United States President George W Bush had planned to bomb pan-Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar as it infuriated Washington by reporting from behind rebel lines and broadcasting pictures of dead soldiers, private contractors and Iraqi victims, a British tabloid claimed on Tuesday.
But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash, the Mirror reported.
Bush disclosed his plan to target Al-Jazeera, a civilian station with a huge Middle-East following, at a White House face-to-face with Blair on April 16 last year, it claimed.
At the time, the US was launching an all-out assault on insurgents in the Iraqi town of Fallujah.
Quoting a source and a top secret No 10 Downing Street (Blair's residence) memo, the report said, "There is no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair did not want him to do it."
Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency. The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle-East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation, the report said.
"Bush made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem. There is no doubt what Bush wanted to do - and no doubt Blair did not want him to do it," a source told the tabloid.
A government official suggested that the Bush threat had been humorous, not serious.
But another source declared, "Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men."
According to the report, former Labour Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle had on Monday challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders' conversation.
"It is frightening to think that such a powerful man as Bush can propose such cavalier actions. I hope the prime minister insists this memo be published. It gives an insight into the mindset of those who were the architects of war."
Al-Jazeera's Headquarters is in the business district of Qatar's capital, Doha. Its single-storey building would have made an easy target for bombers. As it is situated away from residential areas, and more than 16 km from the US' desert base in Qatar, there would have been no danger of collateral damage.
Dozens of al-Jazeera staff at the HQ are not, as many believe, Islamic fanatics. Instead, most are respected and highly trained technicians and journalists. To have wiped them out would have been equivalent to bombing the BBC in London and the most spectacular foreign policy disaster since the Iraq war itself, the report said.
The 10 Downing Street 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.
