peacemaker's Bible study: Conyers letter to Bush re: "smoking gun" memo

<DIV>Thanks to Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (Michigan-Dem) for acting so quickly on the "smoking gun" memo released to the British press, which proves that Bush and Blair cooked intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.  88 House members have already signed it.  If yours has not, please email or call him/her and ask that he/she sign on.</DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>In the name of the God of truth, Carol Wolman </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV><A href="http://www.rawstory.com/aexternal/conyers_iraq_letter_502">http://www.rawstory.com/aexternal/conyers_iraq_letter_502</A></DIV> <DIV> May 5, 2005 The Honorable George W. Bush </DIV> <DIV>President of the United States of America The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20500 Dear Mr. President: We write because of troubling revelations in the Sunday London Times apparently confirming that the United States and Great Britain had secretly agreed to attack Iraq in the summer of 2002, well before the invasion and before you even sought Congressional authority to engage in military action.  While various individuals have asserted this to be the case before, including Paul O'Neill, former U.S. Treasury Secretary, and Richard Clarke, a former National Security Council official, they have been previously dismissed by your Administration. </DIV> <DIV> </DIV> <DIV>However, when this story was divulged last weekend, Prime Minister Blair's representative claimed the document contained "nothing new." If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own Administration. The Sunday Times obtained a leaked document with the minutes of a secret meeting from highly placed sources inside the British Government. Among other things, the document revealed: * Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a July 2002 meeting, at which he discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush's plans for invading Iraq. * British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war was "thin" as "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran." * A separate secret briefing for the meeting said that Britain and America had to "create" conditions to justify a war. * A British official "reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. 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." As a result of this recent disclosure, we would like to know the following: 1) Do you or anyone in your Administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document? 2) Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time? 3) Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate? 4) At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq? 5) Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states? We have of course known for some time that subsequent to the invasion there have been a variety of varying reasons proffered to justify the invasion, particularly since the time it became evident that weapons of mass destruction would not be found. This leaked document - essentially acknowledged by the Blair government - is the first confirmation that the rationales were shifting well before the invasion as well. Given the importance of this matter, we would ask that you respond to this inquiry as promptly as possible. Thank you. Sincerely, 88 Congress Members who have already signed letter: </DIV> <DIV>Neil Abercrombie Brian Baird Tammy Baldwin Xavier Becerra Shelley Berkley Eddie Bernice Johnson Sanford Bishop Earl Blumenauer Corrine Brown Sherrod Brown G.K. Butterfield Emanuel Cleaver James Clyburn John Conyers Jim Cooper Elijah Cummings Danny Davis Peter DeFazio Diana DeGette Bill Delahunt Rosa DeLauro Lloyd Doggett Sam Farr Bob Filner Harold Ford, Jr. Barney Frank Al Green Raul Grijalva Louis Gutierrez Alcee Hastings Maurice Hinchey Rush Holt Jay Inslee Sheila Jackson Lee Jessie Jackson Jr. Marcy Kaptur Patrick Kennedy Dale Kildee Carolyn Kilpatrick Dennis Kucinich William Lacy Clay Barbara Lee John Lewis Zoe Lofgren Donna M. Christensen Carolyn Maloney Ed Markey Carolyn McCarthy Jim McDermott James McGovern Cynthia McKinney Martin Meehan Kendrick Meek Gregory Meeks Michael Michaud George Miller Gwen S. Moore James Moran Jerrold Nadler Grace Napolitano James Oberstar John Olver Major Owens Frank Pallone Donald Payne Charles Rangel Bobby Rush Bernie Sanders Linda Sanchez Jan Schakowsky Jose Serrano Ike Skelton Louise Slaughter Hilda Solis Pete Stark Ellen Tauscher Bennie Thompson Edolphus Towns Stephanie Tubbs Jones Chris Van Hollen Nydia Velazquez Debbie Wasserman Schultz Maxine Waters Diane Watson Melvin Watt Robert Wexler Lynn Woolsey David Wu Albert R. Wynn </DIV>

peacemaker's Bible study

Sunday, May 08, 2005

Conyers letter to Bush re: "smoking gun" memo

0 Comments:

About Me

Previous Posts