- All truth passes through three stages: First, it is
ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed;
- and Third, it is accepted as self-evident. -- Arthur
Schopenhauer (1788-1860)
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- WASHINGTON, D.C. -
Institute for Public Accuracy - infoZine - On Thursday June 16, 2005, from
2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room HC-9 of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. John Conyers,
Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other members
of Congress will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related
evidence of White House efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.
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- Later on the same day at 5:00 p.m. ET in Lafayette Square
Park, in front of the White House, Congressman Conyers will deliver to
the White House a letter addressed to President Bush and signed by over
500,000 Americans and over 90 members of Congress. The letter asks the
President to respond to questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes.
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- Among those speaking at the hearings will be: Joe Wilson,
former U.S. ambassador and WMD expert; Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst
who prepared regular presidential briefings during the Reagan administration;
Cindy Sheehan, mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq; and John Bonifaz,
co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org.
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- John Bonifaz and David Swanson are two of the co-founders
of the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition which is urging Congress to begin
a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable
offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The Downing Street Memo consists
of minutes of a meeting with the British Prime Minister Tony Blair and
his top foreign policy advisors in July 2002 before the U.S. Congressional
and UN votes on Iraq. The minutes state that: "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."
[Video on the controversy.]
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- The Downing Street Memo Comes To Washington; Conyers
Blasts "Deafening Sound of Silence"
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- Ray Mcgovern was a 27-year career analyst with the CIA.
The Washington Post in its lead editorial yestreday writes: "The memos
add not a single fact to what was previously known about the administration's
prewar deliberations. Not only that: They add nothing to what was publicly
known in July 2002."
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- McGovern said yestreday: "If the editors of The
Washington Post knew that as of July, 2002, the President had, in the words
of the Downing Street Memo, 'inevitably' decided on war, if they knew that
the president intended to use as justification the conjunction between
terrorism and so-called weapons of mass destruction, and if they knew that
the intelligence and facts were being 'fixed' around the policy, then why
didn't they say that clearly at the time?"
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- Former director of the CIA's Office of Regional and Political
Analysis, William Christison said yesterday: "The Downing Street Memo
shows that war was not a last resort as the administration continues to
claim, but a first resort. While many of us came to that assessment before
the invasion, the Memo fits in with other things we have found out since
the invasion -- like revelations by former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neil
that Bush and others wanted to go after Iraq from the start."
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- Categories of War: The US Gameplan for Iraq
- http://www.infozine.com/exit.php?url=http://
www.counterpunch.org/christison02082003.html
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- As members of the steering committee for Veteran Intelligence
Professionals for Sanity, McGovern and Christison were among the authors
of the article "Cooking Intelligence for War", which appeared
just before the invasion of Iraq.
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- Joseph Wilson is author of the book "The Politics
of Truth: Inside the Lies that Led to War and Betrayed My Wife's CIA Identity."
He also wrote the New York Times op-ed in July 2003 titled "What I
Didn't Find in Africa," in which he stated: "The question now
is how that answer [the finding that Iraq did not obtain uranium from Niger]
was or was not used by our political leadership. If my information was
deemed inaccurate, I understand (though I would be very interested to know
why). If, however, the information was ignored because it did not fit certain
preconceptions about Iraq, then a legitimate argument can be made that
we went to war under false pretenses."
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- Wilson said yesterday: "My question appears to have
been answered by the Downing Street Memo: The administration was fixing
the facts to fit the policy it wanted. It's incorrect for anyone to state
that this is old news since we supposedly all knew that Bush wanted war
under any circumstances. Until the 2004 election a majority of Americans
mistakenly thought we found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq."
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- Cindy Sheehan, is co-founder of Gold Star Families for
Peace. Her son Casey was killed in Iraq. She said today: "Members
of Congress -- whether they are Democrats or Republicans -- should do the
right thing. They have a Constitutional duty to investigate the facts surrounding
the Downing Street Memo. They didn't ask my son if he was a Democrat or
Republican when he joined the military. These are life and death questions
and should be treated that way."
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- Related infoZine articles:
- "Downing Street Memo" Shadowing Blair's Visit
with Bush in Washington
- http://www.infozine.com/news/stories/op/storiesView/sid/8239/
- ================
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- This is our chance to see the truth come out!
- HEARINGS AT 2:30 PM, RALLY AT 5 PM ON THURSDAY.
- Get the details and flyers.
- Watch on C-Span 3. Listen on Pacifica Listen on RadioLeft
- http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/
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- ==================
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- "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."
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- ADS is a coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups,
and political activist groups, which launched on May 26, 2005, a campaign
to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether
President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the
Iraq war. READ MORE.
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- http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?o
p=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=4
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- Organizations interested in joining the AfterDowningStreet.org
coalition should write to David Swanson at david@davidswanson.org
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- http://www.apfn.org/apfn/leakgate.htm
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