Democratic forum focuses on 'Downing Street memo'
Thursday, June 16, 2005 Posted: 3:31 PM EDT (1931 GMT)
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Some congressional Democrats, brandishing a document known as the "Downing Street memo," are insisting that the White House provide more information about what led to the decision to go to war in Iraq.
Rep. John Conyers, D-Michigan, and other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee were conducting a public forum Thursday afternoon, prompted by documents that have surfaced from inside the British government about pre-war planning.
The Downing Street memo says the Bush administration believed that war was inevitable and was determined to use intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the ouster of Saddam.
The "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy," says the memo, recounting a July 23, 2002 meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his national security team. The meeting took place just after British officials returned from Washington.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/06/16/downingst.memo.ap/index.html