In a RAW STORY Exclusive by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times (the man who broke the original Downing Street Memo), it is now revealed via official documents that the previous excuses given by the Bush and Blair administrations for the “spikes” in air attacks against Iraq prior to the war was yet another lie…
U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Geoff Hoon, his UK counterpart, said the stepped-up attacks by U.S. and Royal Air Force aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone were a response to increased attacks by Iraqi air defences.
…
But figures released last month by the British Ministry of Defense show that in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, with American officials predicting moves to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraq dramatically scaled back its attacks on allied aircraft.
During the first seven months of 2001 the allies recorded 370 “provocations” by the Iraqi military against allied aircraft. But in the seven months between October 2001 and May 2002 when the allies stepped up their attacks, there were just 32. The complete figures are available here, on the parliament’s website.
…
With U.S. officials openly predicting that an attack on Afghanistan would be followed by an invasion of Iraq, the number of recorded threats kept dropping.
By February 2002, there were just two, in March none and in April again two. Such was the reduction in the number of Iraqi threats that in the six months leading up to the “spikes of activity” British aircraft did not at any point need to respond in self-defence.
…
“Taken together with the leaked minutes of the July 23rd meeting, these figures simply destroy the Government’s case,” [Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat Foreign Affairs spokesman] said. “None of the inquiries have ever properly focused on the conduct of ministers. It is high time that we had an inquiry which did.”
The stepped-up attacks on Iraq’s air defences are now widely seen by military analysts as the start of the air war, exposing both Blair and President George W Bush to allegations that they acted illegally.
…
Congress, which under the US constitution has to give its backing before the President can order military action, did not do so until October 2002. The war officially began Mar. 21, 2003.
…And the “spikes” in the U.S. led bombing campaign began “just weeks after Blair and Bush agreed to use military action to bring about regime change in Iraq” at their summit meeting in Crawford during April of 2002.
Why am I not suprised?
Iraq’s actions in this regard kind of remind me of a vicious appearing dog who approaches you all teeth and snarl, but rolls over and wags its tail between its legs in submision when you reach for it.
Wesley Clark has worked up a petition seeking the the truth regarding the abuse of prisoners. He is going after Bush and his buddies. It can be found at:
http://ga4.org/campaign/prisonerabuse/?
Good Work Brad. Yesterday saw a Downing Street Get together called OUT OF IRAQ which took place on July 23rd. Aired on C-SPAN II, one of the speakers believe his name was Goodwell was a veteran who joined the Armed forces to serve his country and is speaking out in disgust against the illegal war in Iraq. He spoke about these pre-war strikes and went back to Iraq after his tour of duty to get the whole story and started a website to set the truth straight. Congresswoman did a great job speaking out against the Bushit administration making clear they lyers she doesn’t alien herself with stopping short of speaking out against the rigged election/s. Note: One speaker from India busted Dickless Cheney’s Halberton rotten eggs brilliantly. The corporate mass media was also slighted for dropping the ball.
Hang ’em in the hot blistering Crawford, Texas summer sun. Hang ’em and let the buzzards pick their bones while they slowly boil in the sun.
I know of no former American leaders so despicable.
What were stupid majority of the odd Americans in the red state doing on November 2,2004 ? Ignore of the people is power for the White House.
Possible O/T alert:
WaPo article: Ignorance Is Bliss; Sometimes It’s Policy
By Eugene Robinson
Friday, August 5, 2005; Page A15
[snip] The ranch at Crawford hardly compares with the Forbidden City, but George W. Bush has something in common with the Ming emperors of China: He seems determined to make his great nation less ambitious and more ignorant.
He wouldn’t see it that way, of course, but the emperors didn’t see it that way either. And I don’t know how else to explain policies and pronouncements that make the quest for knowledge conditional on politics. That is a prescription for decline. [snip]
The case is slowly building, albeit a year too late,one might argue.
Better late then never. More and more it looks to me like Kerry would have found some other way to drop the ball.
Comment #4: Bush is a lying murderer and the worst president in US history and has jeopardized our US ace making us more vulnerable to terrorist attack and reversing or rolling back over 400 environmental standards and laws. Bushit lies are also trying to remove the Brown bear from the endangered specie list using the mass media to espout blatent lies on how well the Yellowstone Grizzly is doing. A serious inbreeding problem exists there thus the male grizzlies are trying to leave. Of the 1000 brown bombers in the lower 48 51 were killed last year. The Bushit administration reversed Clinton’s Roadless Rule Law protection our wildlands and as well as an injunction prohibiting offroad vehicles which is also destroying the last 1% land where they exist outside Alaska. Many people who voted RED did not have privelege to the information available on the Bushit administration last November. I hate this fcker and his administration more than U will ever know and can’t wait until these bastards are impeached and jailed. Some American people are barely finding out now because they believed the one sided government Bushit propaganda machine called the corporate mass media. They will learn to what degree this scum is an inbred corrupt despicable loser. Red White and Blue.
Yes, Grizzly Bear Dancer. They want to destroy every living thing. They are truly the "Party that respects life." They are truly the Moral ones. (NOT)
The liars in the W.H. have told so many lies, I can’t keep track of them. What a legacy — volumes and volumes of lies, lies and lies — deaths, deaths and more deaths — it’s hard to believe they are human, much less American.
Judicially speaking, who can begin charges of treason against government officials? Can someone outside the Justice Department do it? Honestly, why haven’t such charges been already filed? I don’t even think "secret memos" are necessary at this point. What’s out there in the MSM ought to be sufficient to make the case that Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Feith/Gonzales and the rest of that sick crew lied the country into a war of aggression, and, with their torture policies, also committed crimes against humanity–which are prosecutable under US law, as well.
Unrealist:
Yeah, just go ahead and start bringing a Grand Jury together. We will simply go after them all, and file formal charges of treason. There’s nothing to get in the way anymore.
Doug
Nero (Bush) fiddles (vacations) while Rome (Iraq) burns.
I am very interested in the rumor that Powell spilled the beans to the Grand Jury. Does anyone know? Does this one have legs? President Hastert?
Haven’t seen a damn thing about Rove lately. Talk about herd mentality among you lefty kids. How easily you are manipulated from one Democrat talking point to the next, while the system is systematically pillaged. I often wonder how many of you actually do productive work. I’m guessing most of you spend hours per day, blathering on blogs with other similarly un-blessed individuals about things which you know very little about, while being paid by some poor shmuck employer (probably a government agency) for your time. You are simply thieves. Blather on your own time.
Haven’t seen a damn thing about Rove?
What does this look like to you, hmm?
NOVAK LIED ABOUT ROVE
Really you’re cracking everyone up, get a break and help clean up the mess
Doug
TNT
Haven’t seen a damn thing about Rove lately.
Don’t worry this little piggy will come home ,
soon enough and not alone.
TNT, careful what you wish for!
Here’s an update: Karl Rove is working maniacally behind the scenes trying to derail Fitzgerald’s train before it roars into the station. He is also renewing his passport, and reviewing which nations don’t have extradition treaties with the USA.
Hey guys, can we please stop feeding this troll?
Federal Whistle Blower Claims Chicago Grand Jury Indicted Bush And Others For Perjury and Obstruction Of Justice; U.S. Attorney’s Office Says ‘No Comment,’ Refusing To Confirm Or Deny Alleged Indictments
Robin Cook – Saturday, 6 August 2005
REST IN PEACE.
Resignation Speech
Mr. Robin Cook (Livingston):
This is the first time for 20 years that I have addressed the House from the Back Benches. I must confess that I had forgotten how much better the view is from here.
None of those 20 years were more enjoyable or more rewarding than the past two, in which I have had the immense privilege of serving this House as Leader of the House, which were made all the more enjoyable, Mr. Speaker, by the opportunity of working closely with you. It was frequently the necessity for me as Leader of the House to talk my way out of accusations that a statement had been preceded by a press interview. On this occasion I can say with complete confidence that no press interview has been given before this statement. I have chosen to address the House first on why I cannot support a war without international agreement or domestic support.
The present Prime Minister is the most successful leader of the Labour party in my lifetime. I hope that he will continue to be the leader of our party, and I hope that he will continue to be successful. I have no sympathy with, and I will give no comfort to, those who want to use this crisis to displace him.
I applaud the heroic efforts that the Prime Minister has made in trying to secure a second resolution. I do not think that anybody could have done better than the Foreign Secretary in working to get support for a second resolution within the Security Council. But the very intensity of those attempts underlines how important it was to succeed. Now that those attempts have failed, we cannot pretend that getting a second resolution was of no importance. France has been at the receiving end of bucketloads of commentary in recent days. It is not France alone that wants more time for inspections. Germany wants more time for inspections; Russia wants more time for inspections; indeed, at no time have we signed up even the minimum necessary to carry a second resolution. We delude ourselves if we think that the degree of international hostility is all the result of President Chirac. The reality is that Britain is being asked to embark on a war without agreement in any of the international bodies of which we are a leading partner—not NATO, not the European Union and, now, not the Security Council. To end up in such diplomatic weakness is a serious reverse. Only a year ago, we and the United States were part of a coalition against terrorism that was wider and more diverse than I would ever have imagined possible. History will be astonished at the diplomatic miscalculations that led so quickly to the disintegration of that powerful coalition. The US can afford to go it alone, but Britain is not a superpower. Our interests are best protected not by unilateral action but by multilateral agreement and a world order governed by rules. Yet tonight the international partnerships most important to us are weakened: the European Union is divided; the Security Council is in stalemate. Those are heavy casualties of a war in which a shot has yet to be fired. I have heard some parallels between military action in these circumstances and the military action that we took in Kosovo. There was no doubt about the multilateral 17 Mar 2003 : Column 727 support that we had for the action that we took in Kosovo. It was supported by NATO; it was supported by the European Union; it was supported by every single one of the seven neighbours in the region. France and Germany were our active allies. It is precisely because we have none of that support in this case that it was all the more important to get agreement in the Security Council as the last hope of demonstrating international agreement. The legal basis for our action in Kosovo was the need to respond to an urgent and compelling humanitarian crisis. Our difficulty in getting support this time is that neither the international community nor the British public is persuaded that there is an urgent and compelling reason for this military action in Iraq. The threshold for war should always be high. None of us can predict the death toll of civilians from the forthcoming bombardment of Iraq, but the US warning of a bombing campaign that will "shock and awe" makes it likely that casualties will be numbered at least in the thousands. I am confident that British servicemen and women will acquit themselves with professionalism and with courage. I hope that they all come back. I hope that Saddam, even now, will quit Baghdad and avert war, but it is false to argue that only those who support war support our troops. It is entirely legitimate to support our troops while seeking an alternative to the conflict that will put those troops at risk. Nor is it fair to accuse those of us who want longer for inspections of not having an alternative strategy. For four years as Foreign Secretary I was partly responsible for the western strategy of containment. Over the past decade that strategy destroyed more weapons than in the Gulf war, dismantled Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme and halted Saddam’s medium and long-range missiles programmes. Iraq’s military strength is now less than half its size than at the time of the last Gulf war. Ironically, it is only because Iraq’s military forces are so weak that we can even contemplate its invasion. Some advocates of conflict claim that Saddam’s forces are so weak, so demoralised and so badly equipped that the war will be over in a few days. We cannot base our military strategy on the assumption that Saddam is weak and at the same time justify pre-emptive action on the claim that he is a threat. Iraq probably has no weapons of mass destruction in the commonly understood sense of the term—namely a credible device capable of being delivered against a strategic city target. It probably still has biological toxins and battlefield chemical munitions, but it has had them since the 1980s when US companies sold Saddam anthrax agents and the then British Government approved chemical and munitions factories. Why is it now so urgent that we should take military action to disarm a military capacity that has been there for 20 17 Mar 2003 : Column 728 years, and which we helped to create? Why is it necessary to resort to war this week, while Saddam’s ambition to complete his weapons programme is blocked by the presence of UN inspectors? Only a couple of weeks ago, Hans Blix told the Security Council that the key remaining disarmament tasks could be completed within months. I have heard it said that Iraq has had not months but 12 years in which to complete disarmament, and that our patience is exhausted. Yet it is more than 30 years since resolution 242 called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories. We do not express the same impatience with the persistent refusal of Israel to comply. I welcome the strong personal commitment that the Prime Minister has given to middle east peace, but Britain’s positive role in the middle east does not redress the strong sense of injustice throughout the Muslim world at what it sees as one rule for the allies of the US and another rule for the rest. Nor is our credibility helped by the appearance that our partners in Washington are less interested in disarmament than they are in regime change in Iraq. That explains why any evidence that inspections may be showing progress is greeted in Washington not with satisfaction but with consternation: it reduces the case for war. What has come to trouble me most over past weeks is the suspicion that if the hanging chads in Florida had gone the other way and Al Gore had been elected, we would not now be about to commit British troops. The longer that I have served in this place, the greater the respect I have for the good sense and collective wisdom of the British people. On Iraq, I believe that the prevailing mood of the British people is sound. They do not doubt that Saddam is a brutal dictator, but they are not persuaded that he is a clear and present danger to Britain. They want inspections to be given a chance, and they suspect that they are being pushed too quickly into conflict by a US Administration with an agenda of its own. Above all, they are uneasy at Britain going out on a limb on a military adventure without a broader international coalition and against the hostility of many of our traditional allies. From the start of the present crisis, I have insisted, as Leader of the House, on the right of this place to vote on whether Britain should go to war. It has been a favourite theme of commentators that this House no longer occupies a central role in British politics. Nothing could better demonstrate that they are wrong than for this House to stop the commitment of troops in a war that has neither international agreement nor domestic support. I intend to join those tomorrow night who will vote against military action now. It is for that reason, and for that reason alone, and with a heavy heart, that I resign from the Government. [Applause.]
Robin Cook 17th March 2003
We thought Blair was intelligent — but come to find out he’s another "born again", or something of the kind. Now we know the connection between Blair/Bush — religion and their total misunderstanding of the message of Jesus Christ.
I do give blair as much blame as bush because without his appearance of intelligence next to bush, bush could not have sold his bag of crap as easily to the many morons out there (even congress because after 9-11 we all knew bush would abuse power and those idiots gave it to him under the guise of non-partisan patriotism…suckers that sold us out!) My votes (that don’t count because they are refusing to fix it) will not go to any existing idiots!
Why oh why don’t we have a ‘recall’ system in place for the people to take back their own government when it’s been hyjacked and raped!
Oh, there is such a thing ! It is really too interesting. Heartily! I come to China, welcome to come to China to play, I will become your guide then.
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