Home > Protest outside TV studio draws attention to Downing Street Memo(Minutes)

Protest outside TV studio draws attention to Downing Street Memo(Minutes)

by Open-Publishing - Saturday 4 June 2005
12 comments

Demos-Actions Wars and conflicts International Television USA UK

TAMPA - Just a stone’s throw away from a life-size gorilla dressed in military fatigues was another oddity along Kennedy Boulevard Thursday - people protesting about a memo.

"Did you get the memo?" read the fliers.

"Air the truth!" said a poster held by retired Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph F. Bohren, outside the WTVT-Ch. 13 studios with about 10 others.

They were there because of what has become known as the "Downing Street Memo," minutes from a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers on July 23, 2002, at No. 10 Downing St., published May 1 by the Sunday Times of London . The minutes indicate that the United States and Britain had agreed to invade Iraq by the summer of 2002 - months before President George W. Bush asked Congress for permission to engage in military action.

The minutes, written by Matthew Rycroft, aide to British Foreign Policy Adviser David Manning, also suggest that U.S. officials deliberately manipulated intelligence to justify the war.

"If what’s in these minutes is accurate, and we have been given no reason to doubt that, then it would appear that the president has committed high crimes, specifically lying to the American public and Congress and engaging in a conspiracy with his administration," said David Dawson, a Washington organizer for the Web site AfterDowningStreet.org, which has reproduced the memo.

The site was created by a coalition of political activists who are calling on Congress to investigate the meeting minutes.

According to the minutes, Sir Richard Dearlove, head of the British Foreign Intelligence Service, "reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and (weapons of mass destruction). But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

The White House press office on Thursday referred the Times to a May 23 press briefing by White House spokesman Scott McClellan, at which time he addressed the Downing Street minutes. But McClellan did not address the specifics of the memo.

"In terms of the intelligence ... 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 leadup to the war in Iraq, and that’s all very public information. Everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence," McClellan said.

He acknowledged there was some breakdown in information gathered before the president decided to go to war.

"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-Sept. 11th age, that the executive branch has the best intelligence possible," he said.

Rep John Conyers Jr., D-Mich., has started a petition drive for an open letter to the president asking him to address the accuracy of the document. In a statement released Thursday, Conyers said, "These minutes of a classified British government meeting raise very serious constitutional questions about whether the Congress and the American people were deliberately misled in the drive to war."

http://sptimes.com/2005/06/03/Hillsborough/Protest_draws_attenti.shtml

Forum posts

  • Another cover up by the propaganda ministry......

  • It is unfortunate but I doubt that the protests will have much of an effect. A more likely strategy would be to encourage subscribers to cancel their subscriptions citing this issue as the reason for cancellation.

  • great sticker protest idea from DU

    Image Hosted by ImageShack.us

    • Behind the times newsflash. Clinton wasn’t impeached so this sticker would be WRONG.

    • clinton was impeached, he wasn’t removed ... that is the second part of the process ... impeachment is first then removal ... they did not have the votes for removal, so they (repubs) stopped at impeachment.

  • Kevin—wishie washie small talk.How about including that Bush authorized bombing of Iraq 6 months before congress declared war.Why write shit—Yah man! we are going to need better inteligence before we go to congress to war---what shit talk---get this Kevin---the jew boys fixed the evidence for invasion.The news media, the polidicks,you and I knew it long before the invasion,that it was all a pack of lies.Clinton was also behand it.
    What you should be telling us is to head to all the major news head quarters with torchs and pitchforks and nooosed strong ropes—and forget about the monkey GI suits—old chap!
    Kevin we live in United States of Israel—fukked up place!

  • Once the public wakes up to this excremental administration, filled with liars, butchers, thieves, profiteers, and traitors, every one of its laws and actions should be declared null and void. Unfortunately, we cannot bring back the thousands of lives lost because of these criminals, but they must be brought to true justice, and that includes the "quaint" Mr. Gonzalez. Another piece of business that will need attention, also, is the dissolution of what is called the mainstream media. The MSM is as complicit in the murders of our troops and innocent others as are the traitors who live high and mighty in the White House and on Capitol Hill.
    Somebody prove me wrong....please!

    Brendan O’Maidian

  • Daddy started it, by God, Junior was going to finish it.

    • What makes it even worse is that Junior never gave any thought to how he was going to clean up the mess.

  • So What! Big Deal!! A few People protest... LMAO The government of the good ol´ US of A has the american public exactly where they need them to be.... UNDER CONTROL!!!! Every time things appear to be turning toward a more informed view they release an new Terror Alert and Badda Bing Badda Boom the american population is once again scurrying for cover... Terrorists my @$$ the worlds greatest terrorists are those in the government of the USA. The world recognises this.... the american people cannot see this for the smokescreen provided by our administration. There are so called leaders in the Government that should be shouting a the top of their lungs at the atrocities of this whole affair and most sit silent for fear that anything they say might get them purged from their posh positions of Do Nothing for the Peons of America and continue to collect taxpayer welfare.
    Come on people of America!! Where the Hell are you? Each of us should be angry about all the lies, the corruption the deception from those we trust to make our lives better. This war is not about liberating a people in a land of tyranny, it is not about eliminating unseen terrorists.... it is all about the MONEY....THE MONEY!!!! and using what ever means available to succeed to that end.

    Every one who reads articles such as this should pass them along to at least two people. People need to be better informed or it will be too late. I do not listen tot he MSM (Mainstream Media) they are part and parcel to this operation of decpetion. Let them be conerned with the latest American Idol, get the real news from the web. If it were not for the internet imagine the Crap that we would be eating courtesy the MSM. America needs a wake up call.... take action or not take action the choice is yours for now. It may not always be that way in this the LAND OF THE FREE ( cough cough....ahem)

  • It is quite simple to bring about the changes we seek.
    1. Sign Conyers letter to Bush seeking immediate answers to the evidence brought to light through the Downing Street Minutes.
    2. Write to the House Judiciary, your member of Congress, and your local and national newspapers expressing that you want the issue front paged.
    3. Start referring to the evidence as what it is: Minutes — that is hard evidence from a meeting that was minuted by Matthew Rycroft. That means that he acted a secretary to the meeting. Memo could be notes, or one person’s impression or opinion of an event. Minutes are a factual record of what transpired. CONSPIRACY TO COMMIT AN ILLEGAL WAR OF AGGRESSION DOCUMENTED AND AUTHENTICATED. That’s why there’s such a push for answers from Washington.
    4. Join the AfterDowningStreet.org Coalition. Seek a Resolution of Inquiry from the House of Representatives.
    5. Continue to HAMMER THE MEDIA! Print, TV, Radio, and the Net.