Democrat Urges Inquiry on Bush, Iraq: Its NEWS

[undeterred]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/06/16/national/w153112D91.DTL

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
Thursday, June 16, 2005

Congress should conduct an official inquiry to determine whether President Bush intentionally misled the nation about the reasons for toppling Saddam Hussein, a senior House Democrat suggested Thursday. New York Rep. Charles Rangel was among Democratic House members who participated in a forum to air demands that the White House provide more information about what led to the decision to go to war in Iraq.

"Quite frankly, evidence that appears to be building up points to whether or not the president has deliberately misled Congress to make the most important decision a president has to make, going to war," said Rangel, senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee.

Rep. John Conyers and other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee organized the forum to investigate implications in a British document known as the "Downing Street memo." The memo says the Bush administration believed that war was inevitable and was determined to use intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the ouster of Saddam.

Conyers pointed to statements by Bush in the run-up to invasion that war would be a last resort. "The veracity of those statements has — to put it mildly — come into question," he said. In the opening hours of the forum, witnesses spoke mainly about their views on the decision to go to war and not the memo, which the Bush administration has dismissed.

:dem: :dem: :dem: :dem: :dem:

[undeterred]

1. Democrats Question U.S. Pre-War Actions -- WASHINGTON POST!

By PETE YOST
The Associated Press
Thursday, June 16, 2005; 1:59 PM

WASHINGTON -- Some congressional Democrats, brandishing a document known as the "Downing Street Memo," are insisting that the White House provide more information about what led to the decision to go to war in Iraq.

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and other Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee were conducting a public forum Thursday, prompted by documents that have surfaced from inside the British government about pre-war planning.

The so-called "Downing Street memo" says the Bush administration believed that war was inevitable and was determined to use intelligence about weapons of mass destruction to justify the ouster of Saddam.

The "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy," says the memo, recounting a July 23, 2002 meeting of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his national security team. The meeting took place just after British officials returned from Washington.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/16/AR2005061600978.html

[jojo54]

2. I watched the hearing online and TV (had to interchange)

IMHO, if this does not become an official investigation, then somebody is pulling a lot more pud than we thought.

[GetTheRightVote]

3. I thank God for the light and Rep Conyers for the path & Dems fr listening

:kick:

[democrat_patriot]

4. Sounds EXACLTLY like what I just read a FauX.

Exactly.

They all pull from the same source?

[undeterred]

5. Looks like the Associated Press reporter got his story filed before

the hearing was even over. But I'm glad its AP- they should get the story in the major papers.

[undeterred]

6. Its NEWS in the UK! And the MSM ignoring it is also news!

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1657381,00.html
Congress discusses secret Downing St memos
By Jenny Booth, Times Online

Members of the US Congress were this afternoon hearing evidence about two secret Downing St memos written before the invasion of Iraq which seem to imply that President Bush systematically misled the American people.

The first of the two memos were leaked to the Sunday Times in May, but the potential scandal was ignored by the mainstream US media. The memos were however forced onto the political agenda by bloggers, who have refused to let the scandal die down. Today their efforts were due to bear fruit, when anti-war Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will hold an informal meeting to hear evidence on the top secret minutes as part of a hearing on intelligence issues before the Iraq war.

After the hearing, Congressman John Conyers Jr was due personally to deliver a letter to President Bush asking for answer about America's path to war. The petition has been signed by over 100 members of Congress and half a million ordinary US citizens. The letter is due to be followed by a public rally by anti-war campaigners in front of the White House.

The first memo is a transcript of a meeting head in Downing St in July 2002. In it, C, the head of MI6, says that based on meetings in Washington there had been a shift in attitude and that "military action was now seen as inevitable". President Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, and would do so "justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD", it states.

The next line is the one that has excited opponents of the war. The memo continues: "But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." Since the memo was first published in the Sunday Times and on Times Online in May, it has remained among the most frequently read articles every day. Congressman Conyers has even set up a website for the memo, at www.downingstreetmemo.com, where the signatures for the petition have been gathered.

[undeterred]

7. The Arab world knows- Al Jazeera posted DSM 6/5/05

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi%2Dbin/conspiracy%5Ftheory/fullstory.asp?id=230

[undeterred]

8. Occupied Iraq knows about the DSM

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m12644&l=i&size=1&hd=0

Downing Street Memo: Deception and Cover-up
Letter to Bush signed by over 500,000 Americans and over 90 members of Congress

Washington, D.C. - Institute for Public Accuracy - infoZine - On Thursday June 16, 2005, from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Room HC-9 of the U.S. Capitol, Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other members of Congress will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of White House efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.

Later on the same day at 5:00 p.m. ET in Lafayette Square Park, in front of the White House, Congressman Conyers will deliver to the White House a letter addressed to President Bush and signed by over 500,000 Americans and over 90 members of Congress. The letter asks the President to respond to questions raised by the Downing Street Minutes.

Among those speaking at the hearings will be: Joe Wilson, former U.S. ambassador and WMD expert; Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst who prepared regular presidential briefings during the Reagan administration; Cindy Sheehan, mother of a U.S. soldier killed in Iraq; and John Bonifaz, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org.

[Politicub]

9. Wow - the shot heard round the world

was the start of the revolution!

(special thanks to School House Rock)

:kick: