Posted on 06/19/2005 6:53:54 AM PDT by mabelkitty
The media and the Leftists have had a field day with the Downing Street memos that they claim imply that the Bush administration lied about the intelligence on WMD in order to justify the attack on Iraq. Despite the fact that none of the memos actually say that, none of them quote any officials or any documents, and that the text of the memos show that the British government worried about the deployment of WMD by Saddam against Coalition troops, Kuwait and/or Israel, the meme continues to survive.
Until tonight, however, no one questioned the authenticity of the documents provided by the Times of London. That has now changed, as Times reporter Michael Smith admitted that the memos he used are not originals, but retyped copies (via LGF and CQ reader Sapper):
The eight memos — all labeled "secret" or "confidential" — were first obtained by British reporter Michael Smith, who has written about them in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. Smith told AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.
The AP obtained copies of six of the memos (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material.
I say let him back into the US Capitol Hearing rooms...
They had to be destroyed. They were clearly identified as coming from a Kinko's in Abilene, Texas. That would be embarrassing.
They were obtained by Sandy Burglar in his shorts and socks.
The Left is so eager for another Watergate with Bush and another Vietnam in Iraq, that they're stumbling all over themselves.
It'd be kinda cute if they weren't trying to destroy our country.
Yeah, I'm wondering if Lucy Ramirez had anything to do with the FBI email to Turbin Durbin.
DAM! If Bill Burkett had thought of that,...
^^^^^
Looks like some "reporters" have learned the lesson.
Wouldn't matter. He'd claim it was all a KR lie to hide the GW lies that took the country into a private war for vengence on Saddam at the cost of........
I won't go on you can fill in the rest of the lefts mantra by now. we've all heard it so often.
If we were to ignore that they've apparently made it up completely (again), and were to accept that the content were 100% true, they still wouldn't be important or damning or whatever the left wants them to be.
if you did not get the ping yet...
Sorry to burst everybody's bubble, but this doesn't make the memos fake. If these memos were indeed written by the British agents in question, then any accurate reproduction of their wording is a real representation of the information they originally contained.
What got Dan R in trouble was the very real likelihood that the documents he used were never real, not that he had only copies of the documents. The allegation was that the wording was fake, not that Dan didn't have the original pieces of paper.
Of course, any "retyped" document should be viewed with suspicion, as proving or disproving its accuracy is a great deal more difficult. But its being "retyped" does not of itself prove that it is "fake," unless of course the claim is made that it is an original.
There is no proof they were written by British agents.
How convenient! He retyped them, and destroyed the origionals? LMAO!!! I have a full admission here in my hot little hands of John Kerry's full cofession of crimes against the state, as he told his Buddy Ted, which were written down by a whitness on a memo, then gave them to me. I retyped them and destroyed the memos to protect his identity though....
Since John kerry is the origional perp who "brought these memos back", ATTEST THE BUGGER FOT ATTEMPTED FRAUD! CONSPIRACY! TREASON!!! Now is the chance!
Exactly.
Another news org from the cBS sckoool of journalism.
If the memos weren't fake, why did the reporter destroy the originals? A good reporter would have kept the originals locked up somewhere.
Good Find my friend!
I read that earlier this morning. While it still can be used I think it's now worthless in any impeachment process. For a reporter to admit to destroying the original puts a big cloud over the whole thing. It's like someone just pulled the rug right our from under us. I'm not sure how effective the memo was going to be anyway without any direct quotes.
Lucy just pulled the ball back from Charlie Brown again....:-)
ROFL....spot on.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.