[NV Greens] Fwd: Act on the "Downing Street Memo"

Sun Jun 5 15:54:59 PDT 2005

>
>Act on the "Downing Street Memo"
>
>Dear friends,
>
>Below is a letter being circulated by Rep. John Conyers
>of Michigan. I have signed it on-line, and I urge
>others to do so as well. Please go to
>
>http://www.johnconyers.com/
>
>and click on the link to the letter at the bottom of
>the home page.
>
>For the record, I generally think such letters and
>petitions to the White House are futile. All they do is
>give Karl Rove the names and addresses of all those who
>oppose their policies. "Please sir, won't you stop
>being a fascist, and don't shoot me for sending you
>this letter," etc. However, in this case the publicity
>value 100,000 signatures will afford to Rep. Conyers
>and the anti-war movement outweigh, in my opinion, the
>wasted time (30 seconds) and futility of appeals to the
>President.
>
>However, if they do not already have your name on
>record, you might want to take that into consideration
>and sign with a "nom de guerre".
>
>- Mitchel Cohen
>
>May 27, 2005
>
>Dear Friend:
>
>As many of you are aware, a classified memo was
>recently disclosed in Great Britain that I believe has
>serious ramifications for the integrity of the United
>States Government. Dubbed the "Downing Street Memo,"
>but actually comprising the minutes of a meeting of
>Prime Minister Tony Blair and other top British
>government officials, the memo casts serious doubt on
>many of the contentions of the Bush Administration in
>the lead up to the Iraq war.  With over 1,600 U.S.
>servicemen and servicewomen killed in Iraq, the deaths
>of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, and over $200
>billion in taxpayer funds going to this war effort, we
>cannot afford to stand by any longer.
>
>Along with 88 of my colleagues, I wrote to the
>President requesting answers about this grave matter.
>Thus far, our search for the truth has been stonewalled
>and I need your help. I believe the American people
>deserve answers about this matter and should demand
>directly that the President tell the truth about the
>memo.  To that end, I am asking you to sign on to a
>letter to the President requesting he answer the
>questions posed to him by 89 Members of Congress.
>
>I will personally insure that this letter is delivered
>to the White House.
>
>You can read the letter here and sign on to it below.
>You and I know the White House is just hoping that this
>matter will fade away, but in a few short weeks, with
>our steadfastness, the memo has found its way into
>leading newspapers and White House press briefings.
>With your help, we can hold this Administration
>accountable.
>
>Please pass on this important letter to your friends
>and colleagues, and ask them to sign as well.
>
>Thank you for your help and support.
>
>John Conyers, Jr.
>
>-------------------------------------------------------
>
>Letter to Pres Bush Concerning "Downing Street Memo"
>
>The Honorable George W. Bush President of the United
>States of America 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, N.W.
>Washington, D.C. 20005
>
>Dear Mr. President:
>
>We the undersigned write because of our concern
>regarding recent disclosures of a Downing Street Memo
>in the London Times, comprising the minutes of a
>meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top
>advisers. These minutes indicate that the United States
>and Great Britain agreed, by the summer of 2002, to
>attack Iraq, well before the invasion and before you
>even sought Congressional authority to engage in
>military action, and that U.S. officials were
>deliberately manipulating intelligence to justify the
>war.
>
>Among other things, the British government document
>quotes a high-ranking British official as stating that
>by July, 2002, Bush had made up his mind to take
>military action. Yet, a month later, you stated you
>were still willing to "look at all options" and that
>there was "no timetable" for war.Secretary of Defense,
>Donald Rumsfeld, flatly stated that "[t]he president
>has made no such determination that we should go to war
>with Iraq."
>
>In addition, the origins of the false contention that
>Iraq had weapons of mass destruction remains a serious
>and lingering question about the lead up to the war.
>There is an ongoing debate about whether this was the
>result of a "massive intelligence failure," in other
>words a mistake, or the result of intentional and
>deliberate manipulation of intelligence to justify the
>case for war. The memo appears to resolve that debate
>as well, quoting the head of British intelligence as
>indicating that in the United States "the intelligence
>and facts were being fixed around the policy."
>
>As a result of these concerns, we would ask that you
>respond to the following questions:
>
>1) Do you or anyone in your administration dispute the
>accuracy of the leaked document?
>
>2) Were arrangements being made, including the
>recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional
>authorization to go to war? Did you or anyone in your
>Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade
>prior to this time?
>
>3) Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about
>weapons inspectors in order to help with the
>justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
>
>4) At what point in time did you and Prime Minister
>Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
>
>5) Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S.
>intelligence community and/or British officials to
>"fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as
>the leaked document states?
>
>These are the same questions 89 Members of Congress,
>led by Rep. John Conyers, Jr., submitted to you on May
>5, 2005. As citizens and taxpayers, we believe it is
>imperative that our people be able to trust our
>government and our commander in chief when you make
>representations and statements regarding our nation
>engaging in war. As a result, we would ask that you
>publicly respond to these questions as promptly as
>possible.
>
>Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>_______________________________________________________
>
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-- 
Paul Etxeberri

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