White House lawyers ‘unable to find’ critical Iraq letter from Tony Blair

[newthinking]

Source: The Independent

A letter sent by Tony Blair to George Bush that is “critical” to the Iraq Inquiry has gone missing from official White House records, it has been reported.

................................................

In its opening sentence, Mr Blair is said to have told the US President: “You know, George, whatever you decide to do, I'm with you.” The letter was reportedly hand-delivered by Manning to Bush’s national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Yet according to reports in the Mail on Sunday, a British source involved in the ongoing efforts to get the Bush-Blair records released said: “The lawyers are taking months to evaluate the letters and decide whether to release them.

“However, they claim not to have been able to locate the ‘with you whatever’ letter.”

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/white-house-lawyers-unable-to-find-critical-iraq-letter-from-tony-blair-telling-george-bush-im-with-you-whatever-9391787.html

[Faygo Kid]

1. Rose Mary Woods accidentally lost it.

How convenient.

[yeoman6987]

3. I don't see why they wouldn't release it

Who cares if Tony Blair said we will support you whatever you decide. I doubt it will change anybody's opinion of that war. And Bush and company are not going to be prosecuted regardless of our wishes. It certainly doesn't help that the Democratic Congress went along with it regardless of the intel.

[newthinking]

5. It was requested for an inquiry in Britain that may actually have some legs

[yeoman6987]

8. That is interesting

Didn't Blair get permission from his "Congress" over there? If he didn't that is horrible....that is one reason why Obama really hasn't tried to do much to Bush because he didn't just go to war without permission even if the Intel was wrong.

[24601]

10. In their system, being Prime Minister means you have a majority or control a majority

coalition in the House of Commons. You and your party appoint the Ministers who are equivalent to US Cabinet Officers and run their government Ministries (departments).

When you lose the confidence of the majority, elections must be called to elect a new House of Commons. If an earlier vote isn't called, them must be held every five years - and the "five-year" clock (my words, not theirs) restarts every time there is an election.

The House of Lords, unlike the Senate, has limits on stopping legislation the official Head of State is the Monarch (currently HM QE II) has a lot of titles (like Commander in Chief) no real power.

[dipsydoodle]

13. He misled our parliament

with what are commonly known as lies.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. He did, but it needed the votes from the Conservative opposition

Tony Blair last night won a historic Commons mandate for the coming war with Iraq when a day of high-octane rhetoric and low political arm-twisting managed to contain the surging Labour rebellion to 139 MPs, a record revolt but not a lethal one.

After the anti-war amendment asserting that the case for war is "not yet proven" won 217 votes against a decisive cross-party government vote of 396 MPs, Downing Street appealed for a divided country to rally behind Britain's 45,000-strong military expedition.

As whips claimed that the Labour rebels had added only 17 extra Labour votes to their 122 tally three weeks ago - when voting was 393 to 198 - loyalists breathed a collective sigh of relief. Around 20 Labour MPs abstained.
...
As three of his 91 ministers, led by Mr Cook, resigned from his government, along with five unpaid parliamentary aides, Mr Blair started the day with one gain.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2003/mar/19/uk.houseofcommons2

Members of the government are expected to always vote with the government - 3 resigned from paid positions to vote against Blair (including Cook from the cabinet), and the 5 unpaid aides were MPs who were previously happy to vote the government line, and take government positions in the expectation of future promotion to paid positions. The numbers worked out that of the Labour MPs who didn't have government positions, over half voted against Blair.

And those that voted with him were taking his word about the WMD. It's not just "the intel was wrong", it's that the UK and US governments actively colluded to present misleading reports of the intel. And it's evidence for that which could be what's revealed in the rest of this missing letter; it's not just that he said "we will support you whatever you decide" - he may have also said "but we need to make it look as if we have evidence of WMD".

[yurbud]

33. that bit about collusion is why we haven't had an investigation into real motives for war in US

[malthaussen]

32. Ya beat me to it. n/t

[marmar]

2. Lost accidentally on purpose.

[bemildred]

4. "Hmmmm. Now where could we have misplaced that?" nt

[truedelphi]

15. Might the letter be off in the same place as the

Missing Weapons of Mass Destruction?

[erronis]

22. Duh. Ask the NSA/GCHQ or any other intelligence service worth their salt

for a copy.

I still don't understand how WH records have gone "missing" as well as Chinney's Energy Task Force not being available.

Perhaps a new Snowdon can help us resurrect what has been so conveniently misplaced.

[OnyxCollie]

6. Looks like a pattern developing... nt

[grasswire]

7. probably in Cheney's safe.

That's where the infamous memo went that assigned imperial powers to W. after 9/11. Addison wrote it, and it went into CHENEY'S safe!!

[yeoman6987]

9. A safe deposit box would be safer

A safe could always be under a subpoena, but a safety deposit box in a bank would be out of the question especially if they didn't know he had one.

[Jack Rabbit]

11. More likely it's in Cheney's shredder

!!

[former9thward]

12. This does not make any sense.

Are we to presume Blair did not make a copy of his letter? All things being sent by leaders at that level are copied and usually many, many copies going to various people. Even if the White House can't find the U.S. original why not just get copies that are in Britain?

[truedelphi]

16. Your reply does make sense. Somewhere in Britain is that copy. n/t

[former9thward]

19. Either you did not read the OP or did not read my post.

Because if you read both your reply does not make any sense. Get the copy in Britain and be done with it. Why look at the White House? Get it?

[truedelphi]

23. I was agreeing with your post number 12. n/t

[former9thward]

24. I am sorry, I misread your title.

I mentally put the word "not" following the word "does" for some reason.

[cui bono]

25. The reason is because you are on DU.

[Fla Dem]

17. Why wouldn't all of GWB's WH letters be in his library? It would be GWB's lawyers ,

not the WH lawyers who are conducting the review. They make it sound like it's Obama's lawyers who are stonewalling.

[jeff47]

18. They aren't necessarily stonewalling

I imagine Cheney and company kept a lot of shredders busy in late 2008.

[former9thward]

20. The federal government keeps either the original or copies of all those documents.

They belong to the U.S. not the President.

[marble falls]

21. And they're stonewalling why?

[HooptieWagon]

26. Covering up W's and Cheney's war crimes, perhaps? nt

[former9thward]

28. The Presidential Libraries are operated by the National Archives.

A federal agency. Important papers belong to the federal government not the President. http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/about/office.html So the Library does not have "lawyers". They are White House employees.

Most of the Bush material has not even been cataloged yet. It will take a Library decades to go through millions of documents. Only a little more than 5% of Bush material has been processed. Clinton had 98,000,000 documents and they are still working on his. http://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/faqs/#21

London would have copies of the letter.

[madamesilverspurs]

27. It's in the same file

as W's national guard record.

[grasswire]

29. heh nt

[merrily]

30. See? Everyone thought Blair was only Clinton's poodle.

Turns out, he just dogs around with everyone.

(My apologies to all four footed canines, who seem to have much more integrity than politicians.)

[DeSwiss]

31. Call Abbi and Todd....

K&R