SECRET PLANS
Eighty-Eight Members Of Congress Call On Bush For Answers On Secret Iraq Plan
Please click on the link below to sign the petition letter.
http://www.johnconyers.campaignoffice.com/
Eighty-eight members of Congress have signed a letter authored by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) calling on President Bush to answer questions about a secret U.S.-UK agreement to attack Iraq.
In the letter, Conyers and other members say they are disappointed the mainstream media has not touched the revelations.
“Unfortunately, the mainstream media in the United States was too busy with wall-to-wall coverage of a “runaway bride” to cover a bombshell report out of the British newspapers,” Conyers writes. “The London Times reports that the British government and the United States government had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in 2002, before authorization was sought for such an attack in Congress, and had discussed creating pretextual justifications for doing so.”
“The Times reports, based on a newly discovered document, that in 2002 British Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a meeting in which he expressed his support for “regime change” through the use of force in Iraq and was warned by the nation’s top lawyer that such an action would be illegal,” he adds. “Blair also discussed the need for America to “create” conditions to justify the war.”
The members say they are seeking an inquiry.
“This should not be allowed to fall down the memory hole during wall-to-wall coverage of the Michael Jackson trial and a runaway bride,” he remarks. “To prevent that from occurring, I am circulating the following letter among my House colleagues and asking them to sign on to it.”
Please help me get to the bottom of the Downing Street Memo and other Administration scandals so that we can restore
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 “the 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.” If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own Administration.
The Sunday Times obtained a leaked document with the minutes of a secret meeting from highly placed sources inside the British Government. Among other things, the document revealed:
* Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a July 2002 meeting, at which he discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush’s plans for invading Iraq.
* British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war was “thin” as “Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran.”
* A separate secret briefing for the meeting said that Britain and America had to “create” conditions to justify a war.
* A British official “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 WMD. But 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,
Please click on the link below to sign the petition letter.
http://www.johnconyers.campaignoffice.com/
Members of Congress who have already signed letter:
Neil Abercrombie Brian Baird Tammy Baldwin Xavier Becerra Shelley Berkley Eddie Bernice Johnson Sanford Bishop Earl Blumenauer Corrine Brown Sherrod Brown G.K. Butterfield Emanuel Cleaver James Clyburn John Conyers Jim Cooper Elijah Cummings Danny Davis Peter DeFazio Diana DeGette Bill Delahunt Rosa DeLauro Lloyd Doggett Sam Farr Bob Filner Harold Ford, Jr. Barney Frank Al Green Raul Grijalva Louis Gutierrez Alcee Hastings Maurice Hinchey Rush Holt Jay Inslee Sheila Jackson Lee Jessie Jackson Jr. Marcy Kaptur Patrick Kennedy Dale Kildee Carolyn Kilpatrick Dennis Kucinich William Lacy Clay Barbara Lee John Lewis Zoe Lofgren Donna M. Christensen Carolyn Maloney Ed Markey Carolyn McCarthy Jim McDermott James McGovern Cynthia McKinney Martin Meehan Kendrick Meek Gregory Meeks Michael Michaud George Miller Gwen S. Moore James Moran Jerrold Nadler Grace Napolitano James Oberstar John Olver Major Owens Frank Pallone Donald Payne Charles Rangel Bobby Rush Bernie Sanders Linda Sanchez Jan Schakowsky Jose Serrano Ike Skelton Louise Slaughter Hilda Solis Pete Stark Ellen Tauscher Bennie Thompson Edolphus Towns Stephanie Tubbs Jones Chris Van Hollen Nydia Velazquez Debbie Wasserman Schultz Maxine Waters Diane Watson Melvin Watt Robert Wexler Lynn Woolsey David Wu Albert R. Wynn
Related Global Research Articles:
Fabricating Intelligence as a Justification for War, “The Intelligence and Facts were fixed around the Policy” , Selected articles and essays Michel Chossudovsky (Editor), Global Research E-Monograph and Reports Series, No. 4, May 2005, includes 60 key articles iand documents on the issue.
trust in our government.
Thanks, Rep. John Conyers
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