War Is A Crime .org

washingtonpost.com
By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 7, 2005; 9:18 AM

More than a month after its publication, the so-called Downing Street Memo remains among the top 10 most viewed articles on The Times of London site.

How do we find Bush in order to ask him about the Downing Street Minutes - or even to stage a peaceful nonviolent demonstration? Check his schedule below!

Tuesday, June 7, 2005
*NEW DETAILS: BUSH in Washington DC, 3:25 pm: THE PRESIDENT meets with the
Prime Minister of the
United Kingdom, Oval Office, The White House, STILLS AT TOP A spokesman said
the two will discuss Iraq and Afghanistan, weapons proliferation and
security issues in the Middle East. [The Morning Grind, 6/1/05; White House,
6/705]

*NEW: BUSH in Washington DC, 4:45 pm: THE PRESIDENT participates in a Joint

HUME: When we come back with our panel, the memo that the left says the U.S. media won't talk about it. Well, we'll talk about it, next.

HUME: We're back with our panel.

It is regarded on the anti-war left as proof positive that President Bush intended from the start to go to war in Iraq and rigged American intelligence to support the case. It is called the Downing Street Memo, and it is such a focal point now that it even has its own Web site, www.downingstreetmemo.com.

Mort, what is the Downing Street Memo?

KONDRACKE: Well, the Downing Street Memo was an account of a secret...

Gilroy Dispatch, Monday, June 06, 2005
Dear Editor,
In the wake of this Memorial Day, I was reminded of the duties that all Americans have toward you, our soldiers in the field. I was especially struck and with the sense of that duty after being reminded of the huge concerns that we continue to have toward this destructive war in Iraq.

By Robert Parry

The clues are falling into place, pointing to the incontrovertible judgment that George W. Bush willfully misled the United States into invading Iraq, in part, by eliminating the possibility of the peaceful solution that he pretended to want.

Many of the clues have been apparent for three years � and some were reported in outlets such as our own Consortiumnews.com in real time � but only recently have new revelations clarified this obvious reality for the slow-witted mainstream U.S. news media.

The latest piece of the puzzle was reported by Charles J. Hanley of the Associated Press in an article on June 4 describing how Bush�s Undersecretary of State John Bolton orchestrated the ouster of global arms control official Jose Bustani in early 2002 because Bustani�s Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons [OPCW] was making progress toward getting arms inspectors back into Iraq.

By Media Matters for America

On the June 5 edition of NBC's Meet the Press, moderator Tim Russert questioned but failed to correct Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman's claim that the "findings" of the Downing Street Memo, a secret British intelligence memo suggesting that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to support its case for war in Iraq, "have been totally discredited by everyone who's looked at it," including the 9-11 Commission and the Senate.

In fact, neither the 9-11 Commission nor the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence addressed the Bush administration's use of pre-war intelligence.

Bush officials mum despite calls for answers on Brit report
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER, San Mateo County Times

It's been more than a month since The Times of London published a secret British government memo from mid-2002 describing the Bush administration's resolve to invade Iraq whether it posed a threat or not.
It's been about a month since 89 House Democrats � including six from the Bay Area � asked the president to explain himself in light of this memo.

And it's been almost three weeks since the White House press secretary said that isn't going to happen.

By Sean Gonsalves - Cape Cod Times

06.07.05 - Last week's big news story provides us with an alluring phrase to muse over.

As you probably already know, "Deep Throat" was the key anonymous source for Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who broke the "Watergate" story that led to the downfall of President Nixon.

Woodward and Bernstein borrowed the phrase from the title of a popular porno flick of the 1970s, featuring Linda Lovelace.

The film brought in over a half billion dollars and, according to Lovelace's autobiography, she never saw a penny of that money. Even worse, in her autobiography Out of Bondage, she said the movie was actually a film of her rape because, she claimed, her husband at that time forced her to do the movie at gunpoint, according to the Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins (Third Edition).

Byron Williams - byronspeaks.com

06.07.05 - I was sitting at my local coffee hangout the day after it was revealed that 91-year-old W. Mark Felt, who was second-in-command at the FBI in the early 1970s, was the confidential source named "Deep Throat" that led to Watergate becoming a household name.

The individual sitting adjacent to me suggested that we need another Deep Throat today so that the world might know of possible shenanigans within the present White House administration.

I wondered privately: "Is that really necessary or possible?"

By The Record, NorthJersey.com

ALTHOUGH it shook Britain on the eve of Prime Minister Tony Blair's reelection last month, the "Downing Street memo" hasn't received much attention in this country.

It should.

The memo summarized the minutes of a July 2002 meeting of Mr. Blair's inner circle, including his defense secretary, foreign secretary and head of intelligence, to discuss U.S. plans for invading Iraq - assuming that British forces would take part.

The memo reveals this about the coming war:

Eight months before the invasion began, President Bush had already made up his mind to wage war on Iraq, even though he told the American people it would be a last resort.

From Orwell's Grave

On May 1, 2005, the Times of London released the Downing Street Memo. Since then, while it is true that the White House has been "mum" about this revealing memo, it is also true, and much more disturbing, that the White House press corps has been all-but silent.

Congressman Conyers asked for 100,000 signatures on his letter to Bush asking for a reply to the devastating revelations of the Downing Street Minutes. Over 100,000 people quickly responded. So, Conyers decided to ask for 250,000. The total now stands at 145,000. That means we need to find another 106,000 Americans who have not heard about this yet (I'm allowing for 1,000 who will love Bush so much they won't want to know whether he sent 100,000 people to their deaths on the basis of a lie.) Click HERE.

A great summary of Bush's lies:

By Warningwill Robinson, DailyKos

On Friday Ralph Nader had a piece in the Boston Globe calling for a national discussion about whether Bush should be impeached.
Now I don't think he will be, but I do think that pressing the point that he should be could be key into taking the wind out of his sails, and could make the difference on things like upcoming SCOTUS battles.

When Blair meets with Bush tomorrow, any reporter who asks the president about the Downing Street minutes may be able to collect a reward: see rules below.

By STEVE COBBLE, The Nation
[posted online on June 6, 2005]

It's not exactly a news flash that the Bush Administration lied to the public before the invasion of Iraq.

By Steve Bhaerman

I think we have a great opportunity to create a breakthrough in press coverage of the notorious Downing Street Memo, the

By Arianna Huffington

As expected, the latest edition of Meet the Press, featuring RNC chair Ken Mehlman, was another classic example of why host Tim Russert is fast becoming journalism�s answer to the �E-ZPass,� those electronic tags that allow drivers to go through toll booths without having to stop.

On the show today, Mehlman was allowed to distort, twist, manipulate, obfuscate and "disassemble" his way through every stop on the disinformation highway.

The key to the E-ZPass method, as HuffPost reader Paul Harry points out, is no follow-ups -- or lame follow-ups quickly abandoned. And Mehlman is a master at dealing with those. His technique? Just repeat or slightly rephrase his talking point, and trust that Russert will give up, wave him on, and proceed to the next prepared question.

By Institute for Public Accuracy

Two days before Tony Blair's scheduled Tuesday meeting with President Bush in Washington, the chairman of the Republican National Committee faced questioning on NBC's "Meet the Press" about the festering Downing Street Memo scandal.

Tim Russert said: "This was a memo, July 23, 2002, from the head of British intelligence to Prime Minister Blair; in effect, notes taken from a briefing that was given to Prime Minister Blair after the head of British intelligence came back from a trip to Washington. It says this: '[The head of British Intelligence] reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.'"

The BBC has produced a documentary that US television news producers might want to learn from. Although aired weeks before the Sunday Times broke the story of the Downing Street Minutes, this program discussed those minutes without naming them.

BBC documentary "Iraq, Tony and the truth?" broadcast on BBC on March 20, 2005.

BBC page:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/panorama/4332485.stm

Transcript:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/programmes/panorama/transcripts/iraqtonyandthetruth.txt

Bush officials mum despite calls for answers on Brit report
The Argus, CA, By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER

It's been more than a month since The Times of London published a secret British government memo from mid-2002 describing the Bush administration's resolve to invade Iraq whether it posed a threat or not.
It's been about a month since 89 House Democrats � including six from the Bay Area � asked the president to explain himself in light of this memo.

And it's been almost three weeks since the White House press secretary said that isn't going to happen.

Ralph Nader discussed the Downing Street Minutes on C-Span's Washington Journal on June 6.

Where can we find Bush and administration officials in order to ask them about the Downing Street Minutes, or even to organize peaceful non-violent protests? Check the schedule below!

Monday, June 6, 2005

BUSH in Fort Lauderdale, FL, 11:45 am: THE PRESIDENT makes remarks at the Opening of the Organization of American States General Assembly, Greater Fort Lauderdale/Broward County Convention Center, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, OPEN PRESS [White House, 5/27/05]

BUSH in Washington DC, 5:00 pm: THE PRESIDENT makes remarks at the White House Black Music Month Reception, South Lawn, The White House OPEN PRESS [White House, 5/27/05]

By Ted Glick

There is no question that former top FBI guy Mark Felt's decision to provide information to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward in the early '70s was one important part of what led to Richard Nixon's eventual resignation from office in August of 1974. But, not surprisingly, the corporate media have left out the decisive factor which led to that result: the sentiments and the actions of the U.S. American people at the grassroots.

From the fall of 1973 to the fall of 1974 I was one of the national coordinators of the National Campaign to Impeach Nixon (NCIN). Over the course of a few short months, this effort grew to include working local contacts in 33 states and over 100 cities and towns. During the three months of February, March and April of 1974, we organized a national lobby-in in Washington, D.C., a national conference in Chicago and a national demonstration of 10,000 people in D.C. on April 27th that received widespread media coverage.

The Columbian (Vancouver, Washington), June 3, 2005 Friday
By GREGG HERRINGTON Columbian staff writer

Maybe it's presumptuous to attempt to describe where America's collective head is on any given day, other than those awful 9/11-type moments of national coming together. But I'm going to try anyway:

We're behaving the same way about Iraq that we act individually when faced with an unpleasant situation and ignore it in hopes it'll go away.

We're like a nervous father who doesn't risk alienating a teenage son by confronting him about his poor choice of friends, late hours and slipping grades. We're the wife who doesn't confront her husband about his increased drinking.

KONDRACKE: OK, well, Fred, it's time for the tip sheet, and we'll see if you can burst this bubble. OK.

Item one, your hero, British Prime Minister Tony Blair, is going to visit President Bush next week in Washington.

Duluth News-Tribune (Minnesota), June 5, 2005 Sunday
SECTION: EDIT
Ethics issues by EVE BROWNING

In a document known as the Downing Street Memo, released by the London Times in early May, evidence is given the George W. Bush and Tony Blair spoke frankly about cooking the intelligence reports on Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, to make them appear to justify a war effort.

Ah, Watergate! Those were the good old days! Last week the identity of "Deep Throat" was revealed at last. Former FBI official W. Mark Felt stepped forward at the age of 91 to admit he provided inside information to the media concerning the misdeeds of the Nixon administration.

By Molly Ivins

San Gabriel Valley Tribune (San Gabriel Valley, CA)
June 6, 2005 Monday, SECTION: OPINION

AS a longtime fan of both George Bushes' eccentric grasp of English, I naturally enjoyed this gem from W.: "See, in my line of work, you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.'

[Bush in Greece, N.Y., May 24, once more explaining his Social Security plan to a town hall meeting of perfectly average citizens, except they had all been pre- screened to allow only those who agree with him into the hall.]

Los Angeles Times, June 6, 2005 Monday, Home Edition
SECTION: CALIFORNIA; Metro; Editorial Pages Desk; Part B; Pg. 10

Re "Making Movie Love," editorial, June 2: Did you really mean to put this fluff on the editorial page? This junk belongs in the tabloids, not on the editorial page of a major newspaper.

How about talking more about the Downing Street memo of July 2002? This document has world-shattering implications.

But maybe that is exactly why the fluff appeared on your editorial page. Another red herring to distract us.

Christina Waldeck

By Democracy Now!

The fallout from the revelation of a secret meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior national security team appears to be growing.

We take a look at the so-called "Downing Street Memo" which reveals how the former director of the British intelligence agency, MI6, told Prime Minister Tony Blair that the U.S. had already made plans to attack Iraq as early as July 2002.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It was marked "Secret and strictly personal - UK eyes only." That was the header of the Downing Street memo that exposed a meeting in July 2002 between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior national security team. The text to the minutes of the secret briefing was published by the Sunday Times of London last month.

A BUZZFLASH EDITORIAL
Before America went to war with Afghanistan, another war was underway -- against its own people: the war to deceive American into attacking Iraq. This is no longer a theory or conjecture; it is a documented fact.

Those in the Mainstream Media, including the New York Times and Washington Post, who choose to ignore this reality, or couch it in qualifying terms (such as "unproven assertions") are no longer trying to debunk a conspiracy, because the deliberate deception that forced America into war with Iraq is not a conspiracy theory.

In fact, the evidence is so abundant and damning, it is those who deny the reality that the Bush Administration intentionally deceived America into a ruinous war based on calculated lies who are part of an untenable conspiracy theory. Yes, the Mainstream Media is right up there with the Raelists (if you recall them, they were a cult the media covered for days because the press believed their unfounded claims that they had cloned a human) when it comes to believability. Their job appears to be to create a conspiracy of credibility around Bush going to war, where none can exist to a person of common sense or integrity.