(U-WIRE) -The odor is just starting to waft across the pond. It's coming from a little memo that was leaked to London's The Sunday Times and subsequently posted on its Web site at the beginning of May.
The memo, written by former British foreign policy aide Matthew Rycroft and titled SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL --UK EYES ONLY
concerns a meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and several members of his cabinet July 23, 2002.
What is particularly disturbing about the memo is that, despite having been written a year before the invasion of Iraq, it says, It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action [against Iraq] ... but the case was thin. In the same paragraph, it says, Saddam was not threatening his neighbors and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya North Korea or Iran. In other words, the memo details early efforts to cook the facts and create a case for going to war with Iraq. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors
it continues. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force. ... The prime minister said that it would make a big difference politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the U.N. inspectors. Regime change and WMD were linked in the sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD. ... If the political context were right
people would support regime change.
For readers who supported the war, the authenticity of the memo might need to be called into question. But to people who were against the war, it might convince them that their allegations of dishonesty from the Bush administration were right all along. Regardless of public reception, however, the Blair government has not disputed the memo's authenticity, and people are starting to take notice. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and 88 other members of Congress wrote a letter to President Bush on May 5 seeking confirmation as to whether the troubling allegations in the memo were authentic, according to an editorial by Sylvester Brown, Jr. in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
One fault cited by Conyers was the media's failure to cover the story. Instead, as always, the media focused on the more trivial things in life, such as the Michael Jackson trial and the runaway bride.
Assuming the memo is real, it is basically concrete evidence that Bush, Cheney and other members of his administration lied to the American public and, more damningly, to Congress, leading us into an unjust war. It also means that the Bush administration has the blood of 1,600 U.S. soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqis on its hands, not to mention all the money that has been wasted and all the embarrassment our country has endured.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media have decided that a supposedly-pedophilic pop star and an adulterous bride are more important issues. Not only that, but you can be impeached for lying to Congress about a sexual dalliance with an intern but get away with wasting tens of thousands of lives and billions of dollars. Bill Clinton nearly went down for lying about his affair with Monica Lewinsky, but the Bush Administration, whose members -if the memo's content is true -lied before Congress on numerous occasions, are getting away scot-free.
Perhaps the funny smell isn't emanating from Downing Street but from the television.
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