Blame Canada

Should an enterprising blogger beyond the reach of the Official Secrets Act decide to publish the contents of the classified British memo that underlie the claims that George Bush wanted to bomb al Jazeera headquarters in Qatar, there is a precedent that will ensure that this blogger receives enthusiastic support from the Right: their embrace of "Captain Ed" when he published secret Canadian documents that embarrassed the Canadian government. For instance, Glenn Reynolds offered his customary Heh-style support:

MORE CRUSHING OF DISSENT: Captain Ed has been Banned in Canada for his coverage of the Canadian political scandals [testimony to the Gomery Commission]. Canadian websites that link to him are threatened with prosecution.

Funny how our neighbors to the north lose their expansive view of international law when confronted with things like this:

>>[UN Human Rights declaration] Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.<<

Unless, you know, it's embarrassing to people in power or something.

Note, although it's sometimes hard to tell, Reynolds was being sarcastic with that last sentence. Unless of course some blogger really does get the Bush memo out, and then maybe he'll say he wasn't.

UPDATE: A more direct approach to getting the source document public -- Boris Johnson says in the Telegraph that he'll publish it if someone gives it to him:

The Attorney General's ban is ridiculous, untenable, and redolent of guilt. I do not like people to break the Official Secrets Act, and, as it happens, I would not object to the continued prosecution of those who are alleged to have broken it. But we now have allegations of such severity, against the US President and his motives, that we need to clear them up.

If someone passes me the document within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public need to judge for themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. If we suppress the truth, we forget what we are fighting for, and in an important respect we become as sick and as bad as our enemies.