Did Lucy Ramirez Find The Downing Street Memos?(Fake, but accurate memos??)

captainsquartersblog.com ^ | 6/19/05 | Captains Quarters

[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.

[steveegg]

Oh, and don't forget Joseph Wilson and Richard Clakre.

Thanks for reminding me; more proprietors of "fake, but accurate".

[Howlin]

Been here, haven't we?

[jsh3180]

The libs "Smoking Gun" just went off and shot them in the foot.

Too funny.

[mabelkitty]

And yet I don't see anyone from the House of Lords standing in a broom closet asking for Mr. Blair's resignation.

[Flightdeck]

re-typed copies of what? My grocery receipt is about as damaging to the Bush administration as those stupid memos.

[Mo1]

Been here, haven't we?

Yep!

They just keep on digging, don't they?

[GiovannaNicoletta]

Bookmark

[steveegg]

Nice graphic.

[Flint]

Wonder if the "Senior British Official" is the same one that felt it in his or her best interest to leak something to start with? Inquiring mind wants to know.

[Nathan Zachary]

It happens all the time! Those Tin hat lunatics over at DU find some wierd conspiracy theory some other wack job printed up and spread over the internet, it's sounds so good to them because it's anti- Bush, and they can't find anything to refute it 9because they don't look) then they hand it off to the senate stooge that hangs at DU. The next thing you know everyone writes their Democrat Senator, and it gains traction.
Then comes the meeting of LA lunatics who "sign a petition" Media is involved at this point) then hand it off to A Nancy Pelosi type, who carries it up to the hill, media tripping over themselves running behind her.

[mabelkitty]

At most, given the dubious authenticity of the allegations, the alleged memos are nothing more than background for an op-ed piece.
Never forget the real reason they were brought into the mainstream - to be used as evidence to impeach a sitting President.

That's the gist of this whole story - create evidence of high crimes and misdemeanors. Nothing else matters.

[gopwinsin04]

'Makin copies!'

[Canard]

"And yet I don't see anyone from the House of Lords standing in a broom closet asking for Mr. Blair's resignation."

I've no idea what a broom closet has to do with anything. Lots of people have demanded Tony Blair's resignation over this issue, mostly on the anti-war side of his own party. These new allegations, while they may add to the depth of knowledge of the decision-making processes of the Blair Government, don't really contain anything substantially new and it doesn't seem to be generating much in the way of new outrage at the moment over here.

[Destro]

You guys do know that the Conservatives in the UK leaked the memos right?

[TheForceOfOne]

"Oh what a tangled webb we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

Jayson Blair where are you!
Dan Rather where are you!



Lucy Ramirez come on down! you're the next contestant on the smear is right!

[mabelkitty]

"Senior British Official?"
That lunatic on Saddam's payroll?
I wonder if he is behind all of this?

[Maigrey]

placemark

[Condor51]

****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.***

There's no bubble bursting.

1. The so-called "original memo" contained zero quotations of anything Bush or Blair allegedly said.
   
2. The so-called "original memo" was allegedly a recap of what some British guy agent sitting in the room allegedly heard.
   
3. The so-called "original memo" was solely this agents version of what occurred and was allegedly said.

   Think "eye witness" in a crime - who are mostly unreliable and two eye witnesses will see and hear different things. Thus Cops & DA's hate eye witness accounts of a crime.

4. Then we have the 'language problem', which was mentioned by the MSM then buried, or conveniently forgotten:
   British English and American English 'ain't' the same. The exact same words mean completely different things. And the phraseology is different too. The phrase "fixed the policy on the intelligence" can and does mean completely different things when taking that into account.

   The operative word being "fixed". It's akin to the English words "Lift", "Boot", "Chips" and "Bugger". (I'm sure there's more).

And then this revelation that the so-called original memo was destroyed? Oh pulllllleze. What a load of cr*p (which I believe is the same in both British and American English)

So no offense, but there's no 'Bubble Bursting'.

ps: Has anyone actually ever seen this so-called memo? I hear talk about it, but have never seen it published or posted anywhere. That's kind of odd?!?

[Destro]

Actually the British Conservative party leaked the memo to get at the currently Socialist light Labour party and at Blair in their last election.

[bjc]

I absolutely agree. Any plain reading of the contents of the memos support two major positions. First, all the key decision makers believed that Saddam had WMD and was likely to use them and second, that the UN was powerless to control Saddam and would be used by Saddam.
As to the authenticity of the memos, I suspect that the original memos were probably real. However, there are enough typos in the memos to give rise to the possibilty that the addition of a "but" here or a typo there could lend a slightly more sinister tone to them. As a body of material covering the decision making processes of the Cabinet - I think we would do well to take them at face value - put them in front of the public, call the libs bluff and remove the "lie" that they some how indicate that invasion of Iraq was unwarranted.