Rawstory: Data Shows UK, US Lied Re Justification for Pre-War Airstrikes

[Hissyspit]

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/British_U.S._justification_for_increased_prewar_bombing_foun_0804.html

British, U.S. lied about justification for pre-war Iraq airstrikes
Michael Smith
Special to RAW STORY. Michael Smith writes for the London Sunday Times.

Britain and America’s reasons for stepping up bombing of Iraq in the ten months leading up to the war in Iraq was a sham, official figures released by the British Ministry of Defense show.

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and Geoff Hoon, his UK counterpart, said the stepped-up attacks by U.S. and Royal Air Force aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone were a response to increased attacks by Iraqi air defences.

The minutes of a meeting of Tony Blair’s Iraq war cabinet on July 23, 2003, leaked to the London Sunday Times, record Hoon as saying “the US had begun spikes of activity to put pressure on the regime.”

- snip -

But figures released last month by the British Ministry of Defense show that in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, with American officials predicting moves to oust Saddam Hussein, Iraq dramatically scaled back its attacks on allied aircraft.

MORE AT LINK

[Hissyspit]

1. On Edit: Fixed headline to OP. AirstrikeS, not airstrike n/t

[shraby]

2. Oh Oh! Looks like they got tagged in

another whopper.

[Hissyspit]

3. kick

[understandinglife]

4. “Taken together with the leaked minutes of the July 23rd meeting, ...

... “these figures simply destroy the Government’s case,” ...

In_deed.

http://www.peacecandy.com/gwbush/remindus
REMIND US

Peace.

www.missionnotaccomplished.us - How ever long it takes, the day must come when tens of millions of caring individuals peacefully but persistently defy the dictator, deny the corporatists their cash flow, and halt the evil being done in Iraq and in all the other places the Bu$h neoconster regime is destroying civilization and the environment in the name of "America."

[AuntiBush]

5. So, When Do the Frog Marches Begin?

I need to be prepared with a stockpile of much deserved :popcorn:

[rateyes]

6. I can't say I'm surprised...just can't figure out

how ANYONE fails to see the lies, deceit, and crimes of the * admnistration. What's it gonna take?

[bleever]

7. God bless Michael Smith. May we join with our like-minded

friends in Britain in increasingly powerful revelations about the synthetic and deceitful genesis of this evil war.

And, as always, thanks to RawStory.