Once is chance, twice is coincidence ...?

The UK government's suppression of a memo that purportedly contains a record of a conversation between Prime Minister Blair and President Bush is presently big news in the blogosphere. Since both governments refuse to comment, and the trials of those who leaked the memo will be held in secret, who knows how long it'll be before we find out what the memo actually says.

Reporters Without Borders, an international organization concerned with the defense of press freedom, has issued a statement. It's in French, and an English statement doesn't seem to have been posted. I translated it, though, and here are some interesting bits:

"We do not dare to believe that these actions were really considered by the American president. That would be extremely serious and constitute a major outrage without precedent against the right of all to information, RSF declared. To bomb a press agency, in a time of peace. would be incomprehensible and unacceptable. These suggestions, if they are proven, also present a new perspective on the motivations of the Americans forces who have already bombed the the locations of the Qatarian chain in two places, in Afghanistan and in Iraq." ...

For its part, the satellite network has indicated that it was investigating the facts cited by the Daily Mirror and the authenticity of the memo. The Qatarian network affirmed that it was awaiting a confirmation from Downing Street before drawing any conclusions. "If the report is correct, this would be worrisome and shocking, and would raise serious doubts about the American version of previous incidents involving attacks against the offices of the network," added Al-Jazeera.

The U.S. has accidentally bombed the Al-Jazeera offices in Baghdad and Kabul? You have to admit, it seems kind of suspicious.