mikes were switched on, and startled a press conference with the announcement that he was going to start bombing Russia in five minutes. Maybe Bush thought he was Kenny Everett. Perhaps he was playing Basil Brush. Boom boom.

Who knows? But if his remarks were just an innocent piece of cretinism, then why in the name of holy thunder has the British state decreed that anyone printing those remarks will be sent to prison?

We all hope and pray that the American President was engaging in nothing more than neo-con Tourette-style babble about blowing things up. We are quite prepared to believe that the Daily Mirror is wrong. We are ready to accept that the two British civil servants who have leaked the account are either malicious or mistaken. But if there is one thing that would seem to confirm the essential accuracy of the story, it is that the Attorney General has announced that he will prosecute anyone printing the exact facts.

(...)

If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public need to judge for themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. If we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for, and in an important respect we become as sick and as bad as our enemies.

http://www.opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2005/11/24/do2401.xml&sSheet=/opinion/2005/11/24/ixopinion.html

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Excellent! Good logic too.

[NMDemDist2]

2. K&R'd n/t

[Brundle_Fly]

3. Kudo's Boris

recommendation number 3

These Bozo's need a dose of reality and to have their walls torn down.

[gordianot]

4. Amazing the conservatives are willing to go up against Neo-Cons.

Neo-Cons are not traditional left or really on the right. These creatures do not really express any political interest other than self interest and domination.

[EuroObserver]

5. neo-cons aka. neo-fascists n/t

[glitch]

25. nobody likes fascists - not even other fascists.

what with all the self-loathing. :hi:

[IndianaGreen]

7. Anything that would damage Blair is good for the Tories

incidentally, anything that brings Blair down is also good for the world!

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

9. "The Spectator"'s political editor, Peter Oborne

presented a damning documentary on Iraq the other day:

"Peter Oborne, political editor of the Spectator, reports on the West's exit strategy for Iraq. He believes the invasion of Iraq is proving to be the greatest foreign policy failure since Munich. Oborne argues that the plan to transform Iraq into a unified liberal democracy, a beacon of hope in the Middle East, is pure fantasy. Reporting on location with US troops in Sadr City, and through interviews with leading figures in Britain and the US, Oborne argues that the coalition and its forces on the ground are increasingly irrelevant in determining the future of Iraq - a future that's unlikely to be either unified, liberal or democratic.

The film includes interviews with Richard Perle, Peter Galbraith, Deputy Chief of Army staff General Jack Keane. Oborne also interviews Rory Stewart, who worked as a deputy governor in Nasyriah and witnessed first hand the rise of the pro-Iranian fundamentalist parties that are now at the heart of the Iraqi government."

http://www.channel4.com/news/microsites/I/iraq_the_reckoning/index.html

You can watch/download it here (I can't vouch for the quality):
http://www.indybay.org/news/2005/11/1785055.php

[EuroObserver]

11. Since Munich! Not just since Suez!

ed: More background (work-in-progress) DU here: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5445445

[EuroObserver]

6. nice expression of anger:

<snip> (above source)

It must be said that subsequent events have not made life easy for those of us who were so optimistic as to support the war in Iraq. There were those who believed the Government's rubbish about Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction. Then the WMD made their historic no-show.

Some of us were so innocent as to suppose that the Pentagon had a well-thought-out plan for the removal of the dictator and the introduction of peace. Then we had the insurgency, in which tens of thousands have died.

Some of us thought it was about ensuring that chemical weapons could never again be used on Iraqi soil. Then we heard about the white phosphorus deployed by the Pentagon. Some people believed that the American liberation would mean the end of torture in Iraqi jails. Then we had Abu Ghraib.

Some of us thought it was all about the dissemination of the institutions of a civil society - above all a free press, in which journalists could work without fear of being murdered. Then we heard about the Bush plan to blow up al-Jazeera.

[garthranzz]

8. It's not about conservatives and liberals...

As I've said to many people, Shrub and company is not about conservatives vs. liberals. It's about truth vs. deception, trust vs. manipulation, leadership vs.the power grab. A true conservative respect the principles he disagrees with, as much as a true liberal does. From that respect comes progress.

[lvx35]

15. That can't be said enough.

If there was a Democrat in office who was corrupting the principles of the Democratic party I would want him out, I would want real representation. The conservatives should too.

[IndianaGreen]

10. About Boris... born in New York!

Boris Johnson was born in 1964 in New York, he was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford where he was President of the Union.

After being a trainee reporter with The Times and The Wolverhampton Express and Star he joined the Daily Telegraph in 1987, serving successively as a leader and feature writer, European Community correspondent and Assistant Editor. In 1999 he was appointed Editor of The Spectator.

Boris 's Experience

Boris fought Clwyd South in the 1997 General Election and is well-known as a writer and broadcaster. He was elected to represent Henley at the 2001 General Election.

He has previously served as a Vice-Chairman of the Conservative Party and as Shadow Minister for the Arts.

http://www.conservatives.com/tile.do?def=people.person.page&personID=4863

[roguevalley]

12. I hope he does. He also serves who sits in jail.

[jarnocan]

20. good point!

this is an important development, another piece to the puzzle, revealing the big picture of the Bush regime.
Thank you all involved in helping this come out. Would a petition help? We should consistantly demand to know more of the the truth.

[ewagner]

13. This could have been written

by our founding fathers. It strikes a patriotic and heroic stance much like we would have expected from Thomas Paine, or Ben Franklin or John Adams or even Sam Adams.

the words almost send chills:

If we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for, and in an important respect we become as sick and as bad as our enemies

[EuroObserver]

16. Yes indeed, sir or madam.

And, dare I say, to the degree that you (Americans) and we (Europeans) are prepared to endorse that statement, to that degree you (and we) shall be judged by the entire world.

ed. Nb. Boris Johnson is almost as nice/decent/honest/on-the-ball and genuine a latter-day Tory as is/was Chris Patten ;)

A few more people of such stature in their paty and I could almost bring myself to vote for them (if they'd let me vote), as against the Blair Newspeak-Labour clique...

[Briar]

14. Sometimes

it is very hard to dislike Boris Johnson.

I am glad he mentioned those two young women murdered when "we" bombed a tv station in Belgrade. They haunt the whole post Yugoslavian scene for me, and represent the first blood on Bliar's hands in my imagination.

But I would like to know why it is wrong for an Arab station to give an Arab slant on things. Who can watch the BBC and not detect a strong Western slant on things? If one is wrong, so is the other.

[EuroObserver]

17. "But I would like to know why

it is wrong for an Arab station to give an Arab slant on things."

--> Maybe this has something to do with the 'melting pot' theory of international relations as opposed to the 'multicultural' approach to the same?

[IChing]

18. I hope others who might get the memo will print it

I'm thinking that this is so damaging that they are afraid it might bring down
the Blair branch of Labour, let alone the damage it does to the govt. here.

We can only have a real thanksgiving anytime the truth is revealed.

I want to cook both of these turkeys,
until they are well done and have the press feast on this..

I hope someone comes forward.

[EuroObserver]

19. In this context someone with more free available disk space than I

may consider the present an opportune moment in which to download and archive the entire Hutton Inquiry web site (all subdirectories): http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/

Just in case B-)

Do it right now.

[Miss Chybil]

21. CNN? MSNBC? NYT? WP? Anybody? Anybody listening?

THIS is how it's done. Take some notes. Amen for Boris Johnson.

[progressoid]

22. Hell, just send it to a couple bloggers.

It only has to be posted on the web for a few minutes and the world would know.

[Neil Lisst]

23. Who would think in 2005 the US and UK govts. would be like this?

They have forgotten what our countries are all about.

Threatening citizens who out such terrible comments?!!

To quote Tennessee Williams, "f*#k them!"

[ClayZ]

24. Truthseeker!

[Pharaoh]

26. Here Here!

nominated!

The Evil bastards!

[mike_c]

27. "Sunlight is the best disinfectant."

Powerful words, and well spoken. Shine a light on these slime and they recoil back under their rocks. "It hurtssss us, it doesssss."