UK Independent-US gave date of war to Britain in advance

[TexasProgresive]

US gave date of war to Britain in advance, court papers reveal
By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=576429

27 October 2004

Secret plans for the war in Iraq were passed to British Army chiefs by US defence planners five months before the invasion was launched, a court martial heard yesterday.

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. How many friggin times did W say

he did not have war plans on his desk? I guess they must have been on Cheney's desk.

[Gin]

2. Exactly........he spoke a partial truth.....they were on Condi's desk....

they are so obvious....and pitiful...and pathetic.

[Tamyrlin79]

3. HOLY F*CK!

Do you think this fact will make the news here??? This would be a nice thing to finish out the week with. The weapons story has been great, but the public will be tired of it by the weekend. Something new that keeps the media reporting stories that question bush's credibility would be preferable to more "Mary Cheney", for example.

[IChing]

4. 5 months

This is a lie that bush said he didn't do
the date, the date, the date, of the war............

[Old and In the Way]

5. Sounds like about 2 minutes after the IWR vote.

So, as we all knew here, his assurances to the contrary that he hoped war could be avoided were....lies.

[maddezmom]

9. so, his speech at the UN was a stunt, similar to the aircraft carrier ....

delivering turkey to the troops. What a joke the shrub has turned out to be. Wonder what the troops are thinking about their leader now?

[rawstory]

6. KICK

this is a HUGE story if anyone actually covers it across the atlantic.

[MsMagnificent]

26. Aye - there's the rub

Getting US media coverage.

Who can possibly say we live in a democracy when our media won't report what the rest of the world knows?

Just give us all prefrontal lobotomies instead of comprehensive health care and All Hail der Bush!

[jhain]

7. Happy Birthday! Merry Christmas! Happy New Year!

As despicable as all the news has been this week ( is it really only Tuesday????) I am overjoyed to see it all BEFORE Nov 2.

And, btw, these are some awful short 'news cycles'....
Trying to keep up...

[grytpype]

8. The bad news is flooding out now.

How much can Bush take of this?

[WindChill]

10. Wouldn't that be

Just about the time the inspectors went in? Seems to me that was in October. But it certainly explains why the administration undermined and, dare I say, denigrated the inspectors the whole time.

[UpInArms]

11. CNN: April 6, 2002: Bush: Saddam Hussein must go

http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/04/06/bush.iraq/

CRAWFORD, Texas (CNN) -- President Saddam Hussein's days as leader of Iraq are numbered if the United States has anything to do with it, President Bush made clear Saturday during a joint news conference with visiting Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain.

"I told the prime minister the policy of my government is to remove Saddam and that all options are on the table," he said.

Blair was more circumspect, saying Britain agrees "that Iraq would be a better place without Saddam Hussein."

"But how we proceed, that is a matter that is open," he said. "When the time comes for taking those decisions, we will tell people of those decisions."

<snip>

A front-page story in the New York Times on April 28 claimed that Bush had all but settled on a full-scale ground invasion of Iraq early next year with between 70,000 and 250,000 U.S. troops. But military and civilian officials insist that there is no finalized battle plan or timetable — and that Bush has not even been presented with a formal list of options. Instead, the Times story, with its vision of a large-scale troop deployment, seems to have been the latest volley in the bureaucratic war at home, leaked by uniformed officers who think some of their civilian overseers have been downplaying the size and difficulty of an attack.

Still, planning for some kind of military action is clearly under way. Earlier this year, Bush signed a supersecret intelligence "finding" that authorized further action to prepare for Saddam's ouster. Mindful of widespread concern that a post-Saddam Iraq could quickly be torn apart by ethnic violence and regional meddling, the White House is increasing its efforts to devise a workable replacement government.

...more...

and let us not forget:

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,235395,00.html

"We're Taking Him Out"
His war on Iraq may be delayed, but Bush still vows to remove Saddam. Here's a look at White House plans

Sunday, May. 05, 2002
Two months ago, a group of Republican and Democratic Senators went to the White House to meet with Condoleezza Rice, the President's National Security Adviser. Bush was not scheduled to attend but poked his head in anyway — and soon turned the discussion to Iraq. The President has strong feelings about Saddam Hussein (you might too if the man had tried to assassinate your father, which Saddam attempted to do when former President George Bush visited Kuwait in 1993) and did not try to hide them. He showed little interest in debating what to do about Saddam. Instead, he became notably animated, according to one person in the room, used a vulgar epithet to refer to Saddam and concluded with four words that left no one in doubt about Bush's intentions: "We're taking him out."

...more...

(edited to add pertinent details)

[cal04]

12. Let's throw this in there too while we're at it

and the fact that Chalabi was the head of the INC

Bush team sets ambitious target in Iraq policy
December 19, 2000

Some Bush advisers, as well as Republicans in the U.S. Congress, have also openly advocated arming the Iraqi opposition in an attempt to overthrow the Iraqi leader -- a step that the Clinton administration carefully avoided.


The analysts dismissed proposals to overthrow Saddam through the opposition Iraqi National Congress (INC).

"There's a universal feeling in the region that support for the INC and an overt effort to overthrow Saddam Hussein borders on the ridiculous. The INC is greeted with total contempt outside the Beltway (the Washington area)," he said.

"But there are many true believers (in the Republican Party) who have never had much to do with Iraq so it would be foolish to assume it won't be tried," he added.

http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/12/19/bush.iraq.reut/index.html

[UpInArms]

13. I see your 12/2000 article and I'll raise you a 1998 PNAC letter

http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

January 26, 1998

excerpt:

We urge you to articulate this aim, and to turn your Administration's attention to implementing a strategy for removing Saddam's regime from power. This will require a full complement of diplomatic, political and military efforts. Although we are fully aware of the dangers and difficulties in implementing this policy, we believe the dangers of failing to do so are far greater. We believe the U.S. has the authority under existing UN resolutions to take the necessary steps, including military steps, to protect our vital interests in the Gulf. In any case, American policy cannot continue to be crippled by a misguided insistence on unanimity in the UN Security Council.

We urge you to act decisively. If you act now to end the threat of weapons of mass destruction against the U.S. or its allies, you will be acting in the most fundamental national security interests of the country. If we accept a course of weakness and drift, we put our interests and our future at risk.

Sincerely,

Elliott Abrams
Richard L. Armitage
William J. Bennett
Jeffrey Bergner
John Bolton
Paula Dobriansky
Francis Fukuyama
Robert Kagan
Zalmay Khalilzad
William Kristol
Richard Perle
Peter W. Rodman
Donald Rumsfeld
William Schneider, Jr.
Vin Weber
Paul Wolfowitz
R. James Woolsey
Robert B. Zoellick

[eridani]

16. Hussein must go = horseshit

The invasion was on even if the plan of the Saudis and other neighboring countries to get him and the inner circle into exile had panned out.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/5415227.htm?1c
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/iraq/topstories/031803cciraqbush.709e7010.html
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:MIdjUeeOeKMJ:www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/iraq/topstories/031803cciraqbush.709e7010.html+Fleischer+%22if+saddam+seeks+exile%22&hl=en
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:0XcgLWrA8i8J:www.bayarea.com/mld/mercurynews/news/world/5415227.htm+Fleischer+%22if+saddam+seeks+exile%22&hl=en

U.S. troops are headed into Iraq one way or another. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said that even if Saddam seeks exile U.S. forces will enter Iraq to disarm it - hopefully without opposition.

[debatepro]

14. nominating for the front page

Wow - Pretty much all the dialog about waiting until the last moment is now proven BS>

[debatepro]

15. Partial timeline

They knew they were going to invade before UN 1441 passed and this is the proof. Proves President Kerry was right that they didn't try to build the coalition.

October 19th, 2002 - "Secret plans for the war in Iraq were passed to British Army chiefs by US defence planners five months before the invasion was launched, a court martial heard yesterday...Lt Col Warren said US planners had passed on dates for which the invasion was planned...Army chiefs wanted the training for the Army to start at the beginning of December 2002."
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=576429

Nov. 8, 2002: U.N. Security Council unanimously adopts Resolution 1441 outlining an enhanced inspection regime for Iraq's disarmament to be conducted by the U.N. Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). http://www.npr.org/news/specials/iraq2003/war_timeline.html

March 19, 2003 Invasion begain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq

[reprobate]

17. It's up to US to make sure this is covered in the national news.

I just emailed the link and a copy of the story to the Orlando Sentinel managing editor, vice president, news editor, national/foreign news editor, and several others in the news department.

And since the sentinel endorsed Kerry, a suggestion that this story could take some of the heat off for that, as a bit of incentive.

If all of us would do that for his/her local paper, this will make the news.

Let's all do it. This will be the final nail in the bush coffin.

[Lerkfish]

18. This irks me because I told repugs that Bush was going to invade...

7 months before the invasion, regardless of whatever Saddam did or didn't do. The grief I caught for that was immense.


why oh why am I always right when assuming the worst from this administration? oh...yeah...

[TexasProgresive]

19. Wow! Front page

Here's another article on the trial from the Scotsman:

http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3676657

The colonel replied: “Because in December there was a world interest. If the UK had mobilised whilst all this was going on that would have shown an intent before the political process had been allowed to run its course.”

Later Mr Reevell asked him: “I assume there was a decision training was not to start at that time? (early December 2002)”

“Yes, training was not to start at that time,” he replied.

“Who told you?” Mr Reevell asked.

“That would have come from the Defence Crisis Management Organisation in London. It’s is the political, military interface at the highest level.”

[Silvermint]

20. Speaking of the Brits...

Check out this article about intended voter suppression in Florida...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/newsnight/3956129.stm

[newyawker99]

28. Hi Silvermint!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[OutsourceBush]

21. THIS IS HUGE!!!!!!!!!!

[spooked911]

22. Lots of bad news for Bush coming out this last week of the campaign

payback is a bitch!

[wabeewoman]

23. This is exactly why

I was so mad at my representatives who 'didn't know' and supported the war. Adam Smith later admitted he was wrong but 'he couldn't have know'. We knew so they should have known IF only they would have read the news as it was coming out-this very information that you are listing....

[Synnical]

24. Kick

[ElementaryPenguin]

25. Is the American press mentioning this yet? Bushler LIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Started a war PURELY for profit!!! WAR CRIMINAL!

[Ganja Ninja]

27. Here's the headline they can use.

"American Liberals 100% Right About Bush & the War Lies!

We knew it all along.

[goodhue]

29. kick

[ElementaryPenguin]

30. kick!

:kick:

[Pluvious]

31. But but... Boosh said...

"We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace."
-Bush to United Nations, Sept. 2004

_______________
"If this were a dictatorship, it'd be a heck of a lot easier, just so long as I'm the dictator."
-President G. W. Bush