AfterDowningStreet: One page DSM talking points document

[understandinglife]

David Swanson of AfterDowningStreet.org has distributed a one page .pdf file of talking-points relevant to the Downing Street Minutes:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/talkingpoints.pdf

It, along with the special item from "Hijacking Catastrophe" re: DowningStreet are useful items to spread to folk requiring background on the issues:

http://hijackingcatastrophe.org/downingstreet

And, I find this graphic representation from the "Intelligence Squad" quite effective:


http://www.intelligencesquad.com/id118.html

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - We have all the evidence of mendacity and illegal war-making we need to indict and prosecute Bush, Blair and every other neoconster scum-bag on the planet having any involvement in the Bush's illegal war on Iraq and all the torture and other atrocities that have been committed since August 2002.

[goclark]

1. Kick but isn't it MINUTES?

The graphics say MEMO

[understandinglife]

3. I know. We are all doing everything we can to get folk to substitute ...

... "Minutes" for "memo" when referencing this particular document.

Thank you.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - Please, everyone, don't stop at 500,000 signatures; don't stop at 10,000,000 signatures; don't stop until Bush and the neoconsters are indicted and prosecuted for their heinous crimes against humanity and our Constitution.

[Toots]

10. Actually truth be told it is Memo containing portion of official minutes

Memo of the minutes so probably both are basically correct.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

12. At this point in time we need to use whatever term the public is....

...familiar with, and then beat it over the heads of the NeoCons.

[Norquist Nemesis]

2. Anyone know anything about

the "letter being circulated by John Kerry"? I wonder if this is the action he's taking when he told a reporter he was going to bring up the issue. :)

[understandinglife]

4. A DailyKos thread on Senator Kerry's letter and the Raw Story links:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/15/10371/8315

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Kerry_confidantes_say_senator_is_seeking_others_to_cosign_letter_on_Downing_mi_0614.html

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[DoYouEverWonder]

5. Great graphic

Pass it around.

[katinmn]

6. Thanks, understanding... I love that chart!

[understandinglife]

7. "The unavoidable conclusion is - British and American citizens were duped"

The StarTribune Editorial, today, is a cogent summary that should also be distributed widely.

Editorial: Fig leaf for war/Paper indicates U.N. was misled

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5457360.html

2 grafs:

"Many Bush critics accused him of "using" the United Nations to justify war, rather than truly working to avoid military conflict. But they were naturally suspect because they oppose U.S. policy. The British briefing paper is especially significant because it comes from a government that is not only astute, but is also quite friendly to Bush's objective of invading Iraq. The unavoidable conclusion is that both British and American citizens were duped into hoping that the United Nations would make such a conflict unnecessary. In fact, Britain eagerly and the United States reluctantly went to the United Nations to get a fig leaf of respectability for a war on which they had already decided.

In the end, the Security Council refused to play its role, arguing that the weapons inspectors needed more time (actually ample time) to complete their mission. Then the United States threw up its hands, branded Security Council members a bunch of hand-wringing pansies, and went to war. As the British briefing paper makes clear, that was pre-ordained.

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[Spazito]

8. Excellent editorial!

Thanks for posting the link! It says it all in an understandable, succinct manner. I am saving this for sure.

[understandinglife]

9. Salon: "Bush is not above the law" by Kevin Zeese

June 15, 2005
The fundamental question is whether Congress and the American people were misled into an unnecessary, illegal war that has turned into a quagmire. Are the indications of false statements and misrepresentations sufficient to justify a pursuit of the truth?

The evidence includes a series of exaggerated and false claims by President Bush, Vice President Cheney and officials in their administration over many months as the drumbeat for war grew louder. Statements were made in contradiction to the evidence included in intelligence documents from a wide range of U.S. and international agencies. As weapons inspectors were unable to find weapons of mass destruction, President Bush's rhetoric increased to the point of warning of a potential mushroom cloud over the United States generated by a nuclear attack by Saddam Hussein.

<snip>

For shame. Let us hope we have not gotten so cynical about the honesty of the president of the United States that we would allow him to lie to send American troops to their death! Surely this type of dishonesty is, as Mark Tushnet of Georgetown University Law Center noted in his Salon commentary, "exactly what the impeachment provision is all about." He went on to properly describe impeachment as a "mechanism for removing from office a person who had demonstrated the kind of political irresponsibility that seriously threatened the nation's political institutions."

<snip>

It is time once again for Congress to take up its constitutional responsibility as a coequal branch of government and provide a check and balance on a president who seems to have broken the law by manipulating intelligence and sending the nation to war.


About the writer
Kevin Zeese is an attorney who directs Democracy Rising US. He coauthored "The 'I' Word" with Ralph Nader, a column published in the Boston Globe.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2005/06/15/case_for_bush_impeachment/index_np.html

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[proud patriot]

11. After Downing Street (dot) ORG is on the front of my car right now

Great site , hopefully I'm helping to get a few more eyes on it .

[iconoclastNYC]

13. Those aren't talking points. Talking points are very short, bulleted items

That is something else.

[understandinglife]

15. David Swanson has entitled the document "Talking Points" and ...

.... that is why they are labeled as such in this post.

The .pdf contains three 'bullets' for members of Congress and for Senators:

FOR CONGRESS MEMBERS:

• Please introduce or support a Resolution of Inquiry into possible grounds for impeachment of the President in relation to justifications for the war.

• Please co-sponsor the Resolution of Inquiry that is being drafted by Congresswoman Barbara Lee's office, although it does not do everything that is needed, because it does not mention impeachment.

• Please contact Congressman John Conyers' office and support his work on this issue.

FOR SENATORS:

• Please urge the House of Representatives to introduce and pass a Resolution of Inquiry into possible grounds for impeachment of the President in relation to justifications for the war.

• Please sign letter being circulated by Senator John Kerry.

• Please contact Senator Ted Kennedy's office and support his work on this issue.

I'm sure David Swanson would appreciate any input you may want to provide AfterDowningStreet.org. His email is david (at) davidswanson.org

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[understandinglife]

14. "Downing Street Memo: Deception and Cover-Up"

Institute for Public Accuracy

Interviews Available

On Thursday June 16, 2005, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room HC-9 of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other members of Congress will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of White House efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.

Later on the same day at 5:00 p.m. ET in Lafayette Square Park, in front of the White House, Congressman Conyers will deliver to the White House a letter addressed to President Bush and signed by over 500,000 Americans and over 90 members of Congress. The letter asks the President to respond to questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes.

Among those speaking at the hearings will be: Joe Wilson, former U.S. ambassador and WMD expert; Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst who prepared regular presidential briefings during the Reagan administration; Cindy Sheehan, mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq; and John Bonifaz, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org.

The following are available for interviews:

JOHN BONIFAZ, DAVID SWANSON,
http://www.AfterDowningStreet.org
Bonifaz and Swanson are two of the co-founders of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition which is urging Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The Downing Street Memo consists of minutes of a meeting with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top foreign policy advisors in July 2002 before the U.S. Congressional and UN votes on Iraq. The minutes state that: "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us