WP (Jefferson Morley): Deep Throat of Downing Street

[sabra]

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061400494.html

Deep Throat of Downing Street

By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 14, 2005; 10:18 AM

Deep Throat now has an English accent.

Reporter Michael Smith of The Sunday Times of London scored an international scoop this weekend with a story about a sensational Iraq war document provided by an anonymous high-level official source who, like W. Mark Felt of Watergate fame, seems to have taken up a mission of helping an investigative reporter probe allegations of misconduct and cover-up.


The document, a British government briefing paper from July 21, 2002, informed Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet ministers eight months before the invasion of Iraq that Blair had already committed Britain to supporting an American-led attack and that " they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal ."

The eight-page document labeled "PERSONAL SECRET UK EYES ONLY," whose authenticity has been confirmed by British government sources, also served as the basis of a page one story in the Sunday Washington Post. Staff writer Walter Pincus emphasized a different passage in the document which said "the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a "protracted and costly" postwar occupation of Iraq.

The Sunday Times story made headlines from Australia to China to Pakistan Like the now famous Downing Street Memo, published by The Sunday Times on May 1, the revelation raises the intriguing question of who is risking jail time by leaking top-secret documents to Smith. Just as students of the Watergate scandal pondered for years the identity of the high-level source who guided Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, students of the Iraq war will wonder about the person (or persons) behind The Sunday Times's reports.

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[sabra]

1. last paragrah...

"As U.S. media attention on the Downing Street Memo continues to grow, it is safe to say that we have probably not heard the last from the British Deep Throat."

[lonestarnot]

2. Keep it coming Throat!

[Rosco T.]

3. I bet KKKarl is going nuts trying to find this guy... n/m

[LightningFlash]

4. They killed doctor Kelly....

That shows how far they will go......Any length including CIA assisted suicides...Steal the elections...do whatever it takes to avoid the big house. No different than a cave of common crooks, of Germany's 1938 fame.

[Spazito]

5. This article, at least, focuses on the 'legality' part of the recently

leaked document instead of the lesser, imo, issue of lack of planning. I hope more, MUCH more is to come from the leaker but what has come out so far should, if the republican majority in the House and Senate had one iota of ethics (HA), generate a major investigation.

[stubtoe]

6. This is a good start.

Thanks to Mr. Morley for writing this. Now what needs to happen is for articles like this to appear on the Front pages, not buried in the columns or the editorial sections.

Up to us to keep the pressure on the media. Keep them cards and emails comin', folks!

[Coexist]

7. looks good!

drip, drip, drip... getting impatient for the floodgates to open, though.