By Denis Mueller
We all know about the leak that took place some 30 years
ago. Its target was Richard M. Nixon, who has now been dead
for eleven years. The leaker, who became known to the world
as Deep Throat was in fact Mark Felt. To refresh the
memories of those who were living at the time, and inform
our many readers who were not yet born, the leak was about
a "third-rate burglary" of Democratic Party headquarters,
and President Nixon's attempt to use the CIA to stop an FBI
investigation.
Earlier last month, a British memo clearly supports a
suspicion long-held by many, but never taken seriously by
our watchdog press: the Bush administration's case for war
against Iraq was not just wrong, it was bogus.
The memo is a summery of a meeting on July 23, 2002, at
which Tony Blair was briefed by his security advisors
regarding a meeting in Washington between the head of MI-6,
Britain's equivalent of the CIA, and American intelligence.
The memo, written by an aide to Tony Blair's Foreign Policy
Advisor, said "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through
military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism
and WMD. The NSC had no patience with the UN route and no
enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's
record. There was little discussion in Washington of the
aftermath after military action." It has now become clear
that the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the
policy. British officials have not disputed the contents of
the memo. An American official who insisted on anonymity
called it "absolutely accurate."
In August of 2002, a month after the memo was written,
President Bush, taking a moment out of his busy schedule,
which included a golf outing tried to answer game a
reporter's question by saying, "I think that the reporter's
question presumes there's some kind of imminent war plan.
As I said, I have no timetable." This now appears to be an
outright lie.
The Downing Street Memo was first published in British
newspapers in May, where it has caused considerable stir.
Eighty-nine British soldiers have died in Iraq as a result
of the war and after the bombings in London; we should
seriously look into this matter. History will record that
this was a planned war from the beginning and has only
increased terrorist activity.
Two and a half weeks after the article's publication, an
American reporter who apparently had some time to kill
asked Scott McClellan, Bush's press secretary, about the
memo. McClellan stated categorically that the memo was
"flat-out wrong." Then he went on to say that he had never
seen the memo, since his press conference Monday proves
his word is worth nothing, we should look into his past
statements.
A search of the websites for several major American
newspapers on Monday, May 30, about the "Downing Street
memo," produced very little evidence of any coverage. The
New York Times did a column by Paul Krugman. The Washington
Post felt it was unnecessary and The LA Times produced no
stories.
Richard Nixon was forced out of office for lying to the
American people and Bill Clinton was impeached but not
convicted for also lying. My question is when will we hold
this administration responsible for lying to us.
