Al Jazeera reiterated its demand on 18 January for the disclosure of a memo alleging President Bush discussed plans to bomb Al Jazeera in a face to face meeting with Mr. Blair at the White House. This is in response to statements made yesterday by a spokesman for Mr. Blairs office insisting that the memo “doesn’t refer to bombing the al-Jazeera station in Qatar.” Peter Kilfoyle, a former UK Minister of Defence challenged 10 Downing Street to disclose the memo stating in an interview with the Daily Mirror that the comments by the PMs spokesman were stated to “deliberately cause confusion”. Mr. Kilfoyle went on to state that: “They are playing with words here and the only way to clear it up is to allow us to read it.” Mr. Kilfoyles statements are the latest in a series of criticisms of the Prime Ministers failure to publish the memo by people who say they have seen the memo.
Wadah Khanfar, Managing Director of Al Jazeera restated the right of Al Jazeera to view the memo: “In light of the latest remarks from the Prime Ministers spokesman and the comments by Mr. Kilfoyle we maintain our right to know the content of the memo and to know if Al Jazeeras name was mentioned and in what context. We are extremely concerned that the full information be disclosed and we are confident that this memo will have to be released to set the record straight. We will continue our efforts in consultation with our legal team.”
Al Jazeera filed a Freedom of Information Act request with 10 Downing Street, on January 12th, 2006 under Section 1(1) (b) of the Freedom of Information Act on behalf of Al Jazeera and its employees following legal consultation.