Home > Don’t demand answers; demand resignation

Don’t demand answers; demand resignation

by Open-Publishing - Friday 13 May 2005
18 comments

Wars and conflicts International USA UK

Tony Blair has been taking quite a beating lately in the United Kingdom. Despite having just won a third term as prime minister, his party has been dealt a severe blow, resulting in the loss of nearly 100 seats in Parliament. Responsible for this setback is the recent leak of a top-secret U.K. internal government memo, which recorded the minutes of a meeting between British Prime Minister Blair and other key figures in British intelligence and military outfits, and the very embarrassing content therein.

The text of the memo is available online, as it appeared in full in the London Times edition of May 1, and it sounds awfully exciting ... very cloak and dagger. It begins with the warning "secret and strictly personal — U.K. eyes only."

Farther down the page, just before the body of the memo is the following: "This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents."

And what exactly is it that we’re not supposed to see? Nothing less than proof positive that the Bush administration was dead set on invading Iraq well before it was declared publicly that such a decision had been made. But this is only the tip of the iceberg.

According to the head of MI-6, known as "C," "There was a perceptible shift in attitude [in Washington]. Military action was now seen as inevitable. 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."

Well, there it all is, wrapped up nicely in one little paragraph. Bush wanted to invade Iraq, and he wanted to justify his actions by tying WMD to his shiny new war on terrorism. And that last part is the best; facts were "fixed" around the policy. "Fixed" is apparently British for "outright lies pulled out of the nearest ass."

Why were the facts being fixed? Well, let’s read on. According to British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, (their equivalent of our secretary of state), "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran."

Huh ... the case was thin. But I thought Iraq was a "grave and gathering threat" to all Americans and to the entire world. At least that’s what Bush said. And he and Cheney implied at every turn that Saddam was connected to some vague and nebulous network of evil brown people who were going to detonate one 50 megaton rainbow colored atomic bomb for each and every vote cast for John Kerry last November.

They were forced to rely on this fear motive because, as the British attorney general points out, "the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defense, humanitarian intervention or UNSC (United Nations Security Council) authorisation." And in his estimation, "the first and second could not be the base in this case."

This just serves to illustrate the differences between the British government and ours.

What did Bush do? Exactly what the Brits said could not be done. He relied initially on the fabricated self-defense motive based on imaginary WMDs, and then when that fell through, he switched gears to the humanitarian role, wrapping himself in the flag and pretending to give a damn about the Iraqi people.

At the time of this writing, almost nothing has been said in the American media about this, in sharp contrast to England, where the members of Tony Blair’s Labour Party just had their asses handed to them. There have been some mentions lately though, most notably in the Chicago Tribune, though there is nowhere near enough coverage. Print coverage is great, but we have to remember that most Americans don’t read their news. They are largely lazy, ignorant bastards who have to see a story on TV for it to be real.

And why shouldn’t this story be trying up the 24-hour news stations day and night? There is finally irrefutable evidence of what everyone with half a brain knew from the start. This war was engineered by Bush and his minions, and he lied to the entire world to wage it, resulting directly in thousands upon thousands of deaths.

If a blow job is an impeachable offense, then this schmuck should be tried for his war crimes and subject to capital punishment if convicted.

But there is no real outrage here in the states, because people don’t know about it. Even the ones who do know are taking it fairly easy on those responsible. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, along with more than 80 other members of Congress, have issued a press release demanding answers to questions "about confirmed reports of a pre-war deal between Great Britain and the United States and unassailable corroboration that pre-war intelligence was intentionally manipulated."

Conyers continues, "These allegations strike at the heart of our democracy and present the most troubling constitutional questions. Did the administration lie to the American people about its intentions with respect to Iraq? Did the administration engineer a confrontation with Saddam Hussein to justify the war? Did the administration deliberately manipulate intelligence to deceive the American people about the strength of its case for war?"

I am glad that Conyers has taken some action, but I am troubled by the weakness of this action. The answers he seeks are in the memo. The answer to every one of the above questions is a resounding "yes." And this is known to Conyers, as he himself refers to the memo as unassailable.

Our congressional representatives should not be demanding answers that cannot be given, they should instead be demanding resignations and impeachment.

http://barometer.orst.edu/vnews/dis...

IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY

Forum posts

  • Welcome to Orwell’s World! Although the author was off in his predictions by 20 years, he seems to have got the rest more or less right, and Bush and Company are working hard to it reality.

  • okay, why is it you people continue to forget that Iraq has been at war with us since 91! Iraq just didnt pop up one day out of nowhere. Iraq would have been an issue for any president after 9/11. Bush had to do something. God Bless him! God Bless him! You hate Bush so much that you are hysterical.

    • what about accountability? The Bush administration ran on a theme of accountability. So lets hold them accountable. Do you really think Iraq of all countries was going to attack the US? Who is hysterical? The war was unprovoked idiot. We attacked them, do you understand this concept?

    • Yes, you are right. Bush HAD to do something. Iraq was really a thorn in our side, wasn’t it? I mean, it kept saying nasty things and making vague threats that really weren’t based much in reality. Plus, all that horesplay with the weapons inspectors. Vile! It’s not like there were any other more pressing matter on the table, such as — oh, I don’t know — TERRORISM.

      Point of Information: The first Gulf War ended in 1991...definitively. Saddam might not have been our ally, but the U.S. was certainly not "at war" with him between 1991 and 2003, hence the reason Congress felt the need to vote to give the president the authority to take military action. Bush certainly had plenty of options, one of which would have been not to induce a war for the sake of fighting one. He could, for instance, chosen to fight the war on terrorism and root out terrorist cells. But how can you blame him for making up reasons to go to war with someone who’d be easier to deal with? Yay, politics.

      However, I would like to say that demanding resignation is a bit over the top at this juncture. I think verifying the document in question comes first. Congressman Conyers deserves our praise for asking the questions and raising the issue before the American public. Slowly, but surely, it’s catching on. Just demanding resignation would not be taken seriously.

    • While Junior was out riding his bicycle with his friend Wednesday afternoon (doesn’t this guy ever work?) Washingtonians were scrambling for their lives, including his stand-up comic wife, from the possible threat of a Cessna airplane that had strayed into DC air space.

      Was Junior told about the threat while it was unfolding? Of course not. His play time was more important. Afterwards, when the threat had been neutralized, our fearless leader was informed.

      But, we shouldn’t be too hard on Junior. After all, didn’t Nero "fiddle" while Rome burned? And, look how well he turned out.

    • Iraq has NOT been at war with us—AL QUAIDA has been at war with us, since BEFORE 9-11, since around, what was it, 1996, when they first tried to blow up the World Trade Center. Remember ol’ Osama bin Laden? There was a reason that we went into Afghanistan—of course, that had a bit to do with Khazakstan, Uzbekistan, and a certain oil pipeline, too. The fiction that Iraq was attacking us is what the Bush and Blair administrations manufactured in order to galvanize the populations of the two countries to accept a war on Iraq. You have obviously been watching a lot of the FOX "news" channels, and not noticing how the story out of the White House keeps changing to suit the political needs of its current occupants...it’s called propaganda, and Goebbels would be green with envy were he still alive to see how thoroughly effective it has been in the land of the free. You, sir, are drinking up the wine of oblivion and cheering on the man stealing from your pocket, killing your neighbor, and putting shackles on your ankles.
      Deirdre Helfferich
      US citizen

    • God Bless him? What, are you crazy? The president has sent thousands to their deaths in a war based on lies!

    • The last comment is ridiculous, but revealing.

      When will people like yourself begin to contemplate with humanity in mind?

      Your suggestion that Iraq would’ve been an issue for any U.S. President after 9-11 would be otherwise laughable if so many more lives weren’t lost because of such a position. It’s astonishing to me that people still believe that Iraq was in some way involved in 9-11. Since 91’ we have annihilated that country with embargos that left many thousands of people without proper nutrition and necessary supplies for a reasonable standard of living.
      Hating Bush has nothing to do with the reality that seems to evade the perceptive senses of individuals like yourself. He should be impeached and held responsible for the lack of credible evidence that was touted during the U.S.’s preperation for this invasion.

      Apathy is at an all time high, thank you Chemtrails, thank you DARPA, thank you HAARP, thank you Flouride, thank you Pharmaceutical Giants.
      And thank you, last commentor, for illustrating how a small group of heartless individuals can rape and pillage a World filled with hope....

    • The reason that Junior was not informed of the "attack" by a small plane that was lost was because they didn’t want him to pee his pants. Condi (mammy) had already changed his pants twenty times that day and she was plum tuckered out. Cleaning up after Georgie is a big thankless job.

    • Iraq was never at war with us, never threatened us, never attacked us and even george w. bush admitted "there is no evidence that Iraq is connected to 9/11". Iraq is an unjust, illegal war and we should hold our officials accountable.

  • That’s right GOD BLESS President Bush, and also, let’s not forget, God Bless Tony Blair, for standing up to these pinhead leftists who HATE both men, HATE America, and love everything about dictators and tyranny. Why don’t you people start demanding that Iran give up its’ nuclear ambitions, if you are so against nuclear war?? Can you answer me that? Your silence is deafening, and the same thing is going to happen again: the Useless Nations will not act because that gutless, treacherous peacock of a Jacq-ass Chirac will threaten another VETO, and then President Bush will have no choice but to declare the UN null and voice (once and for all!!)
    and proceed with a military strike. Which is what you don’t want, now is it? Or maybe it is.

    What are your solutions? I mean realistic solutions. Do you have any?

    • The reason is that thinking people in this country know that Bush is the biggest terriorist on the planet. And we do not want Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions because they and all of the other nuclear countries need to keep their missiles trained on the U.S.A. pointed at Washington DC to keep our maniacal murdering bastard from destroying our planet with his thousands of nuclear warheads. The US has enough nuclear weapons to destroy the entire planet 100 times over and we do not trust that fucker not to use them again like we did on the Japanese. The US is the biggest terror nation and we not only have enough nuclear weapons to outnumber all of the other countries combined stockpiles several times over, we are the only country that has used them not once but twice. So who could trust us???

  • Lets say it is a real document from one Brit to another Brit, which says the first Brit thinks the Bush Administration was planning to go to war no matter what. I think that about summarizes it.

    So it is this Brit’s opinion that Bush was dead set on goin to war in Iraq. It is still just his OPINION.

    Now lets look as to the MOTIVE for releasing the "secret internal memo"; it was released to try to get the public to VOTE AGAINST Tony Blair and as a result your memo issue gets washed down the toilet.

    This "inteligence" memo is an assessment, an INTERPRETATION of the tea leaves that someone in MI6 digested period.

    Now if they had in fact heard or gotten their hands on a document from our US government which said that the Bush Administration was going to War regardless and they were willing to "construct a case for war" and blatantly disregard any other intelligence THEN YOU’D HAVE SOMETHING THERE but as it stands this is still just somebody’s opinion.

    This issue is DOA simply because the above is absolutely 100% correct! It is just an OPINION expressed in a MEMO for a POLITICAL PURPOSE!

    Sorry if that ruins your day. NAW NOT REALLY SORRY!

  • Lets say it is a real document from one Brit to another Brit, which says the first Brit thinks the Bush Administration was planning to go to war no matter what.

    I think that about summarizes it.

    So it is this Brit’s opinion that Bush was dead set on goin to war in Iraq.

    It is still just his OPINION.

    Now lets look as to the MOTIVE for releasing the "secret internal memo"; it was released to try to get the public to VOTE AGAINST Tony Blair and as a result your memo issue gets washed down the toilet.

    This "inteligence" memo is an assessment, an INTERPRETATION of the tea leaves that someone in MI6 digested period.

    Now if they had in fact heard or gotten their hands on a document from our US government which said that the Bush Administration was going to War regardless and they were willing to "construct a case for war" and blatantly disregard any other intelligence THEN YOU’D HAVE SOMETHING THERE but as it stands this is still just somebody’s opinion. Sorry if that ruins your day.

  • federal operatives posing as citizens have an ability to sound just like they are, federal operatives posing as citizens .... real citizens know about the lies and the war criminals .... however it is the late 30’ and the usa is germany ...so you won’t be hearing much about anything but michael jackson, and runaway brides in the main stream press.

  • I demand resignation. Resignation to the fact that there’s nothing left to do but kill every jihadist we can get our hands on.

    • I hear most of them are in Iraq and Afghanistan. If you’re so hell bent on killing them, that’s where you should be, not sitting at home comfortably typing fascist BS on your computer. Go to Iraq. Our military is calling you. Can’t you hear them? "Dumbo, come home..."

    • And so you crazy bastard have you enlisted? Because you belong over where you can be a Bush killer and maybe the rest of will get lucky and you will take a few bullets for your beloved leader, the world would be a better place for that. You could come home in a body bag and we would have one less stupid bastard on the planet think how great that would be.