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Investigate "Downing Street Memo"
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Progressive Portal
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May 30, 2005 14:11 PDT
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TOP-SECRET REPORT TO TONY BLAIR SAYS "INTELLIGENCE AND FACTS
WERE BEING FIXED AROUND THE POLICY" TO INVADE IRAQ
[From Conyers for Congress <http://www.johnconyers.com>]
A previously top-secret British government memorandum published in the
Sunday Times (Britain) on 1 May 2005 provides first-hand, official
confirmation of what many have long suspected: The Bush administration
had made a decision to attack Iraq months before the President sought
Congressional authority to engage in military action and before the U.S.
went to the United Nations claiming to seek a diplomatic solution. The
memo also reports that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed
around the policy" of war even as Bush continued to tell the American
people he was "looking at all the options" and "hope[d] the use of force
will not become necessary."
Known now as the "Downing Street Memo," the document - the official
minutes of a meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair's senior
foreign policy and security officials on 23 Jul 2002 - records the
observations of Sir Richard Dearlove, then head of MI6 (the British
equivalent of the CIA), who had just returned from talks with his
counterparts in Washington.
Publication of the document, which also records the doubts of British
leaders about the legality of the war, set off a furor in Britain and
elsewhere. But the American press initially ignored and later downplayed
it, the corporate TV networks still haven't given it any serious
attention, and most of official Washington has simply ignored it.
Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has written a letter to Bush demanding that he
explain the contradictions between the memo's contents and the
administration's statements at the time. At least 88 other members of
Congress have cosigned the letter, and Conyers is seeking 100,000
signatures from the public.
A large number of signatures will encourage the media and others in
Congress to take seriously the issues raised by the document.
Take Action
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1. Demand coverage of the "Downing Street Memo" and its significance by
the corporate news networks:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2520
2. Sign on to Conyers's letter to Bush at:
http://tinyurl.com/bnz7t
More Information
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A site dedicated to the "Downing Street memo," including the full text,
related stories, and other resources:
http://www.downingstreetmemo.com
The original expose on the memo, from the Sunday Times (Britain) of 1
May 2005:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1592724,00.html
Commentary on the significance of the memo by former CIA analyst Ray
McGovern:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/proof_bush_fixed_the_facts.php
A detailed analysis of the memo by Mark Danner in the New York Review of
Books:
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/18034
Analyses of the U.S. media's slow reaction to the memo:
http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2511
http://mediamatters.org/items/200505200007#2
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0517/dailyUpdate.html
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000920839
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