So what does a poodle and a stopped clock have to do with this?
This is a picture of folks at work at al-Jazeera.
The 
would be Tony Blair.*
And the “stopped clock” story would be this: that he talked Bush out of bombing al-Jazeera.
The five-page transcript of a conversation between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair reveals that Blair talked Bush out of launching a military strike on the station, unnamed sources told the daily which is against the war in Iraq.
The transcript of the pair’s talks during Blair’s April 16, 2004 visit to Washington allegedly shows Bush wanted to attack the satellite channel’s headquarters.
Blair allegedly feared such a strike, in the business district of Doha, the capital of Qatar, a key western ally in the Persian Gulf, would spark revenge attacks.
You really must read the entire story, but do remember this:
The newspaper (The Daily Mirror) said that the memo “casts fresh doubt on claims that other attacks on al-Jazeera were accidents”. It cited the 2001 direct hit on the channel’s Kabul office.
Let’s now turn to the The Daily Mirror.
The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors.
In 2001 the station’s Kabul office was knocked out by two “smart” bombs. In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station’s Baghdad centre.
Also read this to get a brief history on al-Jazeera, a related story in the Mirror. It’s useful to remember that “U.S. officials once praised al-Jazeera” for “balanced reporting.”
Until, of course, they started reporting stories the Bush administration didn’t like.
Well, hey–Tony Blair is useful for something after all.
Cross-posted at Liberal Street Fighter
*This in no way implies that nearly all poodles aren’t intelligent animals. Only the two-legged version do I have questions about.
