Richard Norton-Taylor (Extracted from "Legal gag on Bush-Blair war row", The Guardian, 23 November 2005)

"The attorney general last night threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents of a document allegedly relating to a dispute between Tony Blair and George Bush over the conduct of military operations in Iraq.

It is believed to be the first time the Blair government has threatened newspapers in this way. Though it has obtained court injunctions against newspapers, the government has never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked documents, including highly sensitive ones about the run-up to the invasion of Iraq."

[Ed According to BBC Newsnight last night this document, among other things, refers to a Bush proposal of a year ago to bomb the Al Jazeera TV station in Qatar. Apparently, Tony Blair managed on this occasion to drag Bush back from this. American forces have managed to disguise previous attacks on Al Jazeera news stations in Baghdad and Kabul as "accidents" but even thinking about this proposal for an attack on reputable journalists in an independent country reveals a new level of madness by the Bush administration.]