The Arabist

The Arabist

By Issandr El Amrani and friends.

Al Jazeera to sue Britain for transcript

Good luck to them:
Yosri Fouda, an investigative reporter and acting Al-Jazeera bureau chief in London, told The Associated Press the network had hired Finers Stephens Innocent LLP in an "attempt to put pressure on the British government" to hand over part of the record of the conversation.

"We would like to know the truth," Fouda said in a telephone interview. The news channel, which is highly popular throughout the Middle East, wanted to "set the record straight" concerning the Bush-Blair conversation.

Fouda said the network was only asking for a transcription of "the ten lines" of the conversation that purportedly involved the Doha, Qatar-based Al-Jazeera, conceding that Britain's desire to keep the rest of the conversation secret was understandable as a matter of state security.


Knowing how frequently leaks take place in Britain (partly due to a politicized civil service) and the political ammo this could be to David Cameron's new US-skeptic Tory party, I wonder why the transcript hasn't already been leaked.