The Daily Mirror reported that Bush spoke of targeting Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar, when he met Blair at the White House on April 16, 2004. The Bush administration has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of being nothing more than a mouthpiece for anti-American sentiments.
Blair talked the President out of this according to the story.
There are two problems with this, of course.
First, why would we bomb a station in Qatar, which is an ally of ours?
Second, if we were going to bomb a station in an allied country that is a mouthpiece for anti-American sentiments it would have been the BBC we aimed for.
For the record:
"We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response," White House spokesman Scott McClellan told The Associated Press in an e-mail.
Al-Jazeera is not amused:
Al-Jazeera said in a statement that it was investigating the report. "If the report is correct then this would be both shocking and worrisome not only to Al-Jazeera but to media organizations across the world," it said.
Of course, if Al-Jazeera really believed Bush thought of bombing them, they wouldn't risk getting him mad my launching an investigation. We still have bombers.
Bush Derangement Syndrome manifests itself in sometimes amusing outbursts.
