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Mon 27 Mar, 2006 09:36 am
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Monday, 27 March 2006
The New York Times says it has seen a memo which shows that the US president was firmly set on the path to war two months before the 2003 Iraq invasion.
From private talks between George Bush and UK PM Tony Blair, the memo makes it clear the US was determined to go to war whether or not he had UN backing.
He is quoted discussing ways to provoke Saddam Hussein into a confrontation.
A UK lawyer quoted the note in a book published in January but this is the first time it has been seen in full.
The five-page memo, dated 31 January 2003, was written by Mr Blair's then chief foreign adviser, David Manning, the New York Times says.
Summarising the two-hour White House meeting, the memo says: "Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning."
Mr Bush is paraphrased as saying: "The start date for the military campaign was now pencilled in for 10 March. This was when the bombing would begin."
Twist arms'
Although the US and UK pushed for a second UN resolution on Iraq, the memo cites Mr Bush saying he did not believe one was needed.
"The US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would twist arms and even threaten," Mr Bush is paraphrased as saying.
"But he had to say that if we ultimately failed, military action would follow anyway."
Mr Blair is described as responding that both countries must make clear the second resolution was "Saddam's final opportunity".
According to the note, he also told Mr Bush: "If anything went wrong with the military campaign, or if Saddam increased the stakes by burning the oil wells, killing children or fomenting internal divisions within Iraq, a second resolution would give us international cover, especially with the Arabs."
The UK government has always insisted military action was used as a last resort against Saddam Hussein's regime.
Downing Street has stressed Mr Blair only committed UK forces to Iraq after securing the approval of the House of Commons on 18 March 2003.
'Assassination plan'
The memo indicates both leaders acknowledged it was possible no unconventional weapons would be found in Iraq before the invasion, the New York Times says.
The note cites Mr Bush suggesting three ways in which Iraq could be provoked into confrontation.
The US "was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours", Mr Bush said.
If Saddam fired on them, the Iraqis would be in breach of UN resolutions, he suggested.
He also indicated the US "might be able to bring out a defector" to talk about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, and mentioned a proposal to assassinate the Iraqi leader.
Mr Bush describes US military strategy in some detail, including a concentrated air campaign.
He predicted it "was unlikely there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups" - an opinion with which Mr Blair agreed.
Excerpts from the memo were first quoted by UK human rights lawyer Philippe Sands in his book Lawless World.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4849744.stm
Breaking news would be that Bush was planning the war in Iraq two years prior to the invasion.
Founder of Delta Force: "There is no real threat to the US in the world", "Bush has formented world war three"
"Americans voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they're going to have from now on."
Prisonplanet article to follow...
David Kronke / LA Daily News | March 26 2006
Eric Haney, a retired command sergeant major of the U.S. Army, was a founding member of Delta Force, the military's elite covert counter-terrorist unit. He culled his experiences for "Inside Delta Force" (Delta; $14), a memoir rich with harrowing stories, though in an interview, Haney declines with a shrug to estimate the number of times he was almost killed. (Perhaps the most high-profile incident that almost claimed his life was the 1980 failed rescue of the hostages in Iran.) Today, he's doing nothing nearly as dangerous: He serves as an executive producer and technical adviser for "The Unit," CBS' new hit drama based on his book, developed by playwright David Mamet. Even up against "American Idol," "The Unit" shows muscle, drawing 18 million viewers in its first two airings.
Since he has devoted his life to protecting his country in some of the world's most dangerous hot spots, you might assume Haney is sympathetic to the Bush administration's current plight in Iraq (the laudatory cover blurb on his book comes from none other than Fox's News' Bill O'Reilly). But he's also someone with close ties to the Pentagon, so he's privy to information denied the rest of us.
We recently spoke to Haney, an amiable, soft-spoken Southern gentleman, on the set of "The Unit."
Q: What's your assessment of the war in Iraq?
A: Utter debacle. But it had to be from the very first. The reasons were wrong. The reasons of this administration for taking this nation to war were not what they stated. (Army Gen.) Tommy Franks was brow-beaten and ... pursued warfare that he knew strategically was wrong in the long term. That's why he retired immediately afterward. His own staff could tell him what was going to happen afterward.
We have fomented civil war in Iraq. We have probably fomented internecine war in the Muslim world between the Shias and the Sunnis, and I think Bush may well have started the third world war, all for their own personal policies.
Q: What is the cost to our country?
A: For the first thing, our credibility is utterly zero. So we destroyed whatever credibility we had. ... And I say "we," because the American public went along with this. They voted for a second Bush administration out of fear, so fear is what they're going to have from now on.
Our military is completely consumed, so were there a real threat - thankfully, there is no real threat to the U.S. in the world, but were there one, we couldn't confront it. Right now, that may not be a bad thing, because that keeps Bush from trying something with Iran or with Venezuela.
The harm that has been done is irreparable. There are more than 2,000 American kids that have been killed. Tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed ñ which no one in the U.S. really cares about those people, do they? I never hear anybody lament that fact. It has been
a horror, and this administration has worked overtime to divert the American public's attention from it. Their lies are coming home to roost now, and it's gonna fall apart. But somebody's gonna have to clear up the aftermath and the harm that it's done just to what America stands for. It may be two or three generations in repairing.
Q: What do you make of the torture debate? Cheney ...
A: (Interrupting) That's Cheney's pursuit. The only reason anyone tortures is because they like to do it. It's about vengeance, it's about revenge, or it's about cover-up. You don't gain intelligence that way. Everyone in the world knows that. It's worse than small-minded, and look what it does.
I've argued this on Bill O'Reilly and other Fox News shows. I ask, who would you want to pay to be a torturer? Do you want someone that the American public pays to torture? He's an employee of yours. It's worse than ridiculous. It's criminal; it's utterly criminal. This administration has been masters of diverting attention away from real issues and debating the silly. Debating what constitutes torture: Mistreatment of helpless people in your power is torture, period. And (I'm saying this as) a man who has been involved in the most pointed of our activities. I know it, and all of my mates know it. You don't do it. It's an act of cowardice. I hear apologists for torture say, "Well, they do it to us." Which is a ludicrous argument. ... The Saddam Husseins of the world are not our teachers. Christ almighty, we wrote a Constitution saying what's legal and what we believed in. Now we're going to throw it away.
Q: As someone who repeatedly put your life on the line, did some of the most hair-raising things to protect your country, and to see your country behave this way, that must be ...
A: It's pretty galling. But ultimately I believe in the good and the decency of the American people, and they're starting to see what's happening and the lies that have been told. We're seeing this current house of cards start to flutter away. The American people come around. They always do.
Lightwizard wrote:Breaking news would be that Bush was planning the war in Iraq two years prior to the invasion.
Um...no. It has already been revealed that Bush wanted to invade Iraq
before he took office.
Na, they only lied us in to War and NYTimes just happens to find a memo to prove it, there is nothing here to see... move on.
On Friday, 3 February 2006, the
BBC already reported:
Quote:The book by Philippe Sands says the two leaders discussed going to war regardless of any United Nations view.
Walter Hinteler wrote:On Friday, 3 February 2006, the
BBC already reported:
Quote:The book by Philippe Sands says the two leaders discussed going to war regardless of any United Nations view.
Yes, but now the NYTimes have the actual 5-page memo to prove it.
Quote:A UK lawyer quoted the note in a book published in January but this is the first time it has been seen in full.
Exclusive: Bush Wanted To Invade Iraq If Elected in 2000
http://www.gnn.tv/articles/article.php?id=761
Another Iraq Memo Revealed: Colin Powell Opposed War Without Second U.N. Resolution
The New York Times reported yesterday on a confidential January 2003 memo that showed President Bush "was determined to invade Iraq" even without a second UN resolution. Yesterday on Hardball, the source of that memo, British scholar Philippe Sands, revealed the existence of yet another revealing pre-war memo:
SANDS: Another memo which records a conversation between Colin Powell and his counterpart in the United Kingdom, Jack Straw, which makes it clear that in Colin Powell's eyes if there wasn't enough evidence for a second Security Council resolution, then there wasn't enough evidence to justify the U.S. going it alone.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/03/28/new-iraq-memo/
The War Memo
Crooks And Liars | March 29 2006
Olbermann goes over the newest released memo from The U.K on this segment. Keith blasts the Bush line of "no president wants to go to war, " after it reveals the war plans were already drawn up five days before Colin Powell went to the UN.
Andrea Mitchell actually brings up the Downing Street memo (she doesn't call it that) and says war was inevitable from the start while she hits up on the "painting of a spy plane" to trick Saddam into firing at it so they could then justify invading Iraq.
Mitchell: It was very clear that George Bush was set on going to war...
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