[NV Greens] Fwd: [GPUS-PAX] Protest draws attention to Downing Street memo

[Paul Etxeberri]

>
>
>This should go to every media outlet with the warning that they 
>could be the next target of a protest....nancy
>
>http://sptimes.com/2005/06/03/Hillsborough/Protest_draws_attenti.shtml
>Protest draws attention to memo
>The "Downing Street Memo" indicates an agreement on invading Iraq in 
>July 2002.
>By KEVIN GRAHAM
>Published June 3, 2005
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>TAMPA - Just a stone's throw away from a life-size gorilla dressed 
>in military fatigues was another oddity along Kennedy Boulevard 
>Thursday - people protesting about a memo.
>
>"Did you get the memo?" read the fliers.
>
>"Air the truth!" said a poster held by retired Air Force Lt. Col. 
>Joseph F. Bohren, outside the WTVT-Ch. 13 studios with about 10 
>others.
>
>They were there because of what has become known as the "Downing 
>Street Memo," minutes from a meeting between Prime Minister Tony 
>Blair and his top advisers on July 23, 2002, at No. 10 Downing St., 
>published May 1 by the Sunday Times of London . The minutes indicate 
>that the United States and Britain had agreed to invade Iraq by the 
>summer of 2002 - months before President George W. Bush asked 
>Congress for permission to engage in military action.
>
>The minutes, written by Matthew Rycroft, aide to British Foreign 
>Policy Adviser David Manning, also suggest that U.S. officials 
>deliberately manipulated intelligence to justify the war.
>
>"If what's in these minutes is accurate, and we have been given no 
>reason to doubt that, then it would appear that the president has 
>committed high crimes, specifically lying to the American public and 
>Congress and engaging in a conspiracy with his administration," said 
>David Dawson, a Washington organizer for the Web site 
>AfterDowningStreet.org, which has reproduced the memo.
>
>The site was created by a coalition of political activists who are 
>calling on Congress to investigate the meeting minutes.
>
>According to the minutes, Sir Richard Dearlove, head of the British 
>Foreign Intelligence Service, "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 (weapons of mass destruction). But the intelligence and facts 
>were being fixed around the policy."
>
>The White House press office on Thursday referred the Times to a May 
>23 press briefing by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, at which 
>time he addressed the Downing Street minutes. But McClellan did not 
>address the specifics of the memo.
>
>"In terms of the intelligence ... if anyone wants to know how the 
>intelligence was used by the administration, all they have to do is 
>go back and look at all the public comments over the course of the 
>leadup to the war in Iraq, and that's all very public information. 
>Everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence," 
>McClellan said.
>
>He acknowledged there was some breakdown in information gathered 
>before the president decided to go to war.
>
>"And in terms of the intelligence, it was wrong, and we are taking 
>steps to correct that and make sure that in the future we have the 
>best possible intelligence, because it's critical in this post-Sept. 
>11th age, that the executive branch has the best intelligence 
>possible," he said.
>
>Rep John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., has started a petition drive for an 
>open letter to the president asking him to address the accuracy of 
>the document. In a statement released Thursday, Conyers said, "These 
>minutes of a classified British government meeting raise very 
>serious constitutional questions about whether the Congress and the 
>American people were deliberately misled in the drive to war."
>
>--Kevin Graham can be reached at 813 226-3433 or kgraham at sptimes.com
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Peace mailing list
>Peace at lists.gp-us.org
>http://lists.gp-us.org/mailman/listinfo/peace


-- 
Paul Etxeberri

"Forests precede civilizations and deserts follow"   ---Chateaubriand