Al-Jazeera Attack?

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Now some fresh pickings from the Political Grapevine:

A British government official has been charged with leaking a top secret memo, allegedly revealing that President Bush planned to bomb the headquarters of Arab satellite TV network Al-Jazeera.

The Daily Mirror reports that the memo details a White House sit-down with British Prime Minister Tony Blair last April and supposedly shows that Blair warned the president that bombing the territory of a key U.S. ally would provoke a worldwide backlash. One source tells the paper that the memo is "highly explosive and hugely damaging." But a government official says the president's threat was "humorous, not serious."

Darned If You Don't...

Speaking of Tony Blair, environmental groups have blasted the British prime minister for not doing enough to combat global warming. But now, some environmental advocates are criticizing a government proposal that would force oil companies to include bio-fuels made from corn, sugar cane, or vegetable oil in their gasoline by 2010 — since increased production of the fuels could destroy the rainforest.

Related

"Friends of the Earth" says that the bio-fuels might come from "genetically modified crops or palm oil from freshly cleared rainforests." The group is calling for assurances that bio-fuel production doesn't damage the countryside, destroy the rainforests, or promote intensive farming of genetically modified crops.

‘Big Bang’?

MSNBC host Chris Matthews says President Bush invaded Iraq because "he wanted a big bang" in the War on Terror. What's more, the Toronto Sun reports that during the speech to political science students at the University of Toronto, Matthews said the administration shouldn't demonize terrorists, saying, "the person on the other side is not evil — they just have a different perspective."

Suicide Bombers & Harry Truman?

Meanwhile, "Slaughterhouse Five" author Kurt Vonnegut is now defending terrorists, equating the actions of suicide bombers with Harry Truman's decision to drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Vonnegut tells The Australian that terrorists are "very brave people," who "are dying for their own self respect," and says the anticipation of dying for their cause "must be an amazing high."

— FOX News' Aaron Bruns contributed to this report

See Political Grapevine Archive

ADVERTISEMENT

FOX NEWS VIDEOS



uASK|uREPORT

INTERVIEW

Blog Postings


  • Lies, spies and .summits
    Seven Democratic members of the Intelligence Committee wrote CIA director Leon Panetta a letter to ask him to “publicly correct” a statement he made saying that it is not ” the policy or practice of the agency to mislead Congress.” The Democrats say Panetta told Congress that senior CIA officials concealed actions and misled lawmakers [...]

    read post
  • Stimulus the sequel, public option, Palin 2012??, and .the direction of media coverage
    In an interview with Fox News, President Obama said a second stimuluscould still be an option—Major Garrett sat down with the President today in Moscow. President Obama said that he was aware that given the economic crisis recovery would prove to be difficult no matter what, but that unemployment was nearing 10% and he was [...]

    read post
  • Agreements, protests turned deadly andcomedian turned politican (finally)
    President Obama met with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev today in Moscow and both menpledged they were on a path to “reset” ties between the United States and Russia. The two leaders signed a statement to reduceeach country’snuclear arsenals. President Obama and President Medvedev held a joint news conference in which Medvedev said his talks with [...]

    read post
twitter
ADVERTISEMENT