Meeting Between Bush and Blair Should Force Question on Downing Street Memo
Meeting Between Bush and Blair Should Force Question on Downing Street Memo
Having already missed a couple of opportunities to ask President Bush about the Downing Street Memo, the media must use the “meeting and working dinner” between Blair and Bush this Tuesday to question Bush about the memo. It will be the first public appearance between the two leaders since the minutes taken of a July 2002 meeting between Blair and his high-level staff were revealed, in which British officials said the “intelligence and facts were being fixed around [Bush's] policy” of attacking Iraq. Recall that Blair’s government has already said it does not dispute the claims of the memo. The White House has so far slyly-avoided responding to the memo directly.
In a preview of the talking points we might expect from Bush once he’s asked the question, Ken Mehlman this weekend told Tim Russert, “I believe that the findings of the report, the fact that the intelligence was somehow fixed have been totally discredited by everyone who’s looked at it.” Mehlman cited the 9-11 Commission and the Senate Intelligence Committee as backing for his claim.
As previously reported on this blog , the Senate Intelligence Committee has yet to undertake its review of whether Bush officials knowingly manipulated their public statements about the threat of Iraq.
As for the 9-11 Commission, it was never charged with investigating the Iraq pre-war intelligence claims made by the Bush Administration. Responding to questions about the commission’s mandate, the vice chairman of the commission, Lee Hamilton, said:
“I really do not see how you can reasonably read that statute and the legislative history that preceded it and say that the commission should be looking at the war in Iraq. We were to focus our attention on 9/11 and those events, and not the war on Iraq.”
Contrary to Mehlman’s claims, the revelations in the Downing Street Memo have not been discredited. It’s not enough for President Bush to dispute the veracity of the report by suggesting that others have disputed it. We need to know whether he himself disputes the claim that his comments on the intelligence about Iraq were knowingly hyped prior to the war in order to justify an attack. He knows better than anyone else, and he should answer it for himself.
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To have any ccredibility on the issue, the administration has to say either, “It’s a total lie,” or “Yes, it’s true” before we can know either way.
All these non-answers we usually get from today’s government are just whimpy admissions of guilt. But the american public, and the rabid supporters of any regime, will defend a non-statement to the grave – even when us politicos know what it really means.
Politics is perception: if you can somehow get out of admitting wrongdoing, you’ll probably do it. Few will ever get an “award” for honesty – most will get punishment at the next poll for being honest…
June 6th, 2005 at 12:29 pmBoy, I can’t wait to see how they blow it off again. The Bush-Blair meeting will most likely be just another expensive photo-op that proves useless to the people of America, the UK and the rest of the world. Please prove me wrong.
June 6th, 2005 at 12:39 pmOver the past two months, much of the euphoria over the supposed success of the Bush Doctrine has dissipated. Freedom may be “God’s gift to humanity,” as President Bush likes to say. In the Middle East, though, it just may not be the gift that keeps on giving
For the full story, see:
One Man, One Vote, One Time?
June 6th, 2005 at 12:57 pmBush and Blair have to come clean on the Memo, or at least answer some questions directly. I have more faith in Blair to answer the questions honestly than I do Bush, but we’ll see how this plays out tomorrow.
June 6th, 2005 at 1:31 pmJohn Kerry said Friday that he will be asking Bush some tough questions about the memo today.
June 6th, 2005 at 1:51 pmHe has concluded that the American people deserve answers and he is going to get them.
I wish him luck.
Saw the Mehlman interview on a replay last night. I’m amazed at how robotic and rehearsed this guy seems. He had an answer for everything and he lied through his teeth for the entire interview. It’s really very disturbing. I was hoping Russert (another fraud) would ask him a question that would cause a short circuit on Mehlman’s mother board.
When asked about the Downing St. memo, he claimed that it’s discredited by multiple sources. So, now we know what the Bushies respojnse is to the memo. Like everything else that provides proof that they lied us to war, it’s been discredited.
June 6th, 2005 at 2:08 pmSo, in other words… Ken Mehlman LIED. Again.
Not only has nobody ‘discredited’ the information in the Downing Street Memo, nobody has even had the walnuts to talk about it except John Conyers.
Here’s an idea: We should invent a system where people could report actual facts regarding issues important to the American people. We could have these people write in newspapers and talk on televeision and … oh wait…
June 6th, 2005 at 2:46 pmMehlman lied again; Russert sat up, rolled over, and PLAYED DEAD while he did it.
Tim Russert — what Guantanamo torturers use to piss on Korans.
June 6th, 2005 at 2:55 pmAll, where are we going to meet for the monster impeachment rally?
June 6th, 2005 at 3:28 pmMy hope. A national strike and a massive march on D.C.
June 6th, 2005 at 3:40 pmImpeachment? Who? Bush? Graet, that leaves us big Dickie C. in office. Talk about out of the frying pan – into the fire, how are we going to get both of them out of office and into jail? Then we have the problem of the Toad Hastert… what a mess.
June 6th, 2005 at 3:46 pmSkid, Cheney is running the show anyway. Impeachment , as remote as the chances may be, would be a HUGE step toward reversing course. Especially on the “regaining the respect of our former allies” front. If Bush goes down, the rest soon follow.
June 6th, 2005 at 3:50 pmI hope so Jay, I hope so.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:10 pmGetting Bush out of office and on trial in the Hague for war crimes would just about end the terrorist attacks against US interests. We would finally be showing that we are serious.
June 6th, 2005 at 5:52 pmRussert is just a company man. He only goes as far as his GE leash will let him wander. The problem is this is the same of all the news outlets today.
June 6th, 2005 at 6:25 pmDavid,
Then they should be considered accomplice to the crimes of the Bush administration. No truth, no immunity. F%*&# these bastards, they’re shirking their responsibility to keep the citizens informed. Where would we be without the internet for news and information with the MSM we’ve got today?
June 6th, 2005 at 9:54 pmJay, I’d rather not think of that. As it is, I feel as if a lobotomy would be more comfortable than watching the current state of MSM. On the other hand, it would make network programing tolerable.
June 6th, 2005 at 10:14 pmImpeachment doesn’t necessarily lead to removal from office. Case in point, William Jefferson Clinton. We don’t want Dick or Hastert, but Hastert would be the lesser of two evils. The best reason to impeach is to build a case for prosecution after they are all out of office and just private citizens. The Ohio coingate scandal has the potential to develop into Ohio election related scandals, calling into question the legitimacy of the 2004 election. It’s actually a Chinese curse, but … “May you live in interesting times.”
June 6th, 2005 at 10:28 pm“I believe that the findings of the report, the fact that the intelligence was somehow fixed have been totally discredited by everyone who’s looked at it.�
Jeez, Mehlman is such a noisy twit. Say it is so and thus it is so. Hillary C. is correct. Hey, MSM!! Do a gut check and give these jokers a real chance to “discredit” the Downing Street memo so we can watch them scowl and growl.
June 6th, 2005 at 11:08 pmI like the Chinese curse, and these times certainly apply, however I have never felt so moved to stop anything as I have the Bush administration and the Republicans.
How many 10’s of thousands of innocent people have to be blown to pieces or maimed for life? How many lies can we stand before we take to the streets? How much greed and profiteering will they be allowed to get away with? How long before we are guaranteed that EVERY vote gets counted?
Our democracy is on life support, and this is one life the Republicans do not care to save. They do not want the will of the people to be honored. Not here, not in Iraq, not in Venezuela, Afghanistan or the Ukriane. Democratically elected leaders don’t create an Office of Special Plans or use psy-ops tactics to manipulate their citizens. They don’t try to thwart an investigation into the greatest tradgedy in the history of the nation and then use that same tradgedy as the backdrop for their political campaigns. They don’t out deep cover agents in acts of revenge or pay fraudulent “journalists” to tout their cynical programs. They don’t stoop to the levels of smear and disgrace that the phony GOP Swift Boat Veterans did. Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Ashcroft, chickenhawks all. Is there anything more disgraceful than taking a pass on the war of your generation yet sending young soldiers off to die in a war whose purpose you fabricated! It’s outrageous. Impeach! Impeach! Impeach!
June 6th, 2005 at 11:11 pmLet’s get going on NOT subscribing to MSM. A publicly generated boycott might get somebody’s attention.
June 7th, 2005 at 2:13 pmstrategie
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