Running Google/Yahoo Score On Downing St Memo - 78 - 380 - 94

[althecat]

I started keeping score on the memo by running three searches on Google and Yahoo news back on May 6. See... Here

The score back then was 23,139,39

Since then I have also monitored the score Here

The most recent check day before yesterday See Here had a score of 75 -344 - 88. But that thread has now been archived hence a new thread.

I might keep doing this for a while as it keeps me amused.

al

[althecat]

1. I will add "Downing Street Memo" to the search terms - current score 231

http://news.google.com/news?q=downing+street+memo&hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-29,GGLD:en&sa=N&tab=nn&oi=newsr

[althecat]

2. 11am 20 May NZT - 242

[althecat]

6. 11 am 21 May NZT - 248

[althecat]

8. 11pm 22may NZT - 254

[althecat]

3. 11am 20 May NZT - 81 - 389 - 98

[althecat]

4. 11am 21 May NZT - 83 - 404 - 96

[althecat]

5. Including this Straw/Rice Presser

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0505/S00321.htm

QUESTION: Very quickly on that, and I have one other question. And if they don't, is the next stop the UN Security Council on Iran?

And if I could then ask both of you to comment on the very well-publicized British memo that was leaked to the Times of London, or to the London Times. Madame Secretary --

SECRETARY RICE: Which one is that? Andrea, which one is that?

FOREIGN SECRETARY STRAW: Which one is that?

QUESTION: On Iraq. That came out about 10 days ago, 12 days ago. Are you not aware of this memo?

SECRETARY RICE: Well, a lot of them are, unfortunately, out. (Laughter.)

QUESTION: In particular, this memo -- and I can quote -- said that the intelligence -- and this was a memo that was leaked from the minutes of a meeting that took place in July of 2002 with Tony Blair --

SECRETARY RICE: Oh, that one. Okay. Got it. Okay.

QUESTION: -- and some of his military intelligence advisors. In particular, it quotes one British official saying the intelligence and facts that the U.S. was putting forward were being fixed around the policy. We know what the U.S. administration's position is in the buildup to the war on Iraq. It's been made very clear. But could you speak to these allegations in particular, Madame Secretary, and whether or not this is true?

And Mr. Secretary Straw, if you could also speak to the authenticity of this memo and, in particular, you're quoted in here saying that the case was thin, Saddam was not threatening his neighbors and his WMD capacity was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.

Thank you.

SECRETARY RICE: On -- did you say you say you had a follow-up on Iran as well?

QUESTION: (Inaudible)

SECRETARY RICE: Okay, right. Okay. On what comes next, I think we will see what comes next. We've obviously got the Security Council as an option for the international community. We've made that clear. A number of Secretary Straw's colleagues have made that clear. And I would hope that the Iranians understand that this is their chance, they ought to take it and get back on the good side of the international community.

Look, we've gone over and over and over the issue about the intelligence and about the case against Saddam Hussein. Obviously, there were problems with the intelligence. That's now very clear. It's why the President has been very quick to react to the intelligence reform legislation, appointing John Negroponte to really more radically reform American intelligence agencies than at any time since 1947, because we need to have the very best intelligence, particularly when we are dealing with opaque, dictatorial societies like Iraq in which information comes at a premium.

But I would just remind that the information on which we were acting, in part on which we were acting, was information that was gathered from sources from around the world, including reports that UN inspectors had had when they were on the ground in 1998. Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction and I think people sometimes forget he had used weapons of mass destruction. In 1991, when the Gulf War ended, we found a nuclear program that was far advanced than what was believed to be the case.

And I just want to remind everyone that at every turn, yes, the weapons of mass destruction were a problem and Saddam Hussein had an inextricable link with weapons of mass destruction, that was made clear by the Duelfer report, which talked about the fact that he was trying to erode the Oil-for-Food -- through the Oil-for-Food program, the sanctions -- was having some success he believed in doing so and was maintaining capability and intent to try to recreate weapons of mass destruction when the world turned a blind eye.

Let's also not forget that this was a bloody dictator in the middle of the Middle East who had invaded his neighbors twice, who had used weapons of mass destruction, who was in a state of continued hostility with the United States and with the United Kingdom, in which he shot at our aircraft on a regular basis trying to patrol no fly zones to keep his air force from harming his own people and his neighbors. This was a bad, bad influence in the Middle East. He was a threat. It is a good thing that he is gone. I am immensely proud of what we did in taking down this dictator, particularly so after having been in Iraq a couple of days ago and seeing that you have, yes, a struggling young democracy there but a young democracy. And what a change for the people of Iraq, what a change for the Middle East. Even if there are terrorists who try on a daily basis through their violence to derail that process, the people of Iraq have a chance now at a decent life under democracy, and that was worth doing.

Mr. Secretary.

FOREIGN SECRETARY STRAW: Thank you. On the issue of Iran, as the Secretary has said, the E-3 has made clear, including in a report to colleague foreign ministers, that we reserve the right to consider reopening the matter before the IAEA Board or referring the matter to the Security Council if we judged that is right and the obligations on both sides of the Paris agreement and other previous agreements have not been met.

The whole purpose of the negotiations with Iran is to try and avoid that circumstance in the context of ensuring that there are objective guarantees about Iran's nuclear intentions.

On Iraq, I don't have the document in front of me. Of all the things I thought I was going to be asked about at a press conference here, that was not one of them. I'd simply say this: that what people forget, too, as the Secretary has been implying, is the context that we were working in, and part of the context in the summer of 2002 was to get the international community to make a judgment about whether Iraq did or did not continue to pose a threat to international peace and security.

It was President Bush who, in September 2002, went to the General Assembly to say I'm putting this back to the United Nations. And it was the Security Council, voluntarily and unanimously, which judged in November 2002 that Iraq, and I quote, "posed a threat," to international peace and security because of its proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, its long-range missile systems and its flagrant refusal to implement Security Council resolutions. And it was Saddam's failure to follow his obligations under what became 1441 that led to the military action. And that was the context in which the British House of Commons made that decision.

And the last thing I'd say is this: I've just come from a pretty difficult but very successful election campaign. Iraq was an issue, not least in my district. One of the striking things is in my district there are Iraqi refugees and it was they who were saying, yes, life had not been easy since the military action but we are now an emerging democracy. One of the most poignant moments of all was when there was a young Iraqi refugee explaining to someone who was skeptical about the military action that his family had been killed at Halabjas and that there weren't going to be any more Halabjas because there was now an emerging democracy.

[althecat]

7. 11pm 22 May NZT - 86 - 417 -100

11pm 22 May NZT - 86 - 417 -100

Including a piece from new NYT public editor, a followup from the Sunday Times and a new piece from Mockingbird Pincus in the Washpost.

[althecat]

9. 11am 23 May NZT - 88 - 421 - 101 - 260

[althecat]

10. 9am 23 May NZT - 91 - 427 - 104 - 272

[althecat]

11. 10am 25 May 2005 - 94 - 440 - 108 - 292

[althecat]

12. From White House Briefing

Q: Scott, last week you said that claims in the leaked Downing Street memo that intelligence was being fixed to support the Iraq War as early as July 2002 are flat-out wrong. According to the memo which was dated July 23, 2002, and whose authenticity has not been disputed by the British Government, both Foreign Minister Jack Straw and British Intelligence Chief Sir Richard Dearlove said that the President had already made up his mind to invade Iraq. Dearlove added that intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. Do you think these two very senior officials of our closest ally were flat-out wrong? And if so, how could they have been so misinformed after their conversations with George Tenet and Condoleezza Rice?

MR. McCLELLAN: Let me correct you on the -- let me correct you on the characterization of the quote you attributed to me. I'm referring to some of the allegations that were made referring to a report. In terms of the intelligence, the -- if anyone wants to know how the intelligence was used by the administration, all they have to do is go back and look at all the public comments over the course of the lead-up to the war in Iraq, and that's all very public information. Everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence.

And in terms of the intelligence, it was wrong, and we are taking steps to correct that and make sure that in the future we have the best possible intelligence, because it's critical in this post-September 11th age, that the executive branch has the best intelligence possible.

[LifeDuringWartime]

13. what do these scores mean?

n/t

[althecat]

14. EXPLANATION... They show the Scores Google and Yahoo News searches

Thought nobody would ever ask :)

1st number Google - Matthew Rycroft
2nd number Google - But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy
3rd number Yahoo - But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy
4th number Google - Downing Street Memo

And hence show the transmission of the memo story over the internet over time...

[calimary]

55. A lot of work you've done here. Thanks!

Interesting to see the progression (assuming I understand all this...) Cheers!

[althecat]

15. 9am 26 May NZT - 96 - 449 - 109 - 308 ("Downing St Memo" Is On A Roll)

[althecat]

16. 10am 27 May NZT - 96 - 457 - 110 - 318 (Almost all non MSM)

This is interesting.. the story continues to grow... but no thanks to the MSM....

This is the Internets doing it for itself.

[althecat]

17. 4pm 28 May NZT - 96 - 467 - 114 -332

[althecat]

18. Including new Guardian article

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1493865,00.html

War: the case against

Nicholas Lezard on Eliot Weinberger's What I Heard About Iraq, a simple but effective anti-war commentary

Saturday May 28, 2005
The Guardian

What I Heard About Iraq, by Eliot Weinberger (Verso, £7.99)
Every war has its classic anti-war book; and here, you might think, is Iraq's. It is a very simple and straightforward idea. It consists of about 250 paragraphs (this is a very rough count indeed), over about 70 pages (that's a bit more accurate), each beginning, or almost beginning, with the words "I heard". So, for example: "I heard Donald Rumsfeld say that there was 'no question' that American troops would be 'welcomed': 'Go back to Afghanistan, the people were in the streets playing music, cheering, flying kites, and doing all the things that the Taliban and al-Qaida would not let them do.'" And, 40-odd pages later: "I heard a reporter say to Donald Rumsfeld: 'Before the war in Iraq, you ... said they would welcome us with open arms.' And I heard Rumsfeld interrupt him: 'Never said that. Never did. You may remember it well, but you're thinking of somebody else. You can't find, anywhere, me saying anything like those things you just said I said.'"

...

There is little, if any, such humour in What I Heard About Iraq. We know more about the number of people who have died, and about the conduct of the war, and it's not funny. (From the top-secret minutes of the prime minister's meeting on July 23 2002: Blair was told that "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 ... There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath." But we all kind of knew that all along, didn't we?)

[althecat]

20. & Sun-Sentinal Column - Investigate deceptions of war's inception

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/opinion/sfl-04forum25may27,0,1889168.story?coll=sfla-news-opinion

Investigate deceptions of war's inception

By Jim Mullins
Posted May 27 2005
The age-old question -- If a tree fell in the forest and no one heard, would that mean it never made a sound? -- is apropos to a scandal slowly emerging on the international scene.

The sound of a secret memo leaked to the London's Sunday Times some three weeks ago, but studiously ignored by the administration, is now being heard and has demonstrated in its stark wording that "the fix was in" in the deception of both Congress and the American people leading up to war against Iraq.

[paineinthearse]

19. Yes, please do

Memories of "Jeff Gannon". I did something similar back before we ever heard the name "Guckert". You can see the results in the MEDIA forum.

This is important for archival purposes.

NOMINATED FOR EFFORT!

[althecat]

21. Ok then I will.... :)

Cheers paininthearse...

[icymist]

22. You might want to keep an eye on this site:

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

[althecat]

23. 11am 29 May NZT - 96 - 467 - 117 - 333

[althecat]

24. 9.30am 30 May NZT - 97 - 473 - 119 - 337 (Progress stalling)

[althecat]

25. 9.30am 31 May NZT - 97 - 480 - 120 - 350

[althecat]

26. 10am 1 June NZT - 97 - 492 - 121 - 374

[althecat]

27. 10am 2 June NZT - 93 - 479 - 123 - 348 (misleading however)

I think this is the first day that we have had some items drop off Google due to age... I will now use a new system counting new items over the past 24 hours...

[althecat]

28. 10am 2 June NZT (New Items) 7 - 42 - 1 - 78 ( lots of progress)

[althecat]

29. 10am 3 June NZT (New Items) 3 - 10 - 0 - 29

Notably "Downing Street Memo" is now growing much faster than other search terms... this indicates it is the general existence of the item rather than its contents that is now being reported.

[althecat]

30. 3pm 4 June NZT(new items) - 1 - 8 - 2 - 20

[althecat]

12pm 5 June NZT - 3 - 12 - 2 - 17 (new piece from NYT public editor)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/opinion/05public.html?hp

[althecat]

32. 12pm 5 June NZT - 3 - 12 - 2 - 17 (new piece from NYT public editor)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/05/opinion/05public.html?hp

[althecat]

34. 11.40am 6 June NZT (new items) - 0 - 6 - 1 - 14 (best bit being russert)

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8062380/

MR. RUSSERT: Let me turn to the now-famous Downing Street memo. This was a memo, July 23, 2002, from the head of British intelligence to Prime Minister Blair; in effect, notes taken from a briefing that was given to Prime Minister Blair after the head of British intelligence came back from a trip to Washington. It says this: " 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, though military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

This is July of 2002. We didn't invade until March of 2003. And the prime minister of Great Britain is being told by the head of his intelligence that he went to Washington and believes that a decision had already been made and that the administration was fixing or manipulating the intelligence to support the policy.

MR. MEHLMAN: Tim, that report has been discredited by everyone else who's looked at it since then. Whether it's the 911 Commission, whether it's the Senate, whoever's looked at this has said there was no effort to change the intelligence at all. The fact is that the intelligence of this country, the intelligence of Britain, the intelligence of the United Nations, the intelligence all over the world said that there were weapons of mass destruction present in Iraq. We knew that Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction before. We still know that there was a weapons of mass destruction program. He was evading the sanctions, and he had plans to reconstitute the program. We also knew that Saddam Hussein had uniquely invaded his neighbors, had uniquely supported terrorists and we all know today that we are safer because he's been removed from power.

So I believe that that individual report not only has been discredited but that the overall reasons for removing Saddam Hussein were broader than that, they were correct, and we're now safer and certainly the people of Iraq are safer now that Saddam Hussein has been removed from power.

MR. RUSSERT: I don't believe that the authenticity of this report has been discredited.

MR. MEHLMAN: I believe that the findings of the report, the fact that the intelligence was somehow fixed have been totally discredited by everyone who's looked at it.

MR. RUSSERT: There--let me go back to another sentence from that report. "There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action." Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary, now head of the World Bank, said the other day, "The war never ended," and the concern many Americans have, Mr. Mehlman, is that we now have 1,669 Americans who've died bravely in Iraq, 1,532 of those after the president said major combat operations were over. We have 12,762 Americans wounded or injured, 12,000 of those after the president said major combat was over. This memo seems to suggest that the head of British Intelligence told Prime Minister Blair that there was little discussion in Washington to plan for the aftermath of military action.

MR. MEHLMAN: I would respectfully disagree with that finding. I think that there was clearly planning that occurred, planning that occurred to deal with the results of the war. If you remember after the first Gulf War, whether it was the breaching of the dams that we saw all over Iraq, that didn't happen. Whether it was the fires that we saw, that didn't happen this past time. Plans were made for after the war. There's no question that there has been an insurgency. The insurgents understand the stakes of the situation in Iraq. They understand that if we're successful, their efforts to promote terrorism around the world, their efforts to defeat democracy and freedom will be hurt. And there's no question-- therefore, we need to deal with these insurgents.

But the president has mentioned repeatedly that he thinks every day about it and meets with the families of the men and women who have given their lives in Iraq. They've given their lives for an incredibly noble cause. We did plan for the future. There are some things you can plan for. There are some things that are harder to plan for, but I believe we're doing a very important mission in Iraq, which is defeating the terrorists, promoting democracy and you've seen throughout this spring what the effects of that democracy have been in other Arab nations.

MR. RUSSERT: The primary rationale given for the war, however, was the elimination of weapons of mass destruction. And again I refer you to the memo of the prime minister's meeting. "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than half that of Libya, North Korea and Iran."

MR. MEHLMAN: Well, the president, I think, was responsible in saying we need to simultaneously prepare for war and also try to avoid that war. There were simultaneous efforts at the diplomatic stages that were made and yet at the same time it would have been irresponsible for us to say we're going to wait and then plan for war later because we wouldn't have had as effective an effort as we did to remove Saddam Hussein from power, so we needed to do both at the same time. I would also, though, disagree, as I said a moment ago, with the notion that Iraq was somehow less of a threat. Iran and North Korea hadn't invaded their neighbors. Iran and North Korea hadn't used weapons of mass destruction. Iran and North Korea hadn't, in the same way that Saddam Hussein had, been paying off suicide bombers in Israel and in the Palestinian territories. Iran and North Korea are serious challenges. So was Saddam Hussein, and removing him makes the world safer, makes America safer.

[althecat]

36. 9.30am 7 June NZT (New Items) - 2 - 20 - 4 - 32(Bay Area Gets Jiggy W'it)

Notably the "Downing Street Memo" references take off a bit today up 32... and this is before the long awaited for NYT report....

Bay Area Reports

"Downing Street memo" on Iraq met mostly with silence
Bush officials mum despite calls for answers on Brit report
By Josh Richman, STAFF WRITER
It's been more than a month since The Times of London published a secret British government memo from mid-2002 describing the Bush administration's resolve to invade Iraq whether it posed a threat or not.
It's been about a month since 89 House Democrats — including six from the Bay Area — asked the president to explain himself in light of this memo.

And it's been almost three weeks since the White House press secretary said that isn't going to happen.

So now what?

The blogosphere still burns with items about what's often called the "Downing Street memo," named for the site of the British prime minister's home and office.

http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/ci_2781868
http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/localnews/ci_2781868
etc...

Including CFR..

http://www.cfr.org/pub8157/charles_duelfer_patricia_wald/weapons_of_mass_destruction_and_iraq.php

[althecat]

37. 11am 8 June NZT(new Items) - 2 - 25 - 1 - 90 !!! (mostly in last hour)

Blair/Bush Press Conference Raises Memo and all hell breaks loose

This AP report
http://www.ktvotv3.com/Global/story.asp?S=3444596

is everywhere

WHITE HOUSE President Bush and Britain's Tony Blair are denying a controversial memo's assertion that pre-war intelligence on Iraq was "fixed" to justify invasion.

At a joint White House news conference, the president declared, "There's nothing farther from the truth."

And Blair told reporters, "The facts were not being fixed in any shape or form."

The 2002 memo from a top British intelligence official reported that a decision had already been made in Washington to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

But Bush says he and Blair never wanted to use force in Iraq. He says it was the "last option."

The comment was Bush's first on the so-called "Downing Street Memo", which surfaced during the British election campaign. Blair won a third term as prime minister, but thanks in part to Iraq, his parliamentary majority was sharply reduced.

[Mnemosyne]

31. Outstanding effort althecat!

Sorry I got here too late to nominate this thread, but here's a:kick:

[MelissaB]

35. It's too darn bad we can't nominate this one.

Thanks Althecat!

[leftchick]

33. very cool Al

I was curious about this just this morning. Thank you!

:hi:

[althecat]

38. TIPPING POINT 11pm June 8NZT- 182 for "Downing Street Memo" in 24 Hours

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&rls=GGLD%2CGGLD%3A2004-29%2CGGLD%3Aen&tab=wn&ie=UTF-8&q=downing+street+memo&scoring=d&sa=N&start=170

And still waiting on promised NYT expose....

[althecat]

40. 8am 9 June NZT (New Items) - 6 - 67 - 3 - 178

[althecat]

41. 11am 10 June NZT (New Items) - 1 - 21 - 1 - 49

[althecat]

42. 11.45am 11 June NZT (New Items) - 2 - 32 - 1 - 53

[althecat]

43. 1.20pm 12 June NZT (New Items) - 0 - 9 - 1 - 18

Significant new items follow. Notably most of the coverage remains in independent web based media....

June 12, 2005

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1650822,00.html
Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’
Michael Smith

MINISTERS were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal.
The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.

The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/12/opinion/12rich.html?hp
Don't Follow the Money
By FRANK RICH
Published: June 12, 2005
THE morning the Deep Throat story broke, the voice on my answering machine was as raspy as Hal Holbrook's. "I just want you to remember that I wrote 'Follow the money,' " said my caller. "I want to know if anybody will give me credit. Watch for the accuracy of the media!"

http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5451062.html
Downing Street memo's route to paper
June 12, 2005 RRCOL0612
The U.S. media, as a whole, have been in slow motion reacting to the Downing Street memo, a highly classified report the London Times published May 1.

Word of the memo did not appear in the Star Tribune until May 13 -- and that was way ahead of most American media.

Is there something wrong with the story? Is the memo fabricated? Are readers uninterested? The answers are no, no and no.

The back story reveals a lot about how news travels traditional routes and cyberspace at different velocities, about how the Internet is being used to influence media and about how those on the left and right have learned to puff up their feathers or grow small -- to foment coverage or strangle it.

[Spazito]

39. Thanks for all your work!

:kick:

[althecat]

44. 2ND TIPPING POINT: *** 194 *** New DSM Google Results In 24 Hours

Story is now 8th rating story on GOOGLE US NEWS page, thanks to new breaking story from Times and WashPost FP follow...

http://news.google.com/?ned=us&topic=n

And heating up further....

I have started a speculativeish thread here
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3837269
Discussing some curious aspects of Downing Street's plumbing problems

[althecat]

45. 7.30am 13 June NZT (New Items) - 2 - 71 - 9 - 233

[althecat]

46. 10am 14 June NZT (New Items) - 2 - 41 - 5 - 199 (Best Day Yet..)

Note the story is now No.2 US News Story on Google.... (up from seven Yesterday.) And is on the Google News Front Page
http://news.google.com/nwshp?ned=us


Notable Items Over Last 24 Hours

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=8765675
Reuters Report

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/13/politics/13downing.html
Old Grey Lady
Prewar British Memo Says War Decision Wasn't Made
By DAVID E. SANGER
Published: June 13, 2005
WASHINGTON, June 12 - A memorandum written by Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet office in late July 2002 explicitly states that the Bush administration had made "no political decisions" to invade Iraq, but that American military planning for the possibility was advanced. The memo also said American planning, in the eyes of Mr. Blair's aides, was "virtually silent" on the problems of a postwar occupation.

"A postwar occupation of Iraq could lead to a protracted and costly nation-building exercise," warned the memorandum, prepared July 21 for a meeting with Mr. Blair a few days later. It also appeared to take as a given the presence of illicit weapons in Iraq - an assumption that later proved almost entirely wrong - and warned that merely removing Saddam Hussein from power would not guarantee that those weapons could be secured.



http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/11879794.htm
AP Report
White House defends Iraq postwar planning

Associated Press


WASHINGTON - The White House took exception Sunday to the reported characterization of a British memo questioning the adequacy of U.S. planning for a postwar occupation of Iraq.

"There was significant post war planning," said spokesman David Almacy. "More importantly, the memo in question was written eight months before the war began; there was significant post war planning in the time that elapsed."



http://www.gopusa.com/commentary/bobby/2005/bobby_06131.shtml
(By Gannon/Guckerk's Boss)
'Downing Street' Memo Has Left Wingers Drooling
By Bobby Eberle
June 13, 2005

If there's one thing left wingers love, it's a good, old-fashioned conspiracy. Give them a small nibble of a "claim" of wrong doing against the current White House, conservatives, or Republicans, and the left wing fringe will pounce into action. Facts? Data? Evidence? Those items are simply minor inconveniences to their "analysis" of right wing efforts to rule the world, steal elections, plant White House reporters, or a host of other perceived dirty deeds.

Like chum in a pool of sharks, the left has been stirred into a frenzy over the so-called "Downing Street" memo. This document, written by a British foreign policy official, chronicles a meeting among British officials including Prime Minister Tony Blair. The memo conveys a sense of the direction America was heading in regard to dealing with Saddam Hussein and Iraq, prior to the commencement of military operations. The memo contains a passage that the left is now calling the "smoking gun" that they say shows President Bush purposely manipulated intelligence information to build the case for war. Once again, the left wing zealots are putting facts and evidence aside and letting their conspiracy theory fears run wild.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/06/13/BL2005061300982.html
Washpost Froomkin
The Second Memo

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 13, 2005; 4:00 PM

A second British memo from 2002 emerged over the weekend chronicling how senior officials there saw the Bush administration as bent on war in Iraq and inattentive to postwar consequences.

Just last week, the MSM (that's mainstream media) turned its attention to the first DSM (that's Downing Street Memo) in earnest. (See my June 8 column for background.)


The new memo (can we call it DSM-II?) comes at a particularly bad time for Bush, as polls show that public sentiment is turning sharply against the war.

http://www.recordonline.com/archive/2005/06/13/drhousem.htm
Could memo sink Bush?

Hinchey, others demand answers on Downing Street Memo

By Dave Richardson
Times Herald-Record
[e-mail]

What if President Bush lied to Congress and the American people, used those lies to gain congressional approval for military action against Iraq and launched a war that killed 1,700 Americans and tens of thousands of others?
That might have been a hypothetical question a month ago; it might not be hypothetical anymore.
In fact, Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-Hurley, says the answer to the question could lead to the impeachment of President Bush.
The release of an explosive piece of paper called the Downing Street Memo has Hinchey, almost 90 members of Congress and people around the world in an uproar.

[althecat]

47. 11.20am 145June NZT (New Items) - 1 - 31 - 3 - 65

Still On Google News US Top Stories Page (Just)
http://news.google.com/?ned=us&ncl=http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061400563.html&hl=en

Significant items
Raw story - http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Kerry_confidantes_say_senator_is_seeking_others_to_cosign_letter_on_Downing_mi_0614.html

Guardian - http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1505943,00.html

NYT - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/politics/14downing.html?

Houston Chron - http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/editorial/outlook/3223810

Dem Underground - http://www.democraticunderground.com/crisis/05/015_bw.html

SF GATE - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/gate/archive/2005/06/14/worldviews.DTL

Washpost - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061400494.html
&
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061400563.html

FAIR - http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2545

[althecat]

48. 10am 16 June NZT (New Items) - 1 - 37 - 4 - 101

Significant New Items

LA Times Feature - http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/iraq/complete/la-fg-britmemos15jun15,1,2071099.story?coll=la-iraq-complete

NYT - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/14/politics/14downing.html?

Also run in Newsday, Star Trib etc...

Slate - http://slate.msn.com/id/2120886/

Media Matters - http://mediamatters.org/items/200506150005

IPA - http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=1071

Washpost Editorial - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061401383.html

Washpost Comment - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/06/15/BL2005061500535.html'

ZNET - http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=15&ItemID=8086

CBS - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/06/15/opinion/main702043.shtml

Democracy Now - http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/15/1345223

Minneapolis Star Trib - http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5457360.html?SID=1oejit3u4bdvgfbdcpj0ci1ti1
http://www.startribune.com/stories/1519/5457220.html?SID=qfp563e63j4lpmob65i7sklt10

[althecat]

49. Notably.. Washpost and NYT are now filing daily on this story....

[BronxBoy]

50. Please explain what these numbers mean?

[althecat]

51. See post no. 14...

[althecat]

52. TIPPING POINT 3: 11am 17 June - 1 - 38 - 6 - 279 (Story Google No.1)

11am 17 June NZT (New Items) - 1 - 38 - 6 - 279 (31 in last 2 hours)

Comment: With the June 16th hearings just completed and the rally underway the numbers indicate that there has been a heap of buildup coverage. The Downing Street memo is the No. 1 global News story on Google today..

See..
http://news.google.com/nwshp?ned=us
http://news.google.com/news?lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-29,GGLD:en&tab=nn&scoring=d&ned=us&topic=n
or
http://news.google.com/news?lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-29,GGLD:en&tab=nn&scoring=d&ned=us&ncl=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi%3Ff%3D/n/a/2005/06/16/national/w153112D91.DTL&hl=en

Notably this is before the major outlets have reported on the hearings. The momentum is now well and truly UNDERWAY!!!

[althecat]

53. 9pm June 18 NZT - 310 Matches For "Downing Street Memo" In 24 Hours

[althecat]

54. 5pm June 18 NZT (New Items) - 2 - 59 - 19 - 311 (Many more newspapers)

Story remains in Google top 3 (at 3)
http://news.google.com/news?lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-29,GGLD:en&tab=nn&scoring=d&ned=us&topic=n

There is a huge volume of reports notably from newspapers throughout the US.

Significant items
Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/salon/story/0,14752,1509059,00.html

AP (Chicago Trib) - http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0506170123jun17,1,409271.story?coll=chi-newsnationworld-hed
SF Chron - http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/16/national/w153112D91.DTL
Washpost - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/16/AR2005061600978.html

Village Voice - http://villagevoice.com/news/0525,memo,65101,6.html

NY Times - http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/17/politics/17downing.html

VOA - http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-06-16-voa93.cfm

LA Times Letters - http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/letters/la-le-kinsley15jun15,0,7738207.story?coll=la-news-comment-letters

NPR - http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4706139

FAIR - http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2556

WN Daily = http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44831

[althecat]

56. 7pm June 19 NZT (New Items) - 2 - 66 - 12 - 532!!!! (highest 24hr period)

In the latest batch of memo links are hundreds of links to excerpts from the memos. Plus to wire reports relaying for the first time the basic facts in this story.

In many ways today is the first day that we can say that this story has now been reported far and wide. Tis a shame it hasn't yet been reported that well.

[althecat]

57. 7pm June 20 NZT (New Items) 0 - 37 - 9 - 148 (Slowing but still a deluge)

Story is currently No. 5 in Google US News...
http://news.google.com/news?lr=&rls=GGLD,GGLD:2004-29,GGLD:en&tab=nn&topic=n

[althecat]

58. 11pm 21 June NZT (New Items) 0 - 24 - 7 - 99

Currently No. 7 in Google US Top STories...

[althecat]

59. 10pm 22 June NZT(New Items) - 1 - 49 - 6 - 133 (Wolfowitz Enters Afray)

Someone else doing Google analysis
http://www.btcnews.com/btcnews/index.php?p=979