The Guardian reports:
The two MPs decided in October 2004 to reveal the contents of the transcript of the Blair-Bush meeting to John Latham, a Democrat supporter living in San Diego, California. They hoped to influence the impending 2004 US election, Mr Kilfoyle said.
In San Diego, Mr Latham, 71, a retired electrical engineer and a “contributing member” to the Democrat National Committee, told the Guardian that the MPs also wanted him to send letters with the information to newspapers in Los Angeles and New York. At a meeting at the House of Commons, he had been introduced to Mr Clarke by Mr Kilfoyle. Mr Latham, a British expatriate, and Mr Kilfoyle had attended the same school.
Mr Latham said he had never met Mr Clarke before. He added: “He mentioned that the document was a transcript of a meeting in Washington DC between Bush and Blair. There had been a proposal to take military action against al-Jazeera at their headquarters in Qatar. This was defused by Colin Powell, US secretary of state, and Tony Blair.”
Mr Latham decided not to write to US newspapers at the time, in October 2004. As a result, details of the Washington meeting between Mr Bush and Mr Blair remained secret for more than a year. Within days of the charges being brought against Mr Keogh and Mr O’Connor, the contents of the memo were, however, passed on again, this time to the Daily Mirror, which put them on its front page.
As yet, Labour MP for Liverpool Walton and former defence minister Peter Kilfoyle and former Labour MP for Northampton South Tony Clarke have not been charged with any crime or been approached by “Her Majesty’s finest” about their involvement. Cabinet Office employee David Keogh and Clarke’s researcher Leo O’Connor, to whom Keogh leaked the information, are both “due to appear in court tomorrow for committal hearings.”
That Blair and Powell needed to “defuse” Bush should be the focal point of this matter, not whether concerned MPs who attempted to reveal his instability should be prosecuted. As for Blair, he should be answering for his own crimes.