WashPost's report on Downing St Memo just hit the AP wire!

[sabra]

<<SNIP>>
http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/11874574.htm

Posted on Sat, Jun. 11, 2005

U.K. memo said to question postwar plan

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - A staff paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair eight months before the invasion of Iraq concluded that U.S. military officials were not planning adequately for a postwar occupation, The Washington Post reported.

"A post-war occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise," authorities of the briefing memo wrote, according to the Post. "As already made clear, the U.S. military plans are virtually silent on this point. Washington could look to us to share a disproportionate share of the burden."

The eight-page memo was written in advance of a July 23, 2002, meeting at Blair's Downing Street offices, the Post said in Sunday editions.
It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that excerpts made available to Post were confirmed as authentic by British sources who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.

The Post said the introduction to the memo - "Iraq: Conditions for Military Action" - said U.S. "military planning for action against Iraq is proceeding apace," but that "little thought" has been given to, among other things, "the aftermath and how to shape it."


<</SNIP>>

UK memo said to question postwar plan
Kansas.com, KS - 5 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK Memo Said to Question Postwar Plan
New York Newsday, NY - 8 minutes ago
By Associated Press. ... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday ...

UK memo said to question postwar plan
Kansas City Star, MO - 9 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK memo said to question postwar plan
Albany Times Union, NY - 9 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK Memo Said to Question Postwar Plan
The Ledger, FL - 9 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK memo said to question postwar plan
Centre Daily Times, PA - 10 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK memo said to question postwar plan
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, IN - 10 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK memo said to question postwar plan
Monterey County Herald, CA - 10 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK memo said to question postwar plan
San Jose Mercury News, CA - 10 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

UK memo said to question postwar plan
Kentucky.com, KY - 9 minutes ago
... It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that ...

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. A dam has broken.

Now, we must battle complacency.

[sabra]

3. This is going to be reported in various local papers tomorrow.

Wow, what a great way to start the week! Plus we are just about @ 500k with Conyers letter. What timing!

[FreedomAngel82]

18. This is great!

Of course I'm wondering what's going on. Are "management" going to bring Bush down or what? :shrug: They did Nixon and made him resign so I wonder. :shrug: :tinfoilhat: (time to need that)

[Stinky The Clown]

29. If 'management' takes him down, it is just a lull in the sotrm

Now, if *we the people* do the deed .... this storm, at least, may be over.

[rodeodance]

60. too bad this broke on a Sunday--

[Coexist]

2. kick

[Roxy66]

4. Wow..great catch. This is it!!

[sabra]

5. 27 hits on the AP report and growing...

[DeepGreen]

6. Fantastic !!

Thanks for putting this together !

:toast:

[zapp]

7. Last Sentence:

"Blair denied at a news conference with President Bush last week that intelligence was manipulated to justify the war"

Notice that he didn't deny the existence of the minutes, meeting, or content.

[sabra]

10. Oh, we are way beyond that...

the days of Scotty denying it's validity are gone... we are in the next stage now....

[suziedemocrat]

21. To think I almost went to bed early! What a night! BradBlog and the AP

Maybe the tide IS finally turning!!!

[Karenina]

36. It's about time!

[LightningFlash]

13. All senators, republican, democrat, independant....

It's time to rally them all together.....Impeachment for these crimes. :mad: :mad: :mad:

Impeachment for our dead.....For the lies, for the weapons that never existed and all of Tony Blair's complicit coverup in PNAC's wargame!!!!!! :banghead: :banghead:

Wake them up......All of them.

Impeachment for allowing 9/11 to happen.....Crime, set, match!

Impeachment for allowing the 2004 stolen election.....Blackwell and Thomas sentenced to jail!!!

Impeachment for showing no remorse in the 2000 election.....Judges failing to uphold the law!!

Impeachment for all the Halliburton scandals.....Billions of dollars missing from the treasury!

The crux that overshadowed them all.......IMPEACHMENT for throwing us into war, with more than one country, OVER A LIE!!!!! :banghead: :banghead: :banghead:

[FreedomAngel82]

20. Hell yes!

John Kerry and John Edwards should be in that White House now.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

39. i wrote the Kerry people yesterday and told them I was

disappointed that he hadn't been pushing the DSM.

[Just Me]

47. CONVICT THE BASTARDS!!!!

:grr:

[Proud2BAmurkin]

8. drip drip drip

heheh

[Blue_In_AK]

9. Oh, oh, oh -- I hope it's in the Anchorage Daily News tomorrow...

They had Sensenbrenner in this morning, so I have hopes. This is so exciting.

[sabra]

11. 33 hits.... wow this is being picked up everywhere!

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. Let's keep the pressure on the Mainstream Media!

:bounce:


Just a reminder of some very, very important links:

To sign Congressman Conyers’ letter

http://www.johnconyers.campaignoffice.com


To put and keep pressure on the Mainstream Media:

http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/takeaction.html#awaken


http://www.afterdowningstreet.org


LISTEN TO THE RANDI RHODES SHOW-to keep up daily with what’s going on with--THE DOWNING STREET MEMO:

http://www.therandirhodesshow.com


Peace
O8)

Here is my standard letter to the Media:


Dear Sir/Madam:

As you know, on May 1 of this year a document now commonly referred to as “|The Downing Street Memo” was released into the British Press. This document raises serious question about how the administration was handling intelligence related to Iraq and appears to suggest that the Bush Administration had already decided on war when publicly it was claiming that no such decision had been made.

This document and perhaps other documents suggest that the Bush administration was determined to “fix intelligence” around a predetermined policy.

It is most disturbing that there has been a virtual media blackout regarding “The Downing Street Memo”. Even more disturbing is the absence in the America media of any credible discussion or coverage regarding strong, credible and independent evidence that the Bush Administration intentionally mislead the U.S. Congress, the media and the American people.

I do hope you will accept the responsibility to address this issue and provide serious investigative journalism into this matter.

Furthermore, on Thursday June 16, 2005, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other House members will hold a hearing to consider testimony concerning the Downing Street minutes and questions of possible fixing of prewar intelligence. I do hope you will be giving full coverage to these events.

Sincerely,

[jillan]

14. And conveniently this is hitting the MSM before Thursday!

:toast: :toast: :toast:
Thursday, as in the day Conyer's letter with 500k+ signatures will be delivered.

[LunaC]

35. Exceptional letter

I couldn't possibly improve it.....may I borrow it? (Why reinvent the wheel, 'ya know?)

[Douglas Carpenter]

61. of course

you flatter me--O8)

[symbolman]

37. PLEASE USE THE TERM DS "MINUTES"

Very important legally.. much more binding, Memo denotes a Post-it Note, MINUTES are something everyone at the meeting were aware of and are much more official..

Joe sixpack needs to realise the importance of these papers and we need to NOT give the right any more reason to marginalize or dismiss this :)

A rose is a rose..

[DeepGreen]

15. A link to Yahoo to cast your vote !

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050612/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_postwar;_ylt=AmDfHnf2CWFmpseFDr7bV6pvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[Lorien]

16. Freepers are voting it down

C'mon all-give it a 5!

[Laurab]

17. and a kick because it's being freeped

:kick:

[sabra]

19. 41 hits...

[DearAbby]

23. Round Two...The dam is gonna blow!

:popcorn:

[DeepGreen]

22. Kick !!!!! We need more votes !!!

And,,, and e-mail it from Yahoo !

[burrowowl]

24. KICK!

and sign Conyers Petition if you haven't already!

[radio4progressives]

25. Hey Folks, could a more misleading headline be created do ya think?

The AP headline is a joke. Obviously they have their WH marching orders to play this story way down and that's exactly what they did.

arrrggggh....

[wtmusic]

62. They've already 'confessed' to underestimating the 'insurgency'

so they're trying to spin this for damage control (let's not mention the war was repeatedly sold as a last resort)

[yorkiemommie1]

26. rated and kicked

n/t

[kimchi]

27. Testify, testify, expose the lies.,,

The truth is getting out.

[sabra]

28. 52 hits...

[Poiuyt]

30. I'm sorry, but I think the story is kind of wimpy

"Bush administration believed war was inevitable" Please!

[sabra]

31. hey, it's the AP, what do we expect?

However it's getting picked up everywhere... which leads to exposure.... and that's a good thing.

[rodeodance]

40. Headline for Yahoo story is whimpy also

U.K. Memo Said to Question Postwar Plan

[BrklynLiberal]

32. kicked and nominated and voted on Yahoo

[lfairban]

33. 62 hits, newest 9min. ago

http://news.google.com/news?q=U.K.+memo+said+to+question+postwar+plan&hl=en&lr=&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&scoring=d

[Maraya1969]

34. Here is what I say when I write to news media that have not covered

the story yet. Something like this:

Blah Blah Blah.............Do you want to be the very LAST news outlet to report on this news flash? OR:

Your lack of coverage will most certainly let the real news organizations know that you lag far behind them.


I am soooooooooooo done with the "be nice" thing. If humiliation works, I'll use it. O8)

[rodeodance]

46. 1014 votes--on yahoo story--I had to go to IE as Firefox would not

take my rating--anyway it as 3 and half stars as far as i can tell. i do not like their new rating system!!

[magellan]

38. I'm getting "404 not found" on every link I try at google

Can somebody please verify. I even went to the Star Tribune homepage and the story is not among the top news stories.

:tinfoilhat: ???

[sabra]

42. seems cool here?

[MelissaB]

44. Did you click the links to go to the articles? nt

[MelissaB]

43. Oh, shit! Me, too!

:tinfoilhat:

[rodeodance]

50. the headlines use slightly different words 'flubbed' questioned etc

so lots of google hits if play around with the wording.
Kansas paper--in first post here comes up fine also.

[MelissaB]

53. It is finally working again.

That was really weird!

[sabra]

41. 110 hits...

http://news.google.com/news?q=U.K.+memo+said+to+questio...

[sabra]

45. FAUX:U.K. Memo: U.S. Flubbed Iraq Postwar Plan

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159287,00.html

[rodeodance]

49. Fox--'flupped"--what the heck it that?

[Stephanie]

48. Remember the extensive planning done by the State Dept?

And then discarded by the Pentagon? Remember that? The freaking idiot neocons are so self-deluded. It's a fact that the stupider someone is the more likely he is to overrate his own intelligence. How long before we can try them for war crimes? Rummy, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, CHENEY, I'm talking to YOU.

[rodeodance]

51. "Leaked Cabinet Briefing Shows British Knew War was Illegal"Juan Cole

He talks of the international criminal court at the end of article--well worth a good read.

http://www.juancole.com/
Sunday, June 12, 2005

Leaked Cabinet Briefing Shows British Knew War was Illegal

The London Times has dropped another bombshell document concerning the planning of the Iraq war in Washington and London.

The leaked Cabinet office briefing paper for the July 23, 2002, meeting of principals in London, the minutes of which have become notorious as the Downing Street Memo, contains key context for that memo. The briefing paper warns the British cabinet in essence that they are facing jail time because Blair promised Bush at Crawford in April, 2002, that he would go to war against Iraq with the Americans.

As Michael Smith reports for the London Times, "regime change" is illegal in international law without a United Nations Security Council resolution or other recognized sanction (national self-defense, or rescuing a population from genocide, e.g.). Since the United Kingdom is signatory to the International Criminal Court, British officials could be brought up on charges for crimes like "Aggression."

Smith quotes the briefing and then remarks on how it shows Bush and Blair to be lying when they invoke their approach to the UN as proof that they sought a peaceful resolution of the Iraq crisis:


' “It is just possible that an ultimatum could be cast in terms which Saddam would reject,” the document says. But if he accepted it and did not attack the allies, they would be “most unlikely” to obtain the legal justification they needed.

The suggestions that the allies use the UN to justify war contradicts claims by Blair and Bush, repeated during their Washington summit last week, that they turned to the UN in order to avoid having to go to war. The attack on Iraq finally began in March 2003. '........

[rodeodance]

52. Article 5 of ICC from Juan Cole article

"Article 5
Crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court

1. The jurisdiction of the Court shall be limited to the most serious crimes of concern to the international community as a whole. The Court has jurisdiction in accordance with this Statute with respect to the following crimes:

(a) The crime of genocide;

(b) Crimes against humanity;

(c) War crimes;

(d) The crime of aggression."



It is not clear to me that the court is yet able to take up the crime of aggression, because legal work remained to be done in defining the crime precisely and in having that language adopted by the UNSC.

If it were able to do so, some groups in Europe may now feel that there is a basis for proceeding against the Blair government for knowingly committing an act of aggression. They might argue that when, in March, 2003, it became clear that the United Nations Security Council would not authorize a war against Iraq; and when it was clear from the reports of the UN weapons inspectors that they were finding no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs; and when it was murky as to whether Saddam was actively killing any significant numbers of Iraqis in 2001-2003--that Blair should have pulled out and refused to cooperate in an Iraq invasion. The cabinet brief and the memo of the July 23 meeting demonstrate conclusively that members of the Blair government knew that they were involved in plans that were as of that moment illegal, and that no legal basis for them might be forthcoming. Ignorance is no excuse under the law, but here even ignorance could not be pleaded........

[stickdog]

54. 121 hits. But this article is PURE SPIN. The real lead story is buried.

The real lead story is cooked intelligence. The article pretends British doubts about US post-war planning is the "bombshell."

This article serves two purposes, mass misdirection and AP CYA.

[psychopomp]

56. Mmm hmm I'll second that

Really a misdirection so that average readers will miss the main point: fixing the intel around the intent to go to war.

[Anywho6]

55. WP story buried on page A26 in Sac Bee eom

[Blue_In_AK]

57. Page 10 here, but at least it was there... n/t

[rodeodance]

58. Report: British had doubts on U.S. postwar plan in Iraq (CNN story)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3844923


Report: British had doubts on U.S. postwar plan in Iraq

Sunday, June 12, 2005 Posted: 9:26 AM EDT (1326 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A staff paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair eight months before the invasion of Iraq concluded that U.S. military officials were not planning adequately for a postwar occupation, The Washington Post reported.

"A postwar occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise," authorities of the briefing memo wrote, according to the Post. "As already made clear, the U.S. military plans are virtually silent on this point. Washington could look to us to share a disproportionate share of the burden."

The eight-page memo was written in advance of a July 23, 2002, meeting at Blair's Downing Street offices, the Post said in Sunday editions.

It said the memo and other internal British government documents were originally obtained by Michael Smith of the London Sunday Times and that excerpts made available to Post were confirmed as authentic by British sources who sought anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter........

[rodeodance]

59. Average (1294 votes) not in the top 20 anymore on the Yahoo site.

Average (1294 votes)

[wtmusic]

63. Write AP

great that it's covered, but disappointing focus

[e-mail]