Posted on 06/13/2005 4:55:03 PM PDT by areafiftyone
If there's one thing left wingers love, it's a good, old-fashioned conspiracy. Give them a small nibble of a "claim" of wrong doing against the current White House, conservatives, or Republicans, and the left wing fringe will pounce into action. Facts? Data? Evidence? Those items are simply minor inconveniences to their "analysis" of right wing efforts to rule the world, steal elections, plant White House reporters, or a host of other perceived dirty deeds.
Like chum in a pool of sharks, the left has been stirred into a frenzy over the so-called "Downing Street" memo. This document, written by a British foreign policy official, chronicles a meeting among British officials including Prime Minister Tony Blair. The memo conveys a sense of the direction America was heading in regard to dealing with Saddam Hussein and Iraq, prior to the commencement of military operations. The memo contains a passage that the left is now calling the "smoking gun" that they say shows President Bush purposely manipulated intelligence information to build the case for war. Once again, the left wing zealots are putting facts and evidence aside and letting their conspiracy theory fears run wild.
The memo in question was written by Matthew Rycroft on July 23, 2002. Rycroft, an aide to British foreign policy advisor David Manning, describes a "perceptible shift in attitude" of American officials with regard to Iraq and adds the following:
"Military action was now seen as inevitable. 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."
Rycroft added that National Security Council was losing patience with United Nations deliberations on Iraq and suggested that there was little discussion in Washington "of the aftermath after military action." However, the comment of "intelligence and facts" being "fixed" is what has the left spun up. According to their thinking, this "proves" that Bush lied about Iraq and doctored the intelligence to support his case. What the left refuses to acknowledge is that along with public statements by both President Bush and Prime Minister Blair, and several independent investigations, no evidence has ever been presented to support the claims by the left wing fringe.
In comments to reporters in Washington, DC on Tuesday, Blair reminded the audience that the memo in question was written before the coalition went before the U.N. It was through the U.N. process of debate and resolutions (and Saddam Hussein's noncompliance) that Blair says resulted in eventual military action and Saddam's removal from power.
"No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all," Blair said, responding to a reporter's question. "Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the United Nations and went through that process, which resulted in the November 2002 United Nations resolution, to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with international law. He didn't do so. And that was the reason why we had to take military action."
President Bush noted that the memo first surfaced during Blair's recent reelection campaign and added that the idea of his team having their minds made up about using military force against Saddam couldn't be "farther from the truth."
"My conversation with the Prime Minister was, how could we do this peacefully," Bush told reporters. "Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option. The consequences of committing the military are -- are very difficult. The hardest things I do as the president is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one in combat. It's the last option that the President must have -- and it's the last option I know my friend had, as well."
In July 2004, the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded that the Bush Administration did not influence the intelligence findings. In particular, the committee noted that it "did not find any evidence that administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities." The independent Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction concluded in its report that the Intelligence Community "did not make or change any analytic judgments in response to political pressure to reach a particular conclusion."
When looking at the left wing blog sites, it's as if the above findings, resulting from months of interviews, investigations, and evidence collection, didn't exist. One web site dedicated to the "Downing Street" memo, describes the memo's contents as "shocking." The web site goes on to say that documents such as the memo make it "at least possible" that a crime "may have been" committed by the Bush administration. It's "at least possible" that a crime "may have been" committed? What kind of statement is that? It's also "at least possible" that there "may be" aliens hidden in New Mexico. No, I don't have evidence to support that claim, but there is "talk" by "some" that the aliens exist. Hmmm... must be a fact, right?
DowningStreetMemo.com adds that the memo "summarizes all of the key components of Bush's deception" and "may not tell us anything we didn't already know, but it does offer hard evidence that the Bush administration misled the country into war." Hard evidence? Clearly these folks are not reading the same memo as I am.
Left field comments are not just reserved for web sites. Democratic Rep. Charlie Rangel recently compared President Bush's "fraud" regarding Iraq to the Holocaust of World War II. "It's the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country," Rangel told WWRL Radio's Steve Malzberg and Karen Hunter, according to NewsMax.com. "This is just as bad as six million Jews being killed. The whole world knew it and they were quiet about it, because it wasn't their ox that was being gored."
Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy added that the memo confirms President Bush "distorted and misrepresented the intelligence in its attempt to link Saddam Hussein with the terrorists of 9/11 and Osama bin Laden, and with weapons of mass destruction that Iraq did not have." Leave it to Kennedy and Rangel to not let the facts get in the way of politics and posturing.
The mangling of intelligence information regarding the threat Saddam Hussein posed to his neighbors and the rest of the world is a matter that deserved all the analysis, hearings, and investigations that it received. In the course of those investigations and hearings, it was determined, not once, but at least twice that the Bush administration did not influence the intelligence community regarding Iraq. The "Downing Street" memo adds nothing to this debate, yet the left wing fringe howls about the "evidence" and "proof" it provides.
Perhaps the far left simply has no grasp of the basic concepts of analysis and investigation. More likely, they simply see the facts as obstacles to their goal of tearing down an administration and dividing the country. Shout loud enough, and people will listen. That seems to be their strategy. Luckily for America, more and more people are tired of the rhetoric and are simply tuning them out. My suggestion is that they help me find the aliens. I could use a hand.
DEMS drool anyway.
Is the memo even real, or is it another fabrication, like the supposed memo about Bush in the ANG that was fabricated by leftist operatives and exposed as a fraud?
He/she drools out of both sides of his/her mouth.
i don't understand how a chunk of uk election mud manages to get all the way across the atlantic, and is still making a splash weeks later...
The Prez never said Saddam was responsible for 9/11, and.....oh, never mind. These libs just can't get past their hatred and lies.....
Actually there is no ACTUAL Document - every Leftist sight has posted ONLY the Sunday Times article. Even the Sunday Times DOES NOT have the actual Document. I have not seen it yet.
only a retard would believe the Down Syndrome Memo
The Leftists bogs knew about this because this was tossed about by the British media during the British Elections. Apparently they were pissed off that the U.S. Media ignored it. Apparently this article only came out by the British Media ONLY screw up Tony Blair's chance of re- election but of course that didn't work. So the Leftists websites decided it was something important and that it would (GASP!!!) bring about Impeachment charges against Bush! The media is ignoring this because its NOT anything NEW and there is NO actual document in the Times only a retype of the Memo.
Yup and it still links to the Times article. I have YET to see an original PDF document or something like that.
Thanks for posting this .. I read it earlier but I was too busy to post it.
Did you realize there were 4-5 other similar stories on FR today with the same theme. I think this article is right on .. and for Teddy to be posting articles over at DailyKos is just beyond belief.
"How do you tell if a Dem is level headed?
He/she drools out of both sides of his/her mouth."
You owe me one ergonomic keyboard... rofl
The 'rats are far more argumentative and have more strongly fixed ideas about the way things should be than Bolton could possibly have. They should refuse to confirm themselves into their current positions before they pass judgement on Bolton.
We define fix: repair, mend, adjust.
The Brits define fix: arrange, organize, prepare
So, there are intelligence reports, military strategy if needed and discussion involving going to the UNSC, all with hand written notations from the meeting. What I have read and heard is that the "smoking gun" was a hand written note to "fix" the intelligence and policy.
To the loonytoons it means "adjust" intel to fit the policy.
It is more likely that it meant to prepare the report for presentation. (as in to the UN)
Just something to think about. And I think it would have been wise if the GOP and their representatives would do a little research and frame the defense and debate better right out of the gate, we would not constantly be trying to back track and clarify
I agree. Supposedly on Friday, the 16th Conyers will be going to the White House to deliver the letter and there will be a Rally in Washington by Leftists. I wish the Republicans would have a counter-rally and let these idiots know that the Memo is nothing new. Why don't the Repubs come out and tell the Leftists to get a LIFE!
With what? My analysis of the "memo" from all I have read and put together.
Or, with the idea that the Pubs need to do some analytical thinking and research, frame it and come out blasting?
I sometimes wonder if I am not grasping things properly or what is going on. This all seems like such a waste of time and energy when there are so many important issues to be dealt with.
FReepers do a counter-rally every Friday night at Walter Reed Hospital in support of our military and have few show up. The Pubs don't have an army of professional protesters like the "other side" has. I guess being a professional protester is an honest days work in the HowWeird book, huh?
It's the new Dan Rather standard. Write article ABOUT the phantom doc. Then IF it ever shows up, they can say, we didn't know it was all BS.
<< "How do you tell if a Dem is level headed?
"He/she" drools out of both sides of "his/her" mouth."
You owe me one ergonomic keyboard... rofl >>
How do you tell if those who drool FRom both sides of their mouths are winning?
FReepers employ the PC, "he/she," in place of "he!"
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