Democrats.com – 2005-05-08 01:22:01
http://www.democrats.com/node/4488
(May 7, 2005) Rep. John Conyers has been circulating a letter amongst members of Congress calling on George W. Bush to explanation the disclosure contained in a British intelligence memo that he secretly conspired with British Prime Minister Tony Blair — in July 2002 — to concoct a false pretext for his war on Irag in July of 2002. Now 88 members of Congress hav signed on to Conyers’ 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.
“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…
Here’s a portion of the letter –
We write because of troubling revelations in the Sunday London Times apparently confirming that the United States and Great Britain had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action.
While various individuals have asserted this to be the case before, including Paul O’Neill, former US Treasury Secretary, and Richard Clarke, a former National Security Council official, they have been previously dismissed by your Administration. However, when this story was divulged last weekend, Prime Minister Blair’s representative claimed the document contained “nothing new.”
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.
You can read the rest of the letter at Rawstory…
Members of Congress who have signed letter (as of May 7):
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
The Corporate Media Ice is BREAKING! Seattle Times has also published a version – “Memo disputes Bush Iraq claims”.
Can you say Articles of Impeachment?
• Former Attorney General Ramsey Clark can, and did two years ago…
• Prof. Francis Dolye can, and did, two years ago…
• So did the Veterans for Peace, two years ago…
• Sign Democrats.com’s petition to Impeach Bush at www.ImpeachCentral.com
