WTF?

Let me see if I've got this straight.

The Daily Mirror reports that a leaked British government document says that George Bush wanted to bomb Al Jazeera, the Arabic television station. Other media outlets pick up the report.

The British government quickly warns media organizations that they are breaking the law if they publish details of the leaked document.

When asked about the report, White House spokesman Scott McClellan says, "We are not interested in dignifying something so outlandish and inconceivable with a response," which just happens to be the same tactic Bush used to dodge questions about his past cocaine use.

However, the Bush administration has accused Al Jazeera of spreading anti-American sentiment, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld "has called Al Jazeera's coverage 'outrageous' and 'inexcusably biased' and implied that he'd like to see the satellite channel thrown out of Iraq." And in November 2003, two Al Jazeera journalists were arrested and treated to Abu Grahib's world-famous hospitality.

In addition, Al Jazeera's Kabul office was hit by U.S. bombs in 2001. And in 2003, Al Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a U.S. strike on Al Jazeera's Baghdad office. In both instances, the United States denied targeting the station.

To me, the British government's warning to the media seems too strange and extreme a step to take if the report was wrong. The British government didn't resort to issuing warnings to media outlets even when details of the famous Downing Street Memo were published. And I'm not going to buy that the British government is just trying to make sure the media have the story right, a la the supposed helping hand Karl Rove extended to Matt Cooper. (Remember that whopper?) To me, it seems like a very unusual and desperate attempt to keep the facts hidden. And I'm not the only one who finds it suprising. According to Reuters,

Kevin Maguire, the Mirror's associate editor, said government officials had given no indication of any legal problems with the story when contacted before publication.

"We were astonished, 24 hours later, to be threatened with the Official Secrets Act and to be requested to give various undertakings to avoid being injuncted," he told BBC radio.

So, after the report is pubished, the British government takes the unprecedented step of trying to chill the media by warning them that they would be breaking the law if they published details of the leaked document, and the "plain talking" White House issues a non-denial denial. Does that lead you to believe that the reports about the document are true or false?

If you said true, then you believe that George Bush wanted to bomb a media outlet based in Qatar, a nation friendly to the United States.

Unsettling, isn't it?