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Two Amazingly Damning Stories Re: Bush/Cheney Today (Impeach Already!)
Edited on Thu Feb-02-06 06:32 PM
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,1700879,00.htmlBush told Blair we're going to war, memo reveals
· PM backed invasion despite illegality warnings
· Plan to disguise US jets as UN planes
· Bush: postwar violence unlikely
Richard Norton-Taylor
Thursday February 2, 2006
Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was "solidly" behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion's legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today.
A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.
"The diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning", the president told Mr Blair. The prime minister is said to have raised no objection. He is quoted as saying he was "solidly with the president and ready to do whatever it took to disarm Saddam".
<snip>
Mr Bush told Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of "flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours". Mr Bush added: "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach ".
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Report by Murray Waas (The campaign against Joseph Wilson continued even after the CIA concluded that Iraq had not tried to buy uranium from the African nation of Niger. )
http://nationaljournal.com/about/njweekly/stories/2006/0203nj3.htmIraq, Niger, And The CIA
By Murray Waas, special to National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006
Vice President Cheney and his then-Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were personally informed in June 2003 that the CIA no longer considered credible the allegations that Saddam Hussein had attempted to procure uranium from the African nation of Niger, according to government records and interviews with current and former officials. The new CIA assessment came just as Libby and other senior administration officials were embarking on an effort to discredit an administration critic who had also been saying that the allegations were untrue.
CIA analysts wrote then-CIA Director George Tenet in a highly classified memo on June 17, 2003, "We no longer believe there is sufficient" credible information to "conclude that Iraq pursued uranium from abroad." The memo was titled: "In Response to Your Questions for Our Current Assessment and Additional Details on Iraq's Alleged Pursuits of Uranium From Abroad."
Despite the CIA's findings, Libby attempted to discredit former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, who had been sent on a CIA-sponsored mission to Niger the previous year to investigate the claims, which he concluded were baseless.
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From Conyers' Blog today:
Attempting to Defraud the Nation Into War
http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000371.htmIf there is a report that has come out lately that I think is worthy of a "blog-swarm" but hasn't been yet, it is this one. Some have discussed it already (here, for example) but they are, in my view, missing the biggest bombshell in it.
In sum, a new Downing Street Memo exists -- which my staff was chasing down but was unable to obtain for inclusion in "The Constitution in Crisis." The Memo says the following, according to the Guardian:
"Mr Bush told the Mr Blair that the US was so worried about the failure to find hard evidence against Saddam that it thought of 'flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft planes with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in UN colours'. Mr Bush added: 'If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach '."
What was really going on here? If Saddam shot down a U.S. spy plane, was the President set to claim that he had actually shot down a U.N. plane in an effort to gain world support? Is there any other reasonable explanation than that? If so, it shows that -- at the highest levels on the United States government -- previously undisclosed attempts to deceive the American people, the Congress, and the entire world into war. It is a window into the character of this Administration and elucidates that truth about whether the war was the result of an "intelligence failure" or deliberate deceptions.
Coupled with this new report by Murray Waas, the picture could not be clearer.
If you agree with me about its importance, please spread the word about this report. Let's start with the progressive media. I'll do my part.
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