Raw Story acquires a new DSM type letter -- MUST READ!!

[DemsUnited]

Raw acquires copy of letter from British ambassador in lead-up to war: 'Need to wrongfoot Saddam'

Larisa Alexandrovna and John Byrne

RAW STORY has acquired a copy of the Mar. 18, 2002 letter dispatched from then-British ambassador to the United States Sir Christopher Meyer to Tony Blair's chief foreign policy advisor, David Manning.

The release comes on the heels of the third anniversary of the Downing Street minutes. The minutes documented a high-level meeting between the Blair and Bush governments, at which the director of British intelligence declared 'the facts were being fixed around the policy' before either nation sought approval for war.

The copy, obtained through British channels, provides further indication of the veracity of the documents and offers striking visual evidence that the communications were made at the highest levels of the Blair government. Meyer drafted the letter on British Embassy stationery.

In the letter from Meyer, he indicates that the British had a "need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors and the UN" Security Council Resolutions, possibly suggesting that the British and the United States were coordinating to 'trick' Saddam into starting a war.

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/raw_acquires_meyer_need_to_wrongfoot_saddam_718

[annabanana]

1. rah rah! raw raw...

good stuff

[Al-CIAda]

2. kick, rec'd.

[truebrit71]

3. Any bets on how long the rw will debate the meaning of "wrongfoot"...?

:eyes:

In plain English, the facts were fixed, SH was set-up, bush and Blair are complicit in an illegal invasion and occupation of a sovereign nation that had neither attacked nor indicated a willingness to attack either of the two agressor nations...

But as long as neither of them lied about getting a hummer from a chubby intern, both are fine, moral, upstanding leaders...

[AFSCME girl]

4. Recommended!

Thanks, DemsUnited!

[Ian David]

5. Wrongfoot (Def.)

wrong-foot
Verb
UK Definition:

1) in a sport, to hit or kick the ball so that the other player believes the ball will go in the opposite direction to the one in which it will really go in order to make them move in the wrong direction

2) {often passive} to cause someone to be in a difficult situation by doing something unexpected:
- The company was completely wrong-footed by the dollar's sudden recovery.

http://www.freesearch.co.uk/dictionary/wrongfoot

[bleever]

6. Rec'd, and kicked.

Rawstory rocks!

[understandinglife]

7. "The CIA stubbornly refused to recognize this."

I asked for Wolfowitz’s take on the struggle inside the Administration between the pro- and anti- INC lobbies (well documented in Sy Hersh’s recent New Yorker piece, which I gave you). He said that he found himself between the two sides (but as the conversation developed, it became clear that Wolfowitz is far more pro-INC than not).

He said that he was strongly opposed to what some were advocating: a coalition including all outside factions except the INC (INA, KDP, PUK, SCIRI). This would not work. Hostility towards the INC was in reality hostility towards Chalabi. It was true that Chalabi was not the easiest person to work with. Bute had a good record in bringing high-grade defectors out of Iraq. The CIA stubbornly refused to recognize this. They unreasonably denigrated the INC because of their fixation with Chalabi. When I mentioned that the INC was penetraded by Iraqi intelligence,

<clip>

More evidence that Bu$h and the neoconsters were committed to aggressive war on Iraq and they were going to allow nothing to stop them.

WATCH IT; SPREAD IT http://www.bushflash.com/right.html

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[Coexist]

8. kick

[Jack Rabbit]

9. This isn't new, is it?

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Spetember 21, 2004

The need to wrongfoot Saddam
The weekend's leaked No 10 papers have revealed the depth of official fears about the legality of the Iraq invasion - and the disaster it presaged
By Richard Norton-Taylor

Leaked Whitehall documents present an extraordinarily revealing picture of how Tony Blair's closest advisers and his foreign secretary, Jack Straw, warned him of the pitfalls of following the Bush administration's march to war against Iraq.

For Blair, it was inconceivable that the US would invade without Britain. He was desperate to get UN approval to satisfy parliamentary and public opinion. We know that Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, changed his advice to suit his client's wishes.

The secret papers, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, disclose the extent of concerns in Whitehall about Washington's openly stated objective - namely, regime change, considered illegal by British government lawyers - and the lengths to which senior British officials connived to manipulate opinion . . . .

"This makes moving quickly to invade legally very difficult," warned officials. They advised a long game or, as they put it, "a staged approach, establishing international support, building up pressure on Saddam and developing military plans".

Read more.

[Jackpine Radical]

10. Seemed a bit long in the tooth to me, too, Jack.

Could have sworn I'd read it before; the "wrongfoot Saddam" bit caused all my deja-vu neurons to fire at once.

[calimary]

11. Kick!

:toast:

[Dr Fate]

12. Too late. The Top DEMs have all decided the DSM is "old news."

Prove me wrong- what did Dean, Kerry, Hillary, Reid, Obama, etc say about it TODAY? YESTERDAY? The day before that?

[paineinthearse]

13. 6 hours and no reply, guess Dr. Fate's point is taken

Where are our "leaders"?

Oh well, guess this is another John Conyers will have to champion alone.

See http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000175.htm#comments #16, then give him 24 hours.

[Mairead]

14. Of course! It's a game with them -- the object is to keep us agitated

and dependent, not to solve the problem.

Actually, as long as the money pump keeps working, and they can quiet discontent with a bit of lip service, why would they even consider there to BE a problem?

[paineinthearse]

16. money pump

Well, I am on limited means, but I donated $50 to Conyers. My own congresscritters are sitting on fat warchests.

[lostnfound]

15. I question this letter. It almost whitewashes Wolfowitz's position.

He comes across as driven to remove Saddam for humanitarian reasons.
And believing in a link between Iraq and terrorism.

Either it is a fake, created well after the fact (the original was destroyed); or Wolfowitz viewed Ambassador Meyer like he viewed the public, telling the same simple fables about his motives as he would when he was peddling the war on TV.

[goodboy]

17. Good work, Larisa, and John! Kick! (nt)

[McCamy Taylor]

18. Damn!