2 Britons Go On Trial Over Leaked Bush Wanting To Bomb Al-Jazeera Memo
2 Britons go on trial over leaked memo in which Bush reportedly referred to bombing Al-Jazeera
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/w...l-jazeera.html
By David Stringer
ASSOCIATED PRESS
11:17 a.m. April 18, 2007
LONDON – A British government official and a former political researcher went on trial Wednesday for allegedly leaking a classified memo in which President Bush reportedly referred to bombing the Arab television station Al-Jazeera.
David Keogh, 50, a cipher expert, and Leo O'Connor, 44, a lawmaker's aide, are accused of violating secrecy laws by disclosing a document relating to 2004 talks between Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair. Both defendants deny violating the Official Secrets Act.
Prosecutors allege Keogh passed the memo to O'Connor in May 2004, who in turn placed it in a file he handed to his boss, Tony Clarke, then a legislator who had voted against Britain's decision to join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
The Daily Mirror newspaper previously reported that the memo noted Blair had argued against Bush's suggestion of bombing Al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, Qatar. The Daily Mirror said its sources disagreed on whether Bush's suggestion was serious.
Blair said he had no information about any proposed U.S. action against Al-Jazeera, and the White House called the claims “outlandish and inconceivable.”
In his opening remarks, prosecutor David Perry did not mention the memo's contents, but said jurors would see the document during parts of the trial that would be closed to the public because of the sensitivity of the contents.
The document, marked “Secret-Personal,” was intended to be restricted to senior officials and was written by a Blair adviser, he said.
Keogh and O'Connor put the lives of troops in Iraq at risk because the memo contained defense data, Perry said.
Bush and Blair met in Washington on April 16, 2004, while the Coalition Provisional Authority was acting as administrator in postwar Iraq against what Perry said was “the background of the insurgency.”
“We live in a democratic society, not the Wild West,” the prosecutor told the court. “It is not for people to decide they are going to be the sheriff in town.”
Keogh worked at a government communications bunker handling sensitive documents and intelligence, Perry said. The unit relayed information to diplomats overseas via encrypted or secure methods.
Perry said Keogh received a faxed copy of the memo to send on to an official, but duplicated it unlawfully before doing so and later passed the document to O'Connor.
Clarke, who is no longer a lawmaker, alerted authorities when he discovered the memo among the paperwork from O'Connor.
Britain's Foreign Office said Keogh is suspended pending the outcome of the case.
Prosecutors said the trial would likely last two to three weeks.
