Sunday Times: Key No. 10 Aides Split Over War

[Hissyspit]

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1715005,00.html

July 31, 2005

Key No 10 aides were split over war
Robert Winnett, Whitehall Correspondent

THE SPLIT over the Iraq war, which ran through the Labour party, reached into Tony Blair’s innermost circle, according to an updated biography of the prime minister.

- snip -

The disclosures have been made by Blair’s biographer Anthony Seldon... At the outbreak of war, a gung-ho attitude seemed to pervade Downing Street. According to an interview with Morgan: “. . . he (Blair) wanted big maps on the wall of the den (Blair’s office) so he could follow the progress of the troops. We wouldn’t let him. He really would have liked a sandpit with tanks.”

- snip -

The book notes: “Prior to the most important of his (Blair’s) frequent phone calls to Bush, in the run-up to the Iraq war and on other issues, pointed briefing notes would be prepared for Blair, urging him to tackle the president directly. ‘We’d then read the record of the conversation and see that Blair had gone off at a tangent,’ said one insider. ‘He just seemed oddly reluctant to confront Bush head-on.’” Reports began to circulate round Whitehall that Blair did not read his briefs, and that he shied away from tough one-on-one encounters.

Seldon writes that during the autumn of 2002 British diplomats and politicians were involved in tense negotiations at the UN, but it seemed that Blair was being bounced into war. Dick Cheney, the vice-president, was hostile to Blair and the British and sat in meetings “like a lump”, according to one official present. However, Blair was told by diplomats, thought to be Meyer and Greenstock, that he could have stopped America invading Iraq had he been prepared to use his influence.

MORE

[jobycom]

1. Wow, Blair makes Neville Chamberlain look like Rambo.

[truthisfreedom]

2. one word.

bilderberg.

[Matilda]

3. Thank you.

I believe they are up to their ears in this.

And this story gives the lie to the often-quoted theory that Blair
joined in the rush to war only so that he could act as a moderating
influence on Bush.

Sounds as if he was living quite a dangerous fantasy himself.

[Henny Penny]

4. This certainly removes Blair's last fig leaf of

respectability- ie that he was in there as a moderating influence.

But there is a chance that they are briefing against Blair and we don't know that this is true. He really would have liked a sandpit with tanks.

Now that is a very damaging image.

I am looking forward to reading Greenstock's book, if we are allowed.

edit for typo:

[fedsron2us]

6. I loath Blair and his decision to invade Iraq

but I am growing suspicious of the large number of damaging leaks against him that are starting to appear in the Murdoch press. It is as well to remember that the Sunday Times originally supported this illegal war as did all other 175 media titles owned by the malign Australian media baron. Now the paper is beginning to sing a different tune. Maybe Rupert has decided that Tony is not running down the neocon road fast enough ?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Murdoch

[Peace Patriot]

8. We're seeing a similar phenomenon in the US news monopolies--

suddenly they're reporting a few things (i.e., the Plame/CIA outing, for instance). Maybe they're losing viewership/readership, the buggers. But it never changes anything, does it? Disastrous war still going on, and huge war profiteering.

The news monopolies in the US not only promoted the lies and the war, they committed a journalistic atrocity on election day, 2004, by CHANGING the exit poll data (Kerry won) to fit the Diebold and ES&S "official result" (Bush won), derived from Bushite voting machine company computers, using secret, proprietary software. The falsification of the exit polls on everybody's TV screens on election night deprived the American people of strong evidence of election fraud--and protests and calls for investigation were squelched.

Their malfeasance has been utterly mind-boggling. So we are well to wonder what they are up to now, with their little tidbits of scandal about the most corrupt regime in American history, if not the history of the world.

[emad]

5. LEAKED DATA REVEAL REASONS FOR INCREASED BOMBING RAIDS WERE A SHAM

LEAKED DATA REVEAL REASONS FOR INCREASED BOMBING RAIDS WERE A SHAM

Figures released by the Ministry of Defence have shown the reasons given by Britain and America for stepping up bombing raids in Iraq in the run-up to war were a sham, writes Michael Smith.

Geoff Hoon, who was then defence secretary, and Donald Rumsfeld, his American counterpart, both claimed that the rise in air attacks was in response to Iraqi attempts to shoot down allied aircraft

However, the minutes of a meeting of Tony Blair¡¦s war cabinet on July 23, 2003, leaked to The Sunday Times, record Hoon saying "the US had begun spikes of activity to put pressure on the regime".

Ministers have since insisted that the stepped-up attacks, which began in May 2002, were as a result of increased Iraqi activity and were not an attempt to provoke a response that would give the allies an excuse for war.

The figures do not support those claims. In the first seven months of 2001 the allies recorded a total of 370 "provocations" by the Iraqis against allied aircraft. But in the seven months between October 2001 and May 2002 there were just 32.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1715005_2,00.html

[Peace Patriot]

7. A little time-line...

May 22, 2003: David Kelly (Brits chief WMD expert) begins whistleblowing to the BBC on the Brits "sexed up" (exaggerated) Iraq WMD allegations.

July 7, 2003: After Kelly is identified and interrogated, Blair is told that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things" ("COULD say"--not HAD said).

July 14, 2003: CIA WMD expert Valerie Plame outed (by Novak).

July 18, 2003: Kelly found dead under extremely suspicious circumstances; his office and computers searched.

July 22, 2003: The second Plame outing, of the entire CIA front company, all WMD projects and agents put at risk.

My hypothesis about this remarkable coincidence of dates is that Kelly had stumbled upon, or foiled, a scheme to plant WMDs in Iraq in summer '03 (and to gain the huge political benefit therefrom); that the Bushites assault on the CIA, long in the planning, became a very urgent matter on July 7, when they found out what Kelly knew; that they were in a panic about it--that's why they called at least six reporters (increasing the risk of treason charges) to get Plame outed; that Plame was outed in that way (precipitously), not because of her husbands whistleblowing op-ed in the NYT (July 6) but because of what they were told Kelly knew (July 7) and her ability to detect the WMD-planting plot; that Kelly was killed for knowing about it; and that, when Kelly's office and computers were searched, July 18-19, they found some connection between Brewster Jennings (the CIA front company on WMDs for which Plame and others worked) and the foiling of their WMD-planting scheme; and thus--at even greater risk of treason charges--they then outed the whole CIA front company (Novak, July 22), destroying all its WMD monitoring projects and quite possibly getting some of its covert contacts killed.

The frequent contact between Bush and Blair would likely mean that the Bushites got early warning of what Kelly "could say". Most of them were on board AF-1 on the African trip when this occurred (where the memo about Plame was being circulated), July 5-12. Joe Wilson published his article on July 6, and there is evidence (a Wilson interview) that Condi Rice baited him to do that (publish). He may have been set up from the beginning (a wild goose chase to Niger?), or was used opportunistically to get at Plame and the CIA (long planned). The Rovian revenge tale (revenge against Wilson) may be merely a cover story, the real goal being to blind the CIA to Bush Cartel WMD activity around the world (Cheney arms deals? Plans to plant WMDs in Iraq, Syria, Iran?). Into this mix came the shock (July 7) that the BBC whistleblower was the Brits chief weapons expert, David Kelly, who could blow the lid of their WMD-planting scheme.

Kelly supported the war. He wanted Saddam toppled. SOMETHING turned him around about the war, especially about the false intel, AFTER the invasion. Why would he whistleblow on something he supported? Kelly had been uncomfortable with the "sexed up," politicized intel, but hadn't whistleblown before the invasion. Why do it in May '03?

Clearly he knew something more than he disclosed to the BBC (the "uncomfortable things" that Blair was warned he COULD say). The most logical candidate--as it answered Bush/Blair's most critical political need--was a "find" of WMDs, to justify the invasion. None were ever found. The UN had established that none were there. Yet they had Judith Miller avidly running around Iraq "hunting" for WMDs with US troops, on a special "embed" contract signed by Donald Rumsfeld--poised to get the "scoop" on the WMD "find." Why would they put on this public drama, and so obviously build up expectations the way they did, if they didn't have a phony plant of WMDs in the works?

Such a thing would have outraged Kelly--a brilliant scientist, by all accounts, who loved his non-proliferation work and believed he was doing good. His knowledge of it also would have been motive to kill him. And I do think he was killed (99% sure). Arguments about the wording of intel docs could be endlessly fudged. But a revelation of a concrete action to deceive (planting WMDs), coming from the Brits' top scientist (who was already "off the reservation") could not be handled by the P.R. department. It would have brought both governments down (and would likely have resulted in a UN protectorate and the end of the worst war profiteering).

After they interrogated him, and outed his name to the press, they sent him home apparently without surveillance or protection. He was soon found dead, outdoors near his home, supposedly having taken painkillers, and slit one wrist, and then bled to death all night out in the cold and rain--a most improbable method of suicide for a tough guy scientist (and that is not the least of improbabilities). (There were many dissenting experts on the conclusion of suicide; as well as eyewitness dissenters and highly suspicious details--not enough blood at the scene, body moved--all ignored by the official "Lord Hutton" inquiry, which exonerated the Blairites and blamed Kelly's "suicide" on the BBC! Really--the report is rubbish--except for the detail of Blair learning on July 7 that the concern was not for what he had said, but would he could say.)

One of Kelly's last emails was to Judith Miller--in which he expressed concern about the "many dark actors playing games." (There is more to tell about Miller, which I won't do here.) In various emails just before he died, he was looking forward to his daughter's wedding and returning to Iraq, and thought the controversy surrounding him (big in England) would blow over in a week. (Possibly he had assured his bosses he would say nothing more, and thought that was an end to it.) Upbeat, forward-looking; no note.

But even if it was suicide, it might still be related to the Plame outing. The coincidence of dates is very provocative--most especially regarding the search of Kelly's computers and the SECOND Plame outing (of the entire CIA company). (Why would they have done the second outing, at much greater risk, just to "punish" Wilson? There is no cover story for that.)

This is all based on guesses and surmises--and I'm posting it in the hope that a real investigator will get on it. I have no insider knowledge, only what I read on the internet. And Joe Wilson has said some things--and has a general view of this event--that flatly contradicts this theory. (For instance, he has said that the goal was to get him, not his wife; and that his wife and Judith Miller are "collateral damage.")

I wouldn't want to downplay Wilson's role in exposing these liars--he has been incredibly courageous. Nor do I want to downplay the Bush Cartel's sheer political ugliness and meanness. But I think something more than political revenge was at work.

Whatever the truth of Kelly's death, I hope we some day find out, and, if I am correct that his action spared us triumphal speeches by Bush and Blair on their phony "find" of WMDs in Iraq, that we can properly honor him for it, and anyone else who helped stop it.

[peacetalksforall]

9. Peace Patriot....

thanks for the right emphasis - this is more about wmd and less about revenge. It is misleading to dwell on revenge. Even though Wilson stated revenge, he probably could not say any more. I would like to believe that he gave us enough to get started, but everyone, specifically journalists, their editors, and their owners keep us at a personality and human character level talking about revenge and won't rise up to the bigger picture. Thank God for the true journalists. A condemnation to the propagand artists.

Thanks for your post.

I like your name.

[Henny Penny]

10. Very interesting stuff. Miller links WMD, Kelly and Plame....

What you say is speculation, its just that it seems very plausible....

You are the first person I have seen to link Judith Miller now in jail, to Judith Miller one of the last recipients of an email (and a sinister one at that) from Dr. Kelly.

Journalists must surely have spotted these links right from the off and yet no mention of them.

Good work on your part.

:toast:

[CantGetFooledAgain]

13. If true...

...holy fucking shit.

[Hissyspit]

15. The one thing that I expected since 2000 that didn't happen...

is the planting of evidence of WMD. Your hypothesis is plausible.

[goforit]

11. Fascinating juveniles.

[Hissyspit]

14. Calvin from 'Calvin and Hobbes:'

"Sometimes I think adults just ACT like they know what they're doing."

[Mugsy]

12. Apparently, Bush wasn't the only "kid" eager to "play war".

I especially liked the snadbox ("sandpit") reference. I can just picture a young Blair and Bush, lying in a sandbox with their leather helmets, peeking over the edge going "bang bang" with clockwork toy tanks.

And the image of Cheney slumped in his chair like an old grump, indignant and impatient that they can't just go and invade Iraq, but must instead humor the Brits to make them think they have some input in the matter.