Sunday, June 12, 2005

DSM: Can we hope its a house of cards?

Just as a beginning, I'm posting some important information just being published today, relating to the so-called Downing Street Memo implicating both the U.S. government and the British goverment of intentionally seeking a pretext to invade Iraq . . . as early as July 2002. This is not news to most who have been following the perfidy of George W. Bush and co., and his slavish follower Tony Blair. It's been out there in the ether, basically ignored by the media for all the reasons we have come to expect from the feeble fourth estate now extant in the U.S., the incredibly resilient rubber stamp we call the U.S. Congress, and the equally feeble curiosity of the American public for anything more substantial and important than "Desperate Housewives".

The London Times today added to our stock of documents that amount to indictments of both governments and the process of their conspiracy to start a war.


Also, today I see that Walter Pincus in the Washington Post finally gets a story on the front page of the WaPo's online version -- piggybacking on the Times stories, hence breathing new life into the DSM story. So he's only a couple of weeks behind the curve; better than nothing I suppose. His big scoop is that the U.S. was not prepared for the aftermath of the invasion, and the Brits knew it. The story [should have already] moved on to highlight that the Brits knew perfectly well, and were complicit in the fact that Bush was all about fabricating reasons for an invasion, and the U.N. was to be the passive tool of this strategy. This, from the executive summary of the briefing paper:

"Agree to engage the US on the need to set military plans within a realistic political strategy, which includes identifying the succession to Saddam Hussein and creating the conditions necessary to justify government military action, which might include an ultimatum for the return of UN weapons inspectors to Iraq."

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Surprise! We knew that already, right? Its nice to get the documentation. We'll have to see how the adminstration spins their way out of this one, or tries too. And how the media underplays it.


Articles in June 12, 2005 London Times online relating to Downing Street memo and new information:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1650822,00.html - London Times article on leaked cabinet briefing paper

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-1650565,00.html - Analysis of leaked British briefing paper regarding Iraq invasion/DSM

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1648758,00.html - Leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper printed in London Times

Downing Street Memo:

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html - DSM as originally published London Times May 1, 2005

Washington Post story on DSM, June 12, 2005:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/11/AR2005061100723.html