Posted on 06/20/2005 5:19:13 PM PDT by Libloather
Kerry cautious on probing `Downing Street Memo'
By Noelle Straub
Monday, June 20, 2005 - Updated: 10:36 AM EST
WASHINGTON - Walking a tightrope on a politically charged issue, Sen. John F. Kerry vowed weeks ago to raise the controversial ``Downing Street Memo'' as an issue in Washington, but has since publicly held his tongue on the matter.
Instead, Kerry has been enlisting other senators to sign onto a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee seeking answers about the memo, aides said.
The memo contained minutes of a 2002 meeting in which British officials told Prime Minister Tony Blair they believed the Bush administration had already decided on military action against Iraq and ``fixed'' intelligence to fit the policy.
The Downing Street memo generated a firestorm in Britain last month and has gained increasing attention in the United States. President Bush and Blair have denied allegations that the memo proves intelligence was misrepresented.
``When I go back (to Washington) on Monday, I am going to raise the issue,'' Kerry told the New Bedford Standard-Times about the memo on June 2.
``I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home,'' he added. ``And it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that.''
But Kerry has not been vocal about the issue since then, raising it neither in a floor speech nor in the media. Kerry spokesman David Wade insisted the administration needs to answer questions about the memo.
``It's not too much for Americans to expect a thorough explanation of the Downing Street memo,'' he said. ``The administration and the Washington Republicans who control Congress scoff at the idea of congressional oversight, and insult Americans by brushing off even the most basic questions about pre-war intelligence and planning for the aftermath of war.''
John Kerry to call for impeachment of George Bush
John Kerry announced Thursday that he intends to present Congress with The Downing Street Memo, reported last month by the London Times. The memo purports to include minutes from a July 2002 meeting with Tony Blair, in which Blair allegedly said that President Bush's administration "fixed" intelligence on Iraq in order to justify the Iraqi war.
The Downing Street Memo is the leaked secret British document that details the minutes of a 2002 meeting between top-level British and American government officials. The memo states that George Bush "was determined" to attack Iraq long before going to Congress with the matter, and that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
So far neither government has disputed the accuracy of the memo.
The memo caused an uproar in Britain and made a significant impact in the British national elections, but has received little attention in American news.
The Boston Globe published an article by Ralph Nader, Tuesday, in which Nader also called for President Bush's impeachment. The story is being carried on Michael Moore's website and the Democratic Underground.
Failed presidential candidate Kerry advised that he will begin the presentation of his case for President Bush's impeachment to Congress, on Monday.
Kerry said of the memo: "When I go back [to Washington] on Monday, I am going to raise the issue. I think it's a stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable statement of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises stunning issues here at home. And it's amazing to me the way it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on the Internet, I can tell you that."
He questioned Americans' understanding of the war and the idea that criticism equals disloyalty, saying, "Do you think that Americans if they really understood it would feel that way knowing that on Election Day, 77 percent of Americans who voted for Bush believed that weapons of mass destruction had been found and 77 percent believe Saddam did 9/11? Is there a way for this to break through, ever?"
House Representative John Conyers has written to the President regarding the memo:
"...a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere 'failure' or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being 'fixed' around the decision to go to war."
There is a growing movement on the internet and in Congress for a "Resolution of Inquiry" into issues surrounding the planning and execution of the Iraq war, especially in regard to the Administration's handling of intelligence.
John Dean, a key Watergate figure, wrote in a June 2003 column for a legal website, that, "To put it bluntly, if Bush has taken Congress and the nation into war based on bogus information, he is cooked... Manipulation or deliberate misuse of national security intelligence data, if proven, could be a 'high crime' under the Constitution's impeachment clause."
However, in practical terms impeachment in the U.S. Senate requires a 2/3 majority for conviction, which is unlikely given that 55 out of 100 Senators are Republican.
When asked about the Downing Street Memo on May 23, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "If anyone wants to know how the intelligence was used by the administration, all they have to do is go back and look at all the public comments over the course of the lead-up to the war in Iraq, and that's all very public information. Everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence.
"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."
I voted against the Downing Memo hearings before I voted for them.
Kerry was for impeachment, but then he voted against it.
ROTFLOL!! I love it .. I needed some cheering up!!
This piece of walking excrement needs to be flushed.
So how do we know that it's not just made-up BS? I mean, it's not like the MSM hasn't done it before.
(steely)
I find it next to impossible to take these people seriously.
They found out it was the british version of rathergate.
The Coward ran for the Hills. The sore loser of last fall is not going out there alone with Rathergate II. he wants back up.
Actually (according to him) he got the originals, took copies of them returned the originals. He then had them retyped to simulate the original copies and then destroyed the original copies.
Now if that isn't a twisted tale I have never heard one. He supposedly even got a certain typewriter to match how they were originally done.
Man no wonder everyone is backing off, I guess they got several days of play out of it. Certainly that is more than it deserved, even if they are real they don't say crap.
John Kerry. What a freakin' idiot.
The DUmmies are furious with spineless Kerry. Again.
Same old John Kerry, what else should we expect.
sKerry proves once again why I, on a daily basis, say a prayer of thanks to the Good Lord above that this traitorous piece of crap is not POTUS. If you need a reason to pray, it doesn't get much better than this.
Amen to that..........
Now if you still believe that the typed forgeries....er copies are still the unvarnished truth and true copies of the unverified copies of the copies of the supposed originals --- I have a 40 room mansion right on the Florida beach for sale at bargain prices. You'll have to wait for the tide to go out to see 39 of the rooms though.
Probably a Jason Blair. Made up the memo and story to some degree. Perhaps pre-election anti-Blair motivation not unlike the CBS memo here. When pressed about it he had to make up "proof" of its existence, thereby the bizarre story.
You mean the memo with the paragraph they keep ignoring that says the Iraqis had WMDs and had used them?
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