Memo is Opinion; MINUTES ARE FACTS

THE DOWNING STREET MINUTES CONSIDERED

Press Release

Minutes are the real-time record of a meeting, whose veracity is checked by all members attending, and are given to all members attending, and must be kept by all attending. Minutes are the true and accurate statement of what transpired during a meeting. If a conspiracy to commit a crime happened during a meeting, and those minutes were made public, and the criminals were government ministers, and the crime was an illegal war -- there SHOULD BE HELL TO PAY.

CHICAGO TRIB: WH DENIALS, MEDIA BLACKOUT; PUBLIC INDIFFERENCE
The Chicago Tribune (5/17/05) named several factors that had caused a "less than robust discussion" of the smoking gun memo: Aside from the White House's denials, and the media's slow reaction, the paper asserted that "the public generally seems indifferent to the issue or unwilling to rehash the bitter prewar debate over the reasons for the war." Of course, it's hard to judge the public's interest in a story the media have largely shielded them from.

DOWNING STREET DOSSIER

• BBC Transcript; Panorama: March 20, 2005; Tony Iraq & The Truth; This is a transcript that includes direct quotations from highly classified and recently declassified documents -- the Downing Street Minutes are included, as are memorandum from defense, intelligence and foreign relations staff; C. Rice, John Bolton, Jack Straw, Jaques Chirac, and other key players in the leadup to an illegal war. On the night of March 20, 2005 3.4 million British homes watched this program. Yet no one in America knows about it. Why? BBC TRANSCRIPT
  
• Wilmshurst Resignation Letter;Foreign Office Minister's Statement on Illegal Iraq Invasion; March 16, 2003; Wilmshurst Letter
  
• Goldsmith Legal Opinion; March 7, 2003; Goldsmith Opinion
  
• Downing Street Minutes; July 23, 2002; Downing Street Minutes
  
• RAF Bombing; Times Online, UK - May 29, 2005; RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies... RAF BOMBING RAIDS TRIED TO GOAD SADDAM INTO WAR
  
  US TESTIMONY BACKED UP BY MINUTES
  
  1. Richard Clarke relates that as soon as Bush returned to the White House on September 11th, Rumsfeld stated "we needed to bomb Iraq and we all said, 'No no, al Qaeda is in Afghanistan. We need to bomb Afghanistan.'" Clarke also reports Bush demanded that Clarke find a reason to attack Iraq as well.
  SLATE: RICHARD CLARK 20/03/04
  CLARKE TRANSCRIPT; CBS 60 Minutes;
  
  2. Paul O'Neill, who was Secretary of the Treasury until Bush replaced him, was very clear when he stated that invading Iraq was on the table from the first day Bush took office. PAUL O'NEILL; JAN 2004;
  
  MEMO: THIRD OR FOURTH HAND OPINION?
  
  McCain:
  While the memo has begun to get wider coverage in print, broadcasters have maintained a near silence on the issue. The story has turned up in a few short CNN segments (Crossfire, 5/13/05; Live Sunday, 5/15/05; Wolf Blitzer Reports, 5/16/05), but the only mention of the memo FAIR found on the major broadcast networks came on ABC's Sunday morning show This Week (5/15/05), in which host George Stephanopoulos questioned Sen. John McCain about its contents. When McCain declared that he didn't "agree with it" and defended the Bush administration's decision to go to war, Stephanopoulos didn't question him further. A look at the nightly news reveals not a single story aired about the memo and its implications
  See Also NewYorker, May 23, 2005; The McCain Way
  
  McClellan
  When finally questioned by CNN (5/16/05), White House press secretary Scott McClellan claimed he hadn't seen the memo, but that "the reports" about it were "flat-out wrong." British government officials, however, did not dispute the contents of the memo--which can be read in full online at and a former senior American official called it "an absolutely accurate description of what transpired" (Knight Ridder, 5/6/05).
  "And in terms of the intelligence, it was wrong, and we are taking steps to correct that and make sure that in the future we have the best possible intelligence, because it's critical in this post-September 11th age, that the executive branch has the best intelligence possible".
  McCLELLAN: MEMO FLAT OUT WRONG
  
  MEMO: WHICH ONE?
  RICE & STRAW DENY SIGNIFICANCE
  Condoleeza Rice aware of Downing Street Minutes/Memo but ignores reporter’s questions; Monday 30th May 2005;
  SECRETARY RICE: Which one is that? Andrea, which one is that?
  FOREIGN SECRETARY STRAW: Which one is that?
  QUESTION: On Iraq. That came out about 10 days ago, 12 days ago. Are you not aware of this memo?
  SECRETARY RICE: Well, a lot of them are, unfortunately, out. (Laughter.)
  RICE & STRAW DENY SIGNIFICANCE OF MINUTES
  
  Whizbang
  As a smoking gun it leaves a lot to be desired," said Kevin Aylward, a northern Virginia-based technology consultant who runs the conservative-leaning blog, Wizbangblog.com. "It's interesting, but it's probably fourth- or fifth-hand information."; WHIZBANG: Third or Fourth Hand Information:
  
  MINUTES: "INTELLIGENCE WAS NOT FIXED"
  Bush and Blair Press Conference; June 8, 2005
  
  MINUTES: JOURNALISTICALLY MANDATORY
  
  Lead Up To War; by Mark Danner, New York Review of Books, June 9, 2005
  With a close reading of the Downing Street Minutes, which documents a closed-door meeting of senior British officials in July 2002, an essay suggests that appeals to the United Nations in the buildup to the Iraq war were intended to legalize military action, not avert it. The conversion of the administration to the "U.N. route" was not, the essay argues, Colin Powell's chief political accomplishment or his most costly credibility gamble, but the predictable product of British unwillingness to cooperate in what would otherwise have been an extralegal offensive. Efforts to discredit the empty-handed inspectors, the essay suggests, were right out of Joseph Goebbels' playbook; LEADUP TO WAR
  
  "Journalitically Mandatory"; Michael Getler, Washington Post ombudsman: Getler called investigation of the memo's conclusions "journalistically mandatory" and suggested that the Post story should have been placed on the front page
  Network Viewers Still in the Dark on "Smoking Gun Memo"; FAIR - May 20, 2005
  Getler called investigation of the memo's conclusions "journalistically mandatory" and suggested that the Post story should have been placed on the front page. FAIR: VIEWERS STILL IN THE DARK
  
  "Minutes of High Powered Meeting - Life and Death Issue"; Byron Calame, NYT;
  New 'NYT' Public Editor Jumps the Gun with First Critique; Editor & Publisher - May 21, 2005; Calame concluded that "it appears that key editors simply were slow to recognize that the minutes of a high-powered meeting on a life-and-death issue” MINUTES OF A MEETING ON LIFE AND DEATH ISSUE
  
  Even as Bush vowed diplomacy, he toiled for war; by BILLIE STANTON;Tucson Citizen; May 17, 2005; Prime Minister Tony Blair, known in the British press as Bush's poodle, had signed on to the effort early on, and his Downing Street staff does not deny the authenticity of the secret memo obtained by the Sunday London Times. "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." That last sentence should stop every American in his tracks. The intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.; VOWING DIPLOMACY, TOILING FOR WAR
  
  BREAKING THROUGH US MEDIA BLACKOUT
  
  ILLEGAL WAR IRAQ: Breaking Through US Media Blackout
  Grace Reid, Uruknet; May 15, 2005; BREAKING THROUGH BLACKOUT
  
  FAIR ACTION ALERT; Network Viewers Still in the Dark on "Smoking Gun Memo" Print media continue to downplay story; May 20, 2005 STILL IN THE DARK
  
  Media Black Out Downing Street Minutes; David Swanson
  Collective Bellaciao, France - May 31, 2005..
  MEDIA BLACKOUT