Q Two more Middle East-related questions. I know you've been asked before about the so-called al Jazzier memo, but Europeans are making quite a big deal about it. Can you assure them that even if the President did say when he was elected said he was doing that in jest?
MR. McCLELLAN: Can I assure them what?
Q That if the President really did make those comments, he was doing so in jest?
MR. McCLELLAN: Make what comments?
Q About allegedly bombing al Jazeera --
MR. McCLELLAN: Any such notion that we would engage in that kind of activity is just absurd.
Q Well, do you know if the comments were made?
MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know what comments you're referring to. I haven't seen any comments quoted.
Q Somebody said that they had a memo, or that they took notes during --
MR. McCLELLAN: Let me just repeat for you, Connie. Any such notion that America would do something like that is absurd.
Q They bomb them in Afghanistan then -- their office.
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry? Whose offices? The terrorist offices.
Q We bombed their office in Afghanistan, and killed their -- some of their people in --
MR. McCLELLAN: And the military talked about that. What are you suggesting? I hope you're not suggesting that they're targeting civilians, because that's just flat-out wrong.
The terrorist offices???!!! Let's be clear on what happened. The al Jazeera office in Kabul, whose location was known to the U.S., was destroyed by a U.S. missile shortly before the Northern Alliance entered Kabul and began a campaign of reprisals, which were then less able to be reported to the outside world. The U.S. first claimed that a bomb must have gone "astray," and denied knowing the location of the al Jazeera office. But then they changed their tune and claimed that the office was a known headquarters for al Qaida.
And now, McClellan repeats that lie (and slander), equating the al Jazeera office in Kabul with "terrorist offices." Really, however, he needn't bother, since the U.S. has no problem openly attacking actual press offices. As even CNN reminds us (as Left I on the News has many times):
"During the 1999 air campaign over Kosovo, U.S. warplanes targeted Yugoslavia's state television network. NATO officials argued it was a legitimate target as the propaganda arm of the Yugoslav government."
Unlike Left I on the News, however, CNN failed to remind its readers that that act was a prima facie war crime. One which McClellan (and his bosses) are proud to embrace.
