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Kerry Questions Media Silence on Downing Street Minutes
Senator John Kerry has questioned the media silence on the Downing Street Minutes.
The Standard Times reports:
Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday called on Americans to be more aware of the "bait and switch" Iraq war and the "hollowing out" of the Army in the pursuit of a mistaken policy.
In a swing through SouthCoast, the 2004 Democratic presidential nominee attacked the priorities of the Republican Party and President Bush, elaborating on what they are sacrificing -- health care for children, infrastructure, Social Security -- in the pursuit of tax cuts.
"The Holy Grail of the Republican Party is a tax cut, whether or not we need it," he said in a meeting with The Standard-Times editorial board.
Sen. Kerry puzzled over the apparent lack of interest by Americans in the Iraq war and the near silence in the U.S. mass media about the so-called Downing Street Memo.
That leaked secret document, the minutes of a 2002 cabinet meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair, says bluntly that Mr. Bush had decided to attack Iraq long before going to Congress with the matter, and that "intelligence was being fixed around the policy."
It caused an uproar in Great Britain and badly hurt Mr. Blair in national elections but went almost unnoticed in the United States.
"When I go back (to Washington) on Monday, I am going to raise the issue," he said of the memo, which has not been disputed by either the British or American governments. "I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home. And it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."
He questioned Americans' understanding of the war and the sense that criticism equals disloyalty, saying, "Do you think that Americans if they really understood it would feel that way knowing that on Election Day, 77 percent of Americans who voted for Bush believed that weapons of mass destruction had been found and 77 percent believe Saddam did 9/11? Is there a way for this to break through, ever?"
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Here is a link to the original news article. Kerry stated this position during a session with the editorial board of the South Coast Daily, the newspaper serving New Bedford, Fall River and other southeastern Massachusetts communities.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/06-05/06-02-05/a01lo167.htm
Today's South Coast Daily has a notewothy editorial follow-up:
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/06-05/06-02-05/a14op114.htm
United voice would focus U.S. attention
Both Sen. John F. Kerry and Congressman Marty Meehan, D-Mass., are scratching their heads about why more Americans aren't raging mad about the daily death toll in Iraq of our young soldiers. They're wondering why more people aren't upset about the tens of hundreds more soldiers returning with serious physical and mental injuries.
But when the senator and congressman swung through New Bedford this week and stopped to talk to the editorial board, Iraq was their secondary topic. It should be the most important issue facing the U.S. Congress today.
Instead, these two Democrats were pushing other pet projects to the public. Rep. Meehan is advocating an ethics reform act and Kerry is promoting a health care plan for all children in poverty.
Rep. Meehan is honest about the fact that even the Democrats aren't united on what to do about Iraq. Kerry disagrees when questioned about Democratic unity of purpose. He insists that Democrats have a clear set of principles that they all run on.
But we know differently. Rep. Meehan is closer to the truth. And that's a big part of the reason that the failed strategy in Iraq is not being addressed with the attention it deserves.
The Democrats aren't articulating their own bold strategy for Iraq. They are tweaking the edges of the Bush strategy.
Even leading thinkers in the military have now come out with reports listing the many mistakes the Bush administration has made and is continuing to make in Iraq. In other words, the Democrats have all the materials they need to unite and suggest a more intelligent course for the nation.
Last week, the U.S. Army War College issued one of the most damning reports on Bush's entire war on terror since 9/11, saying it lacks clarity and the cost of having no coherent strategy is rising quickly as the insurgency builds in Iraq.
"To date, American policy has combined ambitious public statements with ambiguity on the critical particulars," said the report, "American Grand Strategy After 9/11: An Assessment."
This report comes weeks after the release of the 2002 Downing Street memo from Tony Blair's administration which shows that the Bush administration planned to "fix" intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq long before Congress even voted to allow the president to take the nation to war.
And yet the Democrats can not unite around this mounting evidence of a colossal failure of leadership and deception that is putting our soldiers in danger every day and our nation in danger over the long term.
Sen. Kerry and Rep. Meehan have to stop tweaking around the edges of a failed Bush policy and work to unite their party to change this country's course in Iraq. A united party has a much better chance of grasping the megaphone.
This story appeared on Page A14 of The Standard-Times on June 2, 2005.
I don't trust Kerry. His campaign could have focused on impeachable offenses, but these were glossed over. The swift boat stuff was pure entertainment, and everyone knew the machines were rigged. Kerry doublecrossed his supporters by refusing to demand a recount in Ohio or Florida until he was forced into it by the intrepid Green candidate, David Cobb. Kerry did his job, which was to channel voter discontent into acceptable channels, then step out of the way. Who is he working for now?
(BTW, let's not forget that it was Rep. John Conyers who conducted the investigation into vote fraud. He just released a book on the subject "What went wrong in Ohio", My hero!
A conservative website claims: Kerry To Push For Bush Impeachment
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=6057
If this is true, it's an odd place to break such a big story. Perhaps the pirates are planning to have Bush walk the plank, like Nixon did, and let Cheney take over before the uproar grows too great. Kerry may be their point man for damage control.
I want to see the whole crew behind bars- Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Tenet- all of them who lied us into the Iraq mess.
In the name of the God of justice, Carol Wolman
Revelation - Wasn't it at John Conyers' media hearing that one of the participants suggested that Congress people march into the editorial board rooms of the corporate media and force the facts upon them? It appears the strategy has been put into motion!