Bury Me Broken

Rep. Conyers and the Downing Street Memo

[from the post by Rep. John Conyers (D, MI) on Daily Kos]

The Downing Street Memo is a record of the minutes taken during a meeting of British PM Tony Blair and his top officials in July of 2002 concerning America's position in Iraq. "During this meeting, Blair and his advisers reveal details about conversations with their American counterparts." The details cast doubt on the honesty of the Bush administration concerning the intelligence and the date of the decision to go to war.

First, the memo appears to directly contradict the Administration's assertions to Congress and the American people that it would exhaust all options before going to war. According to the minutes, in July 2002, the Administration had already decided to go to war against Iraq.

Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere "failure" or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being "fixed" around the decision to go to war.

The entire post on Daily Kos can be viewed here. The letter that Rep. Conyers has written to the president and is requesting the signatures of 100,000 citizens can be viewed here.

posted by niteskolar @ 11:23 AM