Leader
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              The futility of secrecy
                  He's done it several times before on a smaller scale, so it seems eminently conceivable that George W Bush should want to finish the job properly. In November 2001, a US missile destroyed al-Jazeera's Kabul offices; in April 2003, coalition forces attacked the station's bases in Baghdad and Basra. Now the Daily Mirror reports that the US president told Tony Blair of his plans to bomb al-Jazeera's headquarters in Doha, capital of the emirate of Qatar. Downing Street, when asked to respond to the story, initially gave a non-committal response. Subsequently it warned editors that publication of the contents of documents relating to their discussion would be a breach of the Official Secrets Act.

The act, introduced in 1911, has a long history of stamping on free speech. Some of its current, and most restrictive, provisions date back to 1989 and the Thatcher administration. Clearly, all governments can legitimately point to the need for measures to preserve secrets relating to external, internal or military intelligence. Some previous prosecutions of former security service employees might have been legitimate in both the spirit and the letter of the law.

However, this government, with its particularly inglorious approach to veracity, seems to be interpreting its gagging powers more broadly to include political or diplomatic inconvenience. Thus the Cabinet Secretary seeks to tone down the memoirs of a former spin-doctor, fearing the embarrassment it would cause ministers. Now the Attorney General - a man whose equivocations about the legality of the Iraq war have made him one of the least distinguished holders of that office - has broadened his remit to classify as secret any piece of information damaging to his boss's closest ally. The latest move is as absurd as it will prove counter- productive, ensuring maximum exposure across the world.

Al-Jazeera has been more effective than any terrorist group or Middle Eastern leader in challenging the US government's self-image. Its Arabic-language service has a global reach of tens of millions, with production values as high as the other major players - CNN, BBC and Sky. The station is now the sole provider of television footage inside Iraq and other places where it is too dangerous for western camera crews to operate. From March it will finally achieve its ambitions by launching its English-language service. It is no wonder, therefore, that Bush has accused it of disseminating "hateful propaganda", while David Blunkett once described al-Jazeera as being "linked" to Saddam Hussein's regime - only a week after it won an Index on Censorship award for its independent journalism in the region.

For the station there are important issues at stake: issues of taste - how should violent images be aired? Issues of principle - should videotaped messages from suicide bombers be broadcast? There are many challenges for governments and media organisations on how best to deal with groups that allow notions of grievance to become incitements to terrorism.

Al-Jazeera is in a different league. It is an indispensable alternative voice. The more powerful it becomes, the more it has to ask itself difficult questions. As for us in the west, we can no longer ignore it, nor can we bomb it out of existence.



Has Labour lost its heart?

In their lives, and particularly in their deaths, two members of Tony Blair's cabinet have achieved iconic status. The tribute to Mo Mowlam on 20 November, with a cast list as eclectic as Patrick Kielty, Lulu, Robbie Williams, Bertie Ahern and Hillary Clinton, showed the breadth and depth of her appeal. Few of our current crop of politicians possess the personality of this brilliant but flawed woman. Robin Cook's memorial service on 5 December will be a different occasion. There will be no medleys by Four Poofs and a Piano about penises. Instead, the great and the good will line up in their black suits at St Margaret's Church, Westminster to pay homage to a man of unrivalled political rigour whose influence was increasing before his untimely passing.

Amid the genuine sadness, there has also been some in- sincerity, or wishful thinking, in the eulogies to these two figures. Mowlam did play a very important role in the mid- to late 1990s in showing the people of Northern Ireland that they could improve their lot. The briefings against her from Downing Street helped to undermine her standing among the unionists. But, if truth be told, Ulster politics, as John O'Farrell points out on page 14, is not a place for romantics. And for all her shoes-off swearing, Mowlam was such a romantic.

In spite of their different personalities, Mowlam and Cook had more in common than many realise. Their opposition to the Iraq war ensured that they became leading lights in the large group now dubbed Labour-in-exile.

Yet the misfortune for the party is that these two politicians were initially more Blairite than Blair. Mowlam had little time for old Labour shibboleths. But, unlike Blair, she was keen to change the manner in which politics was conducted. Cook, too, embraced much of the radicalism that Blair personified in those days. He saw electoral reform as just one element in the vital task of rejuvenating public confidence in politics. That task is more elusive than before.
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