Revealed: documents show Blair's secret plans for war (BUSH LIED!)

[Bluebear]

01 May 2005

Tony Blair had resolved to send British troops into action alongside US forces eight months before the Iraq War began, despite a clear warning from the Foreign Office that the conflict could be illegal.

A damning minute leaked to a Sunday newspaper reveals that in July 2002, a few weeks after meeting George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr Blair summoned his closest aides for what amounted to a council of war. The minute reveals the head of British intelligence reported that President Bush had firmly made up his mind to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, adding that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

At the same time, a document obtained by this newspaper reveals the Foreign Office legal advice given to Mr Blair in March 2002, before he travelled to meet Mr Bush at his Texas ranch. It contains many of the reservations listed nearly a year later by the Attorney General in his confidential advice to the Prime Minister, which the Government was forced to publish last week, including the warning that the US government took a different view of international law from Britain or virtually any other country.

The advice, also put before the July meeting, was drawn up in part by Elizabeth Wilmshurst, the Foreign Office's deputy legal adviser, who resigned on the eve of war in protest at what she called a "crime of aggression".

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=634702

[Deaniac20]

1. Do I smell a smoking gun?

I guess the Saturday Night Massacre III (the second being Bush Sr.'s Iran Contra pardons) is comin round the corner

[alittlelark]

26. We may smell it, but will the MSM??

...doubt it.

[Tigress DEM]

35. Quick, hide Ollie North!

[Bluebear]

66. lol

[liveoaktx]

2. And, from a related article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1472977,00.html

Lord Goldsmith's legal opinion reveals the full extent of the attorney's concern about the risk of Britain being hauled before international courts which would even scrutinise allegations of war crimes by British troops.

It warns that British troops must use no more force than necessary to get Iraq to disarm. The attorney also makes it plain to Mr Blair that, in law, regime change could not be an objective of military action - a problem which did not concern the Bush administration.

His warnings to Mr Blair were not shown to the cabinet, which saw only Lord Goldsmith's later parliamentary answer, stripped of any of his earlier caveats.

[liveoaktx]

6. Left Coaster wrote about this a couple of days ago

Regime Change

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004261.php

Less understandable is why the U.S. mainstream press hasn't picked through Lord Goldsmith's memorandum for what it has to say about the direction our own political leaders are taking the United States and how much that threatens to isolate us from the rest of the world.

Now that Goldsmith's "secret" March 7, 2003 legal memorandum has been published in full, despite our dullard press we can see for ourselves that the 'limp squid' has some very lively tentacles. Several revealing statements can be found in it that deserve to be brought to the attention of all Americans. Among them are three observations about what has come to be called the Bush Doctrine:

Preemptive War
Early on, the British Attorney General writes:
"I am aware that the USA has been arguing for recognition of a broad doctrine of a right to use force to pre-empt danger in the future. If this means more than a right to respond proportionately to an imminent attack (and I understand that the doctrine is intended to carry that connotation) this is not a doctrine which, in my opinion, exists or is recognised in international law.
It should not surprise us to read that the Bush administration had 'been arguing for... a right to use force to pre-empt danger... ." But what Goldsmith authoritatively describes as the intended U.S. meaning is "more than a right to respond proportionately" to the danger of an attack. As John Pike insightfully put it just a few months after Goldsmith penned his memo, "What people are not grasping here is that after Iraq they have got a long list of countries to blow up

[brettdale]

3. Send this to all media

Send this to all on the National media List.

[Igel]

11. Most won't use it.

I just read an e-mail from my university department in which the chair says that a report found that students were abused in the department. However, the department has yet to acknowledge that students were abused in the department.

So this is a report that the head of British something-or-other concluded * had firmly made up his mind. The conclusions of an intelligence agency are hardly unequivocal these days, and might be taken as evidence for the contrary position.

[FreedomAngel82]

14. Something I wonder

I don't know about this personally but is there anything the British government can do with Bush and his administration? Or is it up to us?

[Taxloss]

54. Release the files. You know the files. Everything we have.

It needn't even be through official channels. And elements within the civil service are ready to.

[Igel]

57. Up to us.

Anything else would be decried as a former colonial power meddling in its former possessions. ;-)

[Endangered Specie]

4. This, 5 days before the UK elections...

could get interesting.

[sandnsea]

27. Just what the Tories want n/t

[Djinn]

36. puts UK letfies in a shitty position

technically I can vote in UK elections but tend not to as I don't live there or pay taxes there & it seems a bit unfair, but if I did it'd be a damn hard choice - vote Tory - nup couldn't ever do that, vote for the chief enabler of the Bushco war - nup couldn't do that, there's always the Lib Dem's or better yet the SNP but the UK system isn't all that kind to "third" parties.

I wouldn't be surprised to see a really low voter turnout for this election.

[Birthmark]

5. But, but...

...how does this relate to a really important story like a bride with cold feet? :sarcasm:

I doubt that this will get any real play in the US media. If it does, it will be presented as a "British" scandal and no connection will be drawn to Bush's own activities being deceitful.

[MontageOfFreedom]

7. This has already had its time on the air.....

David Griffin's documentary on C-SPAN, which may be rerun later.

[TahitiNut]

8. It's too bad there's no way the American people will hear this.

We have a corporate media that'll paternalistically opine that this is history and it wouldn't do the country any good to air dirty linen and erode support for a "wartime pResident." We have a go-along-to-get-along enfeebled shell of an opposition party that'll anguish about internal division and opt for appeasement. The truth (as always, the first casualty of "war") has almost no representation in our national political process. (Truth-tellers, as so many DUers will testify, are "unelectable.")

Bush* has been lying since before he even began his campaign in 2000. Since then, he's lied daily. He can't open his filthy pie hole without lying - and he's surrounded with corrupt, lying sycophants that should be in prison for the rest of their unnatural lives.

[liveoaktx]

9. Bet Olbermann brings it up

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Maybe

we can use this information to get Congress to start up hearings? Is that possible? I know it may seem like it but what if enough republicans write?

[MisterP]

19. oh, MAN, you nailed it

man...

[Rosco T.]

10. Impeachment. Now. 1500+ Troops Blood on his hands... n/m

[CAG]

12. Would all of you quit taking up important internet space...

There could be some new runaway bride out there to discuss!!!

[FreedomAngel82]

13. Oh wow!!

This is amazing. Thank God for the British! So what is going to happen to Blair now? And will this ever make it over here? I so want to get rid of the bastards in the house and take back our country and end this nightmare. Earlier this week there were reports that Blair said the Iraq war could've gone against the international laws.

[CoffeeCat]

16. Does anyone remember the stories about Bush's trips to the CIA??

I'm wondering if anyone remembers more clearly about Bush taking 10+ trips to the CIA in the weeks leading up the Iraq war.

I recall the MSM covering this fact, and saying that he made more trips to the CIA in a few weeks--than most Presidents make during their entire presidency.

I wish I could remember more about this, but to me--those trips spoke volumes. Junior was grabbing CIA shirt collars and telling them to find information on Iraq--or else. He was obviously strong arming the CIA into data mining the intelligence--so he could craft a case against Iraq.

No one has ever called Bush on the carpet for these numerous CIA trips. The public needs to be reminded of Junior's numerous CIA trips during the weeks before we went to war.

[liveoaktx]

18. I recall Cheney doing that, in connection with OSP

http://www.ludd.net/retort/msg00220.html

[Poiuyt]

17. Didn't Bush's biographer say that Bush wanted to invade Iraq in 1999?

He said that if he ever had the political capital, he would invade.

[punpirate]

20. Yeah, but that story...

... like all the others, sort of wilted and died because his erstwhile biographer wouldn't come out and say it himself (mostly because he'd gotten a lot of ghost-writing business from the Bush family over the years).

The real issue here is that Blair has been trying to back up Bush at every opportunity, and that Blair has consistently said that there was no decision to go to war until the last moment. Bush has said the same thing. Now, they're caught up in each other's lies.

The sad thing is that the British public is taking this a lot more seriously than the American public.

Hell, I and a lot of others knew that Blair and Bush were plotting war when Blair visited in 2002, but there was no evidence--just their lies. Now there's evidence.

[TahitiNut]

24. I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box ...

... but I can't fathom how anyone paying attention didn't know the Bushoilinis were lying through their teeth and had planned to invade and occupy Iraq from the get-go.

In September 2000, I posted my opinion on a Usenet newsgroup that, if Bush* were elected, we'd be in a major shooting war before the end of 2001. I stated my opinion that the highest probabilities were Iraq, Afghanistan, and Iran, in that order. I said there was a chance it'd be North Korea, but that was less probable. I also said that this shooting war would be precipitated by some event of such magnitude that the public would go along with an invasion, and that event would be facilitated and/or precipitated by people allied with the Bush* administration.

That was September 2000. There has never been any reasonable doubt. None.

Tempest, another DUer who frequented that newsgroup and who turned me on to DU, can probably verify this. (I'm not blowing smoke.)

I'm not the sharpest crayon in the box, but I'm sure not the dullest.

[punpirate]

25. Well, look at how many people...

... bought the "compassionate conservatism" bullshit. Probably the same ones that bought the "we have to be a humble nation in the world" bullshit.

It was all bullshit. Most people believe when told what they most want to hear.

Anyone looking at the origins of the 1998 House resolution advocating regime change in Iraq and at the signatories of the letter sent to Clinton in 1998 demanding invasion of Iraq didn't have to strain at figuring out what they intended to do if they gained power again.

What have the latest polls been showing? Something like 43% of Americans still believe that WMDs were found in Iraq? There are some people out there in very deep denial or very deep mental doo-doo....

Cheers.

[Zhade]

31. Didn't PNAC exist in 1998?

Another tipoff.

[punpirate]

33. I think it was formed in 1997...

... but the tipoff came with their signature paper, "Rebuilding America's Defenses," which wasn't released until September, 2000, so, with regard to the Bush campaign, it sort of slipped under everyone's radar. In truth, I don't think most people noticed it until Cheney and others started quoting from it closely enough that some were able to put two and two together.

Of course, when the 2002 Defense Security Strategy paper was released by the administration, everyone could connect the dots were they inclined to do so.

Cheers.

[Henny Penny]

50. people believe what they want to believe...

and generally that's not stuff that's gonna keep them awake at night!

:cry:

[ooglymoogly]

40. he needed 9/11

desperately

[Jack Rabbit]

21. To The Hague with Bush and Blair!!

The Palace of Peace
The Hague
Home of the International Criminal Court

Photo from the Instituut voor Internatinaal Reecht (Belgium)

[sellitman]

38. There is a place in hell reserved for bush & blair

:evilgrin:

[Bluebear]

59. I can see their pasty faces in the windows now

[brettdale]

22. Kick

Kick

[understandinglife]

23. Of course Bu$h lied. Fristian values are based on lies. If you don't lie..

...you are a failed Fristian.

Get it?

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us (The.Day.WE.THE.PEOPLE.BEGIN.....................)

[Beam Me Up]

28. Is London press DISTANCING BLAIR FROM BUSH?

As embarrassing as this is for Blair, the focus seems to be shifting toward the ILLEGALITY of the Bush war.

The minute reveals the head of British intelligence reported that President Bush had firmly made up his mind to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, adding that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

[MontageOfFreedom]

32. Looks more than like it..

I am amazed at how its going.

[ngGale]

34. London press distancing Blair from Bush...

so that's why they send Bill Clinton. Everybody loves Bill, can't say the same for * - now I get the picture.

[MontageOfFreedom]

37. Well it doesn't really matter either, however.

Clinton is friends with Bush and has been close to the circle for quite some time.

[Zhade]

29. Please explain the importance of this...

...to the lone war supporter in this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3575698

[Bluebear]

30. There are none so blind as those who will not see. n/t

[Beam Me Up]

39. What I see there is a man with a guilty conscience--still in denial.

When will he accept that there is blood on HIS hands?

The government of the United States, the government of a reputed Republic which is supposed to represent MY interests, intentionally and with forethought and malice ILLEGALLY invaded a sovereign nation without provication for the purpose of usurping its resources and establishing a permanent military presence in the region at an on-going cost of BLOOD, BLOOD, and more BLOOD, tens of thousands of children and adults--not to mention hundreds of billions of dollars poured from our treasury into the hands of Halliburton and such ilk.

Such blood lust is unconscionable and to the extent that we ARE a Republic in fact, governed by law and the consent of the governed, to that extent the blood of all those innocents is on OUR hands. If we are not outraged, we have not grasped the significance--and the significance of the established precident--of this travesty of foreign policy.

[Bluebear]

47. Sigh.

In reading even more closely.

[Henny Penny]

52. sad to be all alone in the world....

:hug:

but why..., after all that has happened ...?????

[Joe Chi Minh]

41. What a paragon of public life

that Elizabeth Wilmshurst is, to have resigned in protest at our complicity in a war of aggression! What a gem of a person! Unfortunately, seldom the type to be honoured by the Queen. All too often, a cynical and servile political minion of the incumbent PM and his party reduces such an award to a badge of infamy. I bet the Queen struggles to avoid vomiting sometimes.

[BringEmOn]

42. Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood

Their feet run to evil, and they make haste to shed innocent blood: their thoughts (are) thoughts of iniquity; wasting and destruction (are) in their paths. Isaiah 59: 7

[Joe Chi Minh]

43. Yes, the scriptures

have them nailed in some detail.

[TahitiNut]

45. That would make a great T-shirt or poster.

Boldly quote that passage along with head shots of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, Bolton, Perle, Wolfowitz, Perle, etc. ... all with the bodies of centipedes (or cockroaches).

[whitedove]

44. Kick

:kick:

Send this to everybody you know!
The truth has to get out! :banghead:

Peace,
Whitedove

[Bluebear]

46. Kick till Monday news!

[DearAbby]

51. Can you smell what is cookin?

:kick:

[Bluebear]

53. Elephant sauteeing?

[lovuian]

48. This kinda says America was duped by President & Congress

and they know it too... and the No WMD proves it!!!!

[Bluebear]

49. It says exactly that.

Will the media report it? Will Bush's throng even care?

[deminks]

55. "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".

That phrase says it all. I can't think of a single excuse anyone can use now to cover for Iraq. It wasn't for WMD, it wasn't for democracyfreedomdemocracy. Dances-With-Monkeys (thanks for that, Bluebear) wanted it and would do anything to get it, including cooking the intelligence. There it is, folks. No more doubt. This is a quote from the head of British intelligence, and it is recorded in meeting minutes.

:wow:

[AngryWhiteLiberal]

56. IMPEACHMENT! Goddamn it!

Unfortunately articles of impeachment require 2/3 vote, so it's not going to happen unless a goodly number of Repukes grow a conscience.

Blowjob = bad
Fixing a war = good?

JB

[Bluebear]

58. KICK!

[Name removed]

62. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Bouncy Ball]

60. Wow, how, uh, SHOCKING.

Wait. No it's not.

Sad? Yes. Criminal? Most DEFINITELY.

But not shocking. Not to this person with critical thinking skills who didn't turn off her brain on September 11, 2001.

[Bluebear]

61. yoo hoo!! Media!

[Disturbed]

65. Bush voters will ignore this.

If confronted with it they will say that Saddam was evil and the Bush Junta did the right thing. The proof is that Iraq is now a Democracy as will other ME countries will soon be. The Lame Stream Media will downplay it if reported at all. The Bush Junta is tefloned to the max.

[Stephanie]

63. Nobody gives a sht

Bush can lie day and night to these people and they just don't care. Remember, facts are irrelevant now. We have a smoking gun right before our eyes, in official documents, and nothing will happen because of it. Nobody will even hear of it. And those that do, won't care, because it's over, it's the past, and we all sort of knew in our heart of hearts that Bush was lying, but it was only because he wanted to spread freedom, and he knew the Democrats woulnd't let him spread it unless there was a threat of WMD.

[Bluebear]

64. You are right, of course

The flock will tell Democrats to "move on".