It’s notable that Washington Post today is finally giving the matter of the Downing Street Minutes coverage at all, much less that they have advanced the story with new information, from new memos on today’s Sunday front page! And, unlike previous Page 1 articles by WaPo’s Walter Pincus, it looks like this one will stay there!
Today’s front-page report covers new revelations from a briefing paper prepared for Tony Blair eight months before the War on Iraq, and states the Bush Administration were not preparing for what would be a “protracted and costly” postwar occuption of Iraq…
…
Saying that “we need to be sure that the outcome of the military action would match our objective,” the memo’s authors point out, “A post-war occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise.” The authors add, “As already made clear, the U.S. military plans are virtually silent on this point. Washington could look to us to share a disproportionate share of the burden.”
For our money, the delinquency of the Bush Administration in preparing for a Post-War Iraq, which has already cost the lives and limbs of thousands of U.S. Troops, is perhaps more reprehensible even than the revelations from the original “Downing Street Minutes” that the Administration would be “fixing” the intelligence around the policy of toppling Saddam through military means and lying both Congress and the American People about it.
And these jerks have the gall to speak to us about “supporting the troops”?!
The hell with impeachment, these folks deserve jail time for the death and destruction they have so carelessly and callously wrought!
All of that, in addition to more breaking news out from today’s Sunday Times of London (as mentioned as it broke on last night’s BRAD SHOW via RAW RADIO!) revealing that the Blair Administration knew that the war would be illegal, but that they had committed to going into it with the Bushies months before acknowledging it publicly. They endeavored to find a way to make the action “legal” in those pre-war months when it was assessed by the Brits as being an illegal incursion.
Amazing.
John Conyers’ Hearings on all of the above, with members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, will occur this Thursday at 2pm ET. Please contact C-SPAN and ask them to carry the hearings live. For that matter, so should CNN, MSNBC, FNC as well as all three of the broadcast networks at this point!
This is not only about all that incompetence, but look at the date of the meeting — the brits knew all the way back in early 2002 that the americans were going to invade Iraq in 2003. And if the brits were critical of the american planning process that long ago, how long had the planning been going on?
That’s a rhetorical question and the answer depends on who you are talking about. For the bush administration, it started in January of 2001. For bush himself it started years earlier. For paul wolfowitz it’s been decades. And so on.
The bigger something is, the harder you have to push to get it moving. Equally, the bigger something is, when it gets moving, the harder it is to stop it. I feel the momentum building in the effort to bring truth to the power of the Bushies. Keep pushing everybody!
At long last! Do you think the London Times article put pressure on the Washington Post? I think maybe it did.
I kept waiting for the news here in Ireland to mention the London Times piece but I haven’t heard anything so far.
A good commentary on the London Times article (and a good place for Middle East commentary in general) is http://www.juancole.com/.
re #3 No Kidding!
Nobody wants to say this out loud in the major media but here on the blogs we can speak freely … at least for now … it appears that the reason why the pentagon planners were silent on the ‘aftermath of war’ was because they didn’t want this war to end. And they still don’t.
I wonder if Bushw@cker saw Sir! No Sir! which recently came out in Australia and will premiere in LA on June 19 according to http://www.sirnosir.com/.
This is a movie about Resistance In The Armies (RITA) during the VietNam war. (And a phenomenon that is slowly increasing in strength in the current US military.) If any Brad Bloggers in the LA area are able to get to this showing I’d love to hear a report here. (Maybe the LA opening might also provide a guest or two for the Brad Show.)
I should add (because one of my friends, Aussie investigative journalist Max Watts, is perhaps the top expert on RITA) that RITA has been a component of many conflicts in many parts of the world–NOT just the VietNam war. I suspect it’s usually kept so tightly under wraps that the general public never hears about it, doesn’t have a name for it and doesn’t realize it’s a common phenomenon ever since countries have resisted various imperialist situations.
The impeachment process starts in January 2007 after the Dems take back the Congress. The best we can do until then is to air all of the neocon dirty laundry over and over again. Thank you Brad, MoveOn, Air America, Stephanie, Ed et al. (you know who you are). This too shall pass.
Something is fishy here. This information being so easily obtained through a conservative paper brings up my rove radar.
I’m just sayin’… we may find out that there is a forgery here, which will deflect the entire argument again. Cuidado.
Thanks Catherine v much for the link re:#6
Looking at it now!
Might see if I can get to a preview screening before the 19th June launch.
MORE BREAKING NEWS – GOOD NEWS – from 6/12/05
Did you all hear that CA Democratic Rep Maxine Waters just got repeated standing ovations at the Push Convention in Chicago TODAY when she said that "Bush is a liar", and "Cheney is a thief", who has been stealing for Halliburton? Also said something to the effect that Condi Rice will go anywhere and say anything they tell her to say, and have the audacity to say with with a smile (this last is not an exact quote). I got this in an email from David Swanson, who runs http://www.afterdowningstreet.org .
Waters also said she and the Black Caucus would bring up an amendment to end the war EVERY DAY from now on.
Good people, I dare to visualize – and hope – that the whole cabal is going down, with the assistance of Downing St. revelations. The CBS bradcast TV news was full of stories of critics of Bush – for his misleading statements about how many terrorism convictions have been made, and for the second Downing St. information that came out yesterday in the London Times.
If you haven’t read "Bring It Down. Now." by Hofstra professor David Michael Green, PLEASE treat yourself to it! (available at http://www.commondreams.org). He is hopeful too, and supports his hope with more eloquence than I.
The "human right" of US citizens to be governed with integrity and true concern for the well-being of all the worlds peoples is my primary concern. I have hope today that we may be on the road back to that.
#8 SEATTLEMKH
Were you possibly thinking of the Washington Times when you said "conservative paper"? The Wa-Times IS a conservative paper.
There was a lot of "mainstream" reporting on support for Howard Dean today too. Both CNN and MSNBC (I can’t stomach ANY FOX) talked extensively about the fact that, though Dean has been rebuked by Dem politicians, he is strongly supported by the public. Interesting…
The DoD’s pissweak attempt at justifying breaches of the Geneva Convention at Guantanamo.
I can’t stop thinking about what McGovern said last night about how at that "Watergate" celebration, the guy from the Times said that Watergate couldn’t happen in today’s media climate. No apologies, no regret – just NO WAY would it happen.
Thinking of that I have to agree with SeattleMKH #8 – something smells funny…
Winter Patriot #5 –
Excellent point and article. Reading of that soldier reminds me of this article from GNN. Not only is the current regime killing and maiming thousands and thousands, they are creating an entire generation of lost souls…
The War Comes Home
Peg C #12 – speaking of support for Dean, did you see this excellent piece?
A Master Politician at Work
Transformative politics is not for sissies.
If you’re to really change political trends, and put bottom rail on top for a generation, you can’t be gentle about it.
You can’t cajole. You can’t seduce. You have to go right for the throat. And you have to be ready for the whole of the old order to come down on you for it.
So let’s be clear about this right now. Love him or hate him, Howard Dean is a master politician.
-cont.
What was that about liberal blog readership? The pressure *is* building. It’s real. If we all keep it up (and keep upping the ante), at some point a "business decision" will be made – or a Dan Ellsburg will appear, probably through independent media – then you may see a MSM polar flip in the interest of self-preservation. They don’t love dubya. They are in business.
You all are doing just the right thing. Keep the faith.
The memos/letters that the Washington Post refers to have been around since at least the 18th September 2004 (As far as I have determined so far) where they were reported on by the UK Daily Telegraph.
Re: seattlemkh #8 & JEN #14
If any of the 6 docs from which the Jack Straw and David Manning memos are quoted from in the WaPo story, were fakes, Blair’s office would surely
have discredited these prior to or during his election campaign!
THAT IS NOTHING!!!!
Those documents explicitly detail that Bush and Blair reached an agreement to go to war in April of ’02 – many months before the UN vote. And that the British explicitly cited the need to fix intelligence as justification for war.
Not only that, but the British were so worried about the "illegality" of the war & the US using their bases, that they explicitly discussed using the UN to set up an ultimatum that Saddam Hussein wouldn’t agree with:
excerpt:
The document said the only way the allies could justify military action was to place Saddam Hussein in a position where he ignored or rejected a United Nations ultimatum ordering him to co-operate with the weapons inspectors. But it warned this would be difficult.
"It is just possible that an ultimatum could be cast in terms which Saddam would reject," the document says. But if he accepted it and did not attack the allies, they would be "most unlikely" to obtain the legal justification they needed.
The suggestions that the allies use the UN to justify war contradicts claims by Blair and Bush, repeated during their Washington
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/061205Z.shtml
THE WASHINGTON TIMES ARTICLE IS BULLSH*T! They just completely brushed off the document’s explosive details about the US&Britian explicitly fixing/faking/docturing intelligence AND even discussing setting up a staged UN mandate to guode Saddam into war.
Granted, the lack of "aftermath plans" is a big thing. But it is not something that is impeachable or explicitly and clearly illegal. The details about the US&Britian fixing intelligence ARE IMPEACHABLE AND ILLEGAL. That is why the Washington Times article is a cover. Ignore the impeachable offenses and focus on the "disappointing" offenses.
#5 winter patriot, that is intersting,
That they have no intention of ending the war. I have read several articles, some even from discussions with troops, about how, sometimes they pick buildings or areas and just start bombarding them, and keep doing so until they get a response. I have wondered if this is part of rumsfield’s little "proactive" terror campaign (anyone have links for this) where he discussed committing actions to "get a response" from terrorist networks. Maybe they need the insurgency, to justify a continued presence. If their was no insurgency can you imagine what people would be saying on capital hil right now – they would be screaming "we’re done! now lets get out!!" Perhaps could this be why the new insurgency attacks have slight hints of a "civil" conflict. Or even why alot of attacks now appear to be more aimed at civilians that troops?
These are my own observations and opinions. Just file this away in the back of your minds until you see further cooberating evidence. I believe when all the truth comes out, ALL THE TRUTH will come out. So if any of this is true, it is only a matter of time before everyone here is discussing it. Again, I believe when we get to the impeachment & ncarceration phase someone (middle men only! let the big fishies fry) will take a plea bargain, and then it will all come out. So lets focus on those Downing Street docs. so we can start heading down that path.
SOJO — There are plenty of impeachable offenses on the record, although this is about a damning as they can get.
We certainly have not reached a "tipping point", and you are likely right about the article being a cover. Almost everything the MSM produces regarding the Bush administration is a cover in some sense – immersed in beltway culture or mimicking it. (But I don’t think this would have made page 1 a few weeks ago which means if it is a "conscious" cover they are worried.)
I’m also disappointed that the *worst* is brushed off. It’s still the old diversionary Kerry line – "We just didn’t do it right."
Nevertheless, the evidence of high crimes is accumulating and won’t disappear, and Bush will lose further support in an issue that is *very* important to large numbers of relatively uninformed and informed Americans – an exit plan in a war they are getting sick of. (It is one of the biggest of the many fantasies of the neocons that they can hold the public on prolonged war with sophisticated marketing and political strongarming. They can’t.)
The weaker dubya becomes, the greater his vulnerability. And the evidence for impeachment and criminal proceedings is there – in spades.
Maybe I’m just happy to be feeling better after a pretty severe bout with the flu and it may be coloring my outlook, but it looks to me like we are beginning to surround our prey and the defenders (the MSM) are looking weaker. (And don’t forget the apparent Republican "meltdown".) Now is the time to focus on the moment (Zen-like?) and take aggressive advantage of every opening rather than thinking about what should be happening
I’ve been among many who’ve said all along the only way for us to redeem ourselves as a nation is to impeach, prosecute and imprison the Chimp in Chief and his vile accomplices – It’s good to see the Bradster himself take up that call!
Arry (#21) hit upon something that will no doubt be key to this end regarding Kerry’s (and many other Dems) weak-kneed enabling of Dick and Chimpy’s Excellent MisAdventure, to wit: There’s room for pussies here – that’s why Howard Dean’s aggressiveness is SO vital to this fight!
Keep on fighting people!!!
oops! I meant "NO room for pussies"… it’s early, sorry…..
TIME Magazine (issue 2 March 1998) included an essay entitled "Why We Didn’t Remove Saddam" by George Bush [Sr.] and Brent Scowcroft.
Here’s a link to the Time Magazine article.
http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/bushsr-iraq.htm
Please note that the article at MemoryHole notes that the reference to the original Time Magazine essay is now conspicuously absent from the Time site’s online issue that originally carried the essay.
And – save a local copy (so it doesn’t suddenly ‘go missing’), grab a copy of that issue of Time off the microfeche at the local library, and feel free to print out a copy of the article either from there or via the link to Memory Hole, above, and distribute via handbills a la FreedomPress (http://www.justicefornone.com/handbills/).
I’d certainly be interested to know why the Time site no longer acknowledges the article, too…
🙂
Catskills Times Herald-Record speculates, Could memo sink Bush?
WP #1 Good points.
We bloggers know that the neocons were planning the cout d’etat via fraudulent elections for a long time. They have talked about the "New Pearl Harbor" for a decade or so.
The admin of Bush I was not persuaded by them or they would have taken Baghdad back then.
Now that they have attained full maniacal power thru rigged elections, oil grabs by invasion and strategic power is all they can think about and obsess about.
The MSM harlot is fully in bed with the neocon element, and the press is right wing coverup oriented. And the american people no longer trust them … they can’t convince the public to like the current admin policy.
Now, the only way the MSM is going to get the trust of the American public back is to go into a frenzy of investigative reporting that exposes the lies of the madmen and madwomen who make up this current neocon administration.
After doing that the press will be back on an even keel.
Congratulations to Dave Richardson of the Catskills Times Herald-Record linked in BUSHW@CKER’s post #25.
These kinds of articles beginning to show up in the MSM are a trickle now. If the dam is cracking then this trickle will increase.
Kudos to Dave Richardson. Keep up the good work!
Bushwh@cker #25- Thanx for the link, the Downing Street Minutes are certainly gaining more and more attention, and I am very THANKFUL to the "Leaker" of these minutes, and other documents that are coming out now! Without that individul who leaked these "smoking gun" documents, where would we be?? Also, in reading that article from the Catskills Times Herald, I find myself continuously dissappointed with Hillary Clinton,in order for her to futher her presidential ambitions she is remaining SILENT on this extremely important issue. She reminds me of the "SEE NO EVIL, HEAR NO EVIL, SPEAK NO EVIL" monkeys!!! By her silence , she certainly doesn’t deserve to become a presidential candidate!! Perhaps with her silence, that will end any hopes for her!!
Talk about "pussies" — or little Hitlers …
Under the Dome
Judiciary GOP pulls the plug on Conyers ‘forums’
By Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour
If the Financial Services Committee is the best in the House when it comes to bipartisan comity, then the Judiciary Committee may well be the worst. In December, ranking Democrat John Conyers (Mich.) began holding “forums” — gatherings with all the trappings of official hearings — after Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) refused to hold hearings on topics Conyers requested.
…In a sign of how far relationships on the committee have soured, majority staff recently announced a new policy to deny any request from a committee Democrat for the use of a committee hearing room.
**more**
The impeachment process starts in January 2007 after the Dems take back the Congress. The best we can do until then is to air all of the neocon dirty laundry over and over again. Thank you Brad, MoveOn, Air America, Stephanie, Ed et al. (you know who you are). This too shall pass.