Friday, July 01, 2005

 

More (semi-old) DSM News

This is being bruited around the lefty part of the internet, particularly at BellaCiao and RawStory, but it's actually old news:

The Prime Minister has confirmed the authenticity of a Downing Street memo in which Sir Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, tells Mr Blair that the Bush administration was “fixing” the intelligence and facts about Saddam Hussein’s regime to back up a decision that had been taken to invade Iraq as early as July 2002. The Downing Street memo which was leaked to the Sunday Times newspaper in May 2005 has become a critical issue in the US. Senators Kennedy and Kerry have joined the escalating debate by writing to the President asking whether or not the memo was authentic and accurate. Downing Street has previously refused to comment on the memo’s authenticity, but challenged for the first time on the floor of the House of Commons the Prime Minister has finally confirmed its authenticity. Speaking after Prime Minister’s Questions, Adam Price MP said: “The confirmation that the memo is authentic will cause ripples throughout the United States where 122 Members of the US Congress have written to the President asking if Sir Richard Dearlove’s statement in the memo, that ‘the intelligence and the facts are being fixed around the policy’ is correct. “I challenged the Prime Minister on whether Sir Richard Dearlove was a reliable intelligence source, and if so, could he confirm whether his statement was an accurate assessment of the Bush administration’s intentions and actions. In his answer, the Prime Minister refuses to distance himself from the assessment made by the former head of MI6 and simply goes on to say resolution 1441 changed the position. I fail to see how this is relevant to my question. “Today is a significant step forward in establishing the truth about the US and UK’s policy to invade Iraq. However difficult it proves to extract information about the war from the government, the Prime Minister must be held to account by Parliament, and the President must be held to account by Congress.”
Blair has actually never denied that the memos are genuine. He's tried to minimize their importance, but he's never dared pull a Bush and flat-out lie about their authenticity. Still, this is something that will sadly be ignored by the US press, especially now that the O'Connor Brawl is starting.


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