According to broadsheet reports, Labour MP George Galloway was about to return from a holiday in Portugal in order to appear on the programme when his invitation was withdrawn without explanation.

Galloway would have sat next to former America Ambassador Philip Lader on the prime time panel and would have been quick to lay the blame for the tragedy on the White House front door.

Despite Mr Galloway's absence, enforced by an anonymous BBC insider, the hand picked, heavily pro-Arab public audience bombarded Lader with critical remarks and accusations.

Within a matter of hours the BBC was under a siege of telephone complaints, numbering over 700, from viewers sympathetic to either America and/or the victims. One such irate viewer fumed, "More than half the audience seemed to be anti-American, which is hardly representative, and they were saying that the American foreign policy had led to what happened - It was provocative."

On the day the same furious viewers laid flowers and messages of support beneath the FD Roosevelt statue in London, (in front of the US Embassy in Grosvenor Square) the BBC had issued a statement defending the programme, "We decided that it would be appropriate to have a short debate to see the range of opinions."

Director General Greg Dyke then sent a letter of apology to the former ambassador, who was visibly hurt by one comment stating why everyone "hated" America so much, before publicly apologising for the programme on Saturday.

Mr Lader later stated how shocked he was that members of his country's supposed closest ally could have such strong anti-American opinions.

Dyke then sent a blanket email to the entire BBC staff apologising for apologising, "When I joined the BBC I made it very clear that I believed that if we made a mistake we should say so and apologise. On Thursday we made a mistake so I apologised on behalf of the BBC."

Later in the long message he explained his actions, "I did it partly because of the unprecedented number of complaints we received from viewers of the programme, but also because when I looked at the tape, I genuinely believed the programme was inappropriate coming just two days after such an appalling tragedy."

He ended with, "Please don't confuse my apology on Saturday with any suggestion that we shouldn't remain strictly impartial or that we shouldn't ask difficult questions when appropriate. Greg."