Memos Show British Fretting Over Iraq War

[tuvor]

(I searched LBN and came up empty. Hope this isn't a dupe.)

By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer

LONDON - When Prime Minister
Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined with Condoleezza Rice six months after Sept. 11, the then-U.S. national security adviser didn't want to discuss Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida. She wanted to talk about "regime change" in Iraq, setting the stage for the U.S.-led invasion more than a year later.

President Bush wanted Blair's support, but British officials worried the White House was rushing to war, according to a series of leaked secret Downing Street memos that have renewed questions and debate about Washington's motives for ousting Saddam Hussein.

In one of the memos, British Foreign Office political director Peter Ricketts openly asks whether the Bush administration had a clear and compelling military reason for war.

"U.S. scrambling to establish a link between Iraq and al-Qaida is so far frankly unconvincing," Ricketts says in the memo. "For Iraq, `regime change' does not stack up. It sounds like a grudge between Bush and Saddam."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/downing_street_memos;_ylt=AtCqVqvi7nccwSHkzliDDvoDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

[quaoar]

1. Here are links from AP to PDFs of the memos

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/fcolegal020308.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/manning020314.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/meyer020318.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/ods020308.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/ricketts020322.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/specials/dowdoc/straw020325.pdf

[Supersedeas]

2. a grudge bt Bush & Saddam ought to be the headline in every paper

but the Dana Milbanks of the US journalistic world have some mocking to do, no?

[Erika]

3. Dana Milbanks is the joke

These leaked British memos are showing Bush's irrational desire to invade and occupy Iraq. Too bad our government doesn't have the guts to leak in the same manner. Of course, O'Neil and Wilson were villified by the right wingers when they tried to expose the truth.

[brettdale]

4. kick

kick

[Moderator]

5. Duplicate

This has been posted several times. AP changed the headline. This article is posted within this thread

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1560497