back2basics
05-08-2005, 17:39
One of the reasons I read SF these days is to see what’s going on over there and see what people are thinking about certain subjects. This is long but there is a point and a question at the bottom.
I know the "Downing Street Memos" made news in the UK. For those who do not know, leaked documents that showed that Blair and Bush were fixing the intelligence round their objectives.
They also seemed to imply, that they were going to provoke Saddam in to attacking our planes. Blair denied that. But a Times reporter who moved to the U.S has just uncovered this...
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo021127/text/21127w18.htm
Notice it's an official document, you will notice that after 9/11 Saddam cut down their targeting of allied planes from hundreds a month to just 32. In the same period, bombing runs by allied planes went up a huge amount, seemingly confirming the policy laid out in the downing street memos. (you can see copies of the documents here http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/), but Blair has confirmed they are real.
So this basically tells us that a year prior to the war, when people both sides of the Atlantic were being told War was not inevitable, Blair and Bush were trying to make out Saddam was more of a threat, and at the same time provoking Saddam in to attacking our planes (by bombing without provocation), a sort of unofficial war, which would not only be illegal by international standards, but would be illegal in both America and England as in both countries they need the support of Parliament/Senate which they did not have at that time. (Summary here http://rawstory.com/news/2005/British_U.S._justification_for_increased_prewar_bo mbing_foun_0804.html).
On top of that, right now the Whitehouse is being investigated by a special prosecutor. A reporter is in jail for not giving the courts her sources. It revolves around the "yellow cake" documents. The ones used by Powel in the U.N to play up Iraq's nuclear ambitions. They were found to be fake, and prior to going to the U.N an agent told the Whitehouse they were fake, but they used them to scare people anyway. This guy Wilson, for his efforts, had his wife who was an undercover CIA agent outed in the press. He is saying it was payback for writing an article stating the intelligence was wrong. So at the moment the Whitehouse is being investigated for its role in outing a CIA agent, which is illegal. It’s actually been confirmed as one of the reporters who received her name, and worked for Time Magazine confirmed that when he was in front of the court he testified that he did have the CIA agent identified by the Whitehouse. A man named Karl Rove is at the center of this so far. Indictments are expected, and it is said the investigation is wide ranging and includes the faulty intelligence that took us to war. Here is a good piece on that (http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1083924,00.html).
At the moment polls show that the majority of America believes Bush lied (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050805/ap_on_el_pr/bush_ap_ipsos_poll_3).
Still reading? Good the point is, one of the other threads made me realize there is much that is happening over here in the Media that you guys are not hearing about. Has anybody heard of any of this at all in the UK Media?
I know the "Downing Street Memos" made news in the UK. For those who do not know, leaked documents that showed that Blair and Bush were fixing the intelligence round their objectives.
They also seemed to imply, that they were going to provoke Saddam in to attacking our planes. Blair denied that. But a Times reporter who moved to the U.S has just uncovered this...
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmhansrd/vo021127/text/21127w18.htm
Notice it's an official document, you will notice that after 9/11 Saddam cut down their targeting of allied planes from hundreds a month to just 32. In the same period, bombing runs by allied planes went up a huge amount, seemingly confirming the policy laid out in the downing street memos. (you can see copies of the documents here http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/), but Blair has confirmed they are real.
So this basically tells us that a year prior to the war, when people both sides of the Atlantic were being told War was not inevitable, Blair and Bush were trying to make out Saddam was more of a threat, and at the same time provoking Saddam in to attacking our planes (by bombing without provocation), a sort of unofficial war, which would not only be illegal by international standards, but would be illegal in both America and England as in both countries they need the support of Parliament/Senate which they did not have at that time. (Summary here http://rawstory.com/news/2005/British_U.S._justification_for_increased_prewar_bo mbing_foun_0804.html).
On top of that, right now the Whitehouse is being investigated by a special prosecutor. A reporter is in jail for not giving the courts her sources. It revolves around the "yellow cake" documents. The ones used by Powel in the U.N to play up Iraq's nuclear ambitions. They were found to be fake, and prior to going to the U.N an agent told the Whitehouse they were fake, but they used them to scare people anyway. This guy Wilson, for his efforts, had his wife who was an undercover CIA agent outed in the press. He is saying it was payback for writing an article stating the intelligence was wrong. So at the moment the Whitehouse is being investigated for its role in outing a CIA agent, which is illegal. It’s actually been confirmed as one of the reporters who received her name, and worked for Time Magazine confirmed that when he was in front of the court he testified that he did have the CIA agent identified by the Whitehouse. A man named Karl Rove is at the center of this so far. Indictments are expected, and it is said the investigation is wide ranging and includes the faulty intelligence that took us to war. Here is a good piece on that (http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1083924,00.html).
At the moment polls show that the majority of America believes Bush lied (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050805/ap_on_el_pr/bush_ap_ipsos_poll_3).
Still reading? Good the point is, one of the other threads made me realize there is much that is happening over here in the Media that you guys are not hearing about. Has anybody heard of any of this at all in the UK Media?