Rawstory acquires letter from British ambassador in lead-up to war

[DemsUnited]

'Need to wrongfoot Saddam'

Larisa Alexandrovna and John Byrne

RAW STORY has acquired a copy of the Mar. 18, 2002 letter dispatched from then-British ambassador to the United States Sir Christopher Meyer to Tony Blair's chief foreign policy advisor, David Manning.

The release comes on the heels of the third anniversary of the Downing Street minutes. The minutes documented a high-level meeting between the Blair and Bush governments, at which the director of British intelligence declared 'the facts were being fixed around the policy' before either nation sought approval for war.

The copy, obtained through British channels, provides further indication of the veracity of the documents and offers striking visual evidence that the communications were made at the highest levels of the Blair government. Meyer drafted the letter on British Embassy stationery.

In the letter from Meyer, he indicates that the British had a "need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors and the UN" Security Council Resolutions, possibly suggesting that the British and the United States were coordinating to 'trick' Saddam into starting a war.

<snip>

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/raw_acquires_meyer_need_to_wrongfoot_saddam_718

[indepat]

1. The US and Britain people are the ones who have been wrong-footed

[Miss Chybil]

7. And the Iraqi peope - infinitely more... nt

[TahitiNut]

2. The 'need to wrongfoot Saddam' is what April Glaspie did in 1991.

This obsession with Iraq and Saddam's disloyalty to the global oil oligarchy that placed him in power has been underway since Poppy Bush big-footed the Middle East during his '89-'93 reign. Up until the late 80's, Saddam was a "good soldier" in the global Crime Family -- then he pissed off the Fascist GOPfathers.

[sabra]

3. How many more documents do we need?

But it does seem like the people are starting to wake up... slowly...

[Jack Rabbit]

4. This isn't new, is it?

From the Guardian Unlimited (UK)
Dated Spetember 21, 2004

The need to wrongfoot Saddam
The weekend's leaked No 10 papers have revealed the depth of official fears about the legality of the Iraq invasion - and the disaster it presaged
By Richard Norton-Taylor

Leaked Whitehall documents present an extraordinarily revealing picture of how Tony Blair's closest advisers and his foreign secretary, Jack Straw, warned him of the pitfalls of following the Bush administration's march to war against Iraq.

For Blair, it was inconceivable that the US would invade without Britain. He was desperate to get UN approval to satisfy parliamentary and public opinion. We know that Lord Goldsmith, the attorney general, changed his advice to suit his client's wishes.

The secret papers, leaked to the Daily Telegraph, disclose the extent of concerns in Whitehall about Washington's openly stated objective - namely, regime change, considered illegal by British government lawyers - and the lengths to which senior British officials connived to manipulate opinion . . . .

"This makes moving quickly to invade legally very difficult," warned officials. They advised a long game or, as they put it, "a staged approach, establishing international support, building up pressure on Saddam and developing military plans".

Read more.

[K-W]

6. No, the news is that they have a copy of the actual document EOM

[lala_rawraw]

8. Right... this is not one previously published

[evermind]

11. The graphic is new, but the text has been published a while

.. right?

The text has been been on the net (in a transcribed PDF) since last October, along with five other Blair cabinet documents.

I posted the text of this one here at DU Jun 8:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=latest_threads

Which was picked up by scoop.co.nz which in turn seemed to cause a flurry of interest.

I think the folks at afterdowningstreet.org satisfied themselves it was the real poop around the 14th, simultaneous with Raw Story and NBC doing their own verifying.

The wikipedia entry on the history of these documents is quite good, I think, at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Downing_street_memo#Additional_documents

It's good (and a bit surprising!!) that Raw Story have got hold of a copy of the original.

I also look forward to the publication of Meyer's book later this year!

[Ernesto]

5. kick

[krkaufman]

9. "possibly suggesting" -- PLEASE!!

It's painfully obvious they were both trying to "trick" Saddam, as well as goad him -- through increased (illegal) bombing of Iraqi facilities during late 2002.

[KansDem]

10. Hahahahaha! New meaning for "W"--"Wrongfoot..."

'Need to wrongfoot Saddam'

From now on, I'm referring to George W. Bush as "George Wrongfoot Bush" :thumbsup:

[Carla in Ca]

12. 'trick' Saddam into starting a war.

Not to mention the rest of the world.

[headache]

13. Any chance...

...the press will finally tie the subject matter of the DSMs to Rove's dirty deed? As much press as Red Rover's been getting lately maybe the MSM will take notice (?)


(Apologies, Larisa. I noticed that and edited before I saw your post)

[lala_rawraw]

14. Oh for the love of god, these are not

CBS leaked memos. Okay? Can we get passed this concern yet?