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Conyers’ Hearing on The Memo: This evidence is so compelling, it must be investigated- period.

by Open-Publishing - Friday 17 June 2005
13 comments

Wars and conflicts International Governments USA

Yesterday’s phenomenal testimony at the John Conyers’ Hearing on the Downing Street Memo left many jaws gaping. All news organizations are now faced with a choice, are they going to
continue to cover for the Bush Administration, or are they going to
cover The Downing Street Memo story like it ought to be covered?

For a taste of the hearing, download this audio clip- Ray McGovern’s opening statement. McGovern 6.5 min, 3mb mp3 (right-click > save as)

Testimony was given by former Ambassador Joe Wilson, Gold Star Mother
Cindy Sheehan, Constitutional Lawyer John Bonifaz, and 27yr CIA Veteran
Ray McGovern. Thanks to Republican Denial, the hearing was held in a
tiny room of the Capitol Basement. Despite the cramped
quarters, dozens of Democratic Representatives showed up (122 signed on to Conyers’ letter), but only about 10 could make it into the room at any one time, so they came in shifts.

Republicans across America need to know how their party leaders in DC are acting. From Conyersblog.us:

At approximately 2:15 PM (with hearing scheduled to begin at 2:30), the Republicans scheduled 11 consecutive floor votes, lasting until approximately 4 PM.

Democratic Congressmembers had to take turns shuffling back and forth
between the House Floor and the basement all afternoon. In other words,
Republican leaders:

  • refused to call a full hearing themselves
  • refused to give Democrats a room to hold their hearing in
  • scheduled a bunch of votes timed to intentionally disrupt the Conyers’ Hearings.

One has to ask, what are the Republican leaders afraid of? The same
goes for the national news networks... what are the executives so
afraid of?

NPR weighed in with a ludicrous story
on All Things Considered,
shamelessly pimping the Bush line. This was the most lopsided, pro-bush
propaganda piece I’ve heard on NPR- and that’s saying something!
They played one 40 sec clip from
Cindy Sheehan, then the ’journalist’ downplayed the minutes of a top
secret meeting as meaningless. Every twist to the story was bent to
favor Bush, it was comical when she said there were four
panelists, but listed only three- she ’forgot’ to mention 27yr
CIA vet Ray McGovern. NPR listeners, please compare NPR’s
version vs. this clip from the hearing itself- Ray McGovern 06-16-05, the fellow NPR’s reporter ’forgot’ to mention.

Of the six national US television networks, only PBS Newshour mentioned
Ray McGovern at all- in fact he was a guest on their show, albeit
alongside a Bush representative. NBC, ABC, Fox, and CNN
’covered’ the hearing (CBS did not),
but for some reason Mr. McGovern was not mentioned in any of
their stories. Why? Because Mr. McGovern gave some of the most
compelling testimony- from McGovern’s PBS interview:

"The facts here are this: On July 23, 2002, Richard Dearlove, the head of Britain’s CIA, came back from a long visit to Washington where he consulted with the top U.S. officials including George Tenet, his opposite number. His big news was threefold: There had been a major change and now war was seen as inevitable. The president was determined to remove Saddam Hussein by force, and force regime change that way; that this was to be, in quotes, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.

Now let me translate that from British English — justified by the thought that Iraq has all this weapons of mass destruction, and is likely to give it to terrorists. And finally, when Jack Straw, the foreign minister said, well, the evidence on weapons of mass destruction is rather thin was his word, Dearlove, the head of the British intelligence says, no problem; the intelligence and the facts are being fixed around the policy.

This is documentary. This is a secret minutes of this meeting prepared the same day; it’s of a different species of all the other circumstantial evidence we have that the president had long since decided to do war. And so the circumstances, you can forget circumstantial, we have a flaming — we have a smoking gun here, and we have something equivalent to the Nixon tapes on Watergate."


John Bonifaz, lawyer and co-founder of
AfterDowningStreet.org, said the lack of interest by congressional
Republicans in the Downing Street memo is like Congress during Nixon’s
presidency saying "we don’t want" the Watergate tapes.

This was one of the key points made at the hearing:
The evidence is so compelling, it must be investigated- period.

Any failure to do so is a failure to uphold the Constitution. There is
no legal or logical grounds not to investigate- the only reason is to
protect Bush and Co.

Republican Congressman have been put into a tough position- do they
continue to side with Bush when the evidence is so damning? All the
evidence indicates that Bush and Cheney deliberately
lied to start they war, can they really remain silent in the face of
such damning testimony? If they do, then these Congressmen
and their media counterparts may also be held accountable in the future.

Forum posts

  • Mc Govern was awesome....his delivery, comportment, subject matter was succinctly forthcoming.
    Why do the other tv stations not put him up front and personal......why why why.... His opponent was a remblingm, babbling ass.......................

    • why are the american people so ignorant? I am one of the americans but I dont ignore the facts.consequensly I am about to sign my self in to my local behavualar(forgive the spelling)science unit.maybe the people dont want to think their government is lying to cover up their their own personal agenda?maybe,like myself, trust is an inate characteristic part of personality that makes life easier by not having to think.the republican party is taking advantage of the stupidity of WE THE PEOPLE. Keep up the good work! bretman@localnet.com

  • If the U.S. voting apparatus is in the hands of republican held diebold, es&s and sequoia companies then the republican congressmen don’t have to do anything about the memos. They can continue to defend and cover for Bush & co. because no one can vote them out of office. Unless a criminal case can be made to an impartial court - to be found who knows where - and the people of this country can rouse themselves against this kind of misgovernment, then Bush & co. will continue to do just as they please. Congress will do nothing about it for us because democrats don’t have enough numbers to make a difference. And after the next election, they’ll be even less of them.

    I suggest you read the text of Morgan Reynold’s report on 911 - about how the world trade center towers are most likely to have come down by controlled demolition (along with bldg. 7) and how people were in the buildings over Sept 8/9 with a power down possibly laying charges and that the security company in charge of the towers was run by a Bush brother and cousin. How FEMA just happened to be on hand to pick up the pieces and cart away the evidence. How Norad was too busy with 5 hijacking drills to do anything about the real thing. Someone had to stand them down. Who? It’s time to start getting active about investigating and removing these people from office.

    Neo-cons wanted war in the middle east. They needed a "Pearl Harbor." 911 hands that to them on a silver platter. Bush fixes intelligence to get a war in Iraq. Congress gives him carte blanche. These events are not unrelated.

    Rep. Conyers is doing a good job. And we need to continue to support his efforts. But we cannot wait for a republican controlled congress to act.

    Someone had to let the folks who laid the explosives into the buildings. Find the weak link and we’ll find out what we need to know.

    http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/june2005/150605wtccollapse.htm - Read Reynold’s (a former member of Bush’s team) article here.

    B.Clarke

    • The HONORABLE Mr. Conyers, Jr. is one of the most miraculous men in congress today! He remembers what Democracy is about and with 40 years of political life under his belt, has the power to make waves without fear of retribution.

      He stood up against the dabacle which was Ohio better than anyone! It’s no wonder Kerry is held in such low regard by Democrats, including me! He had the opportunity to keep the issue alive and he took a dive. Skull and Bones? Money? What made him roll over and play dead?

      Now, he has taken on the many lies of the Busheviks. This illegal war in Iraq (and possibly Afghanistan). He is our best bet for starting the wheels turning for impeachment. Not just of Bush, but his entires administration!

      Rep. Conyers would make a wonderful president. He has a brain, a backbone and he genuinely cares about this country.

      It’s too bad so many Republicans are just sheeple and don’t look at the facts.

      It’s too bad we don’t have real freedom of the press anymore. I miss the "liberal mainstream media", don’t you?

      It’s too bad that the media picked Kerry in the primary. Dean would have been a better choice and he wouldn’t have laid down. Aaaarrrgggghhh!!!!

      Damn straight!

    • The media picked Kerry in the US presidential primary for one reason and that is his membership in the secret society Skull & Bones, aka, the "Order of Death". Kerry was chosen to take a dive for his fellow Bonesman Bush. Hence the immediate concession and the fake challenge to the votescam. They take an oath of loyalty to their fellow bonesmen that takes precedent to National allegiance. Of course, Dean would have been a better choice and he wouldn’t have laid down. That is precisely why he had to go.
      The cages have being silently built around the American people while they slept and now that the people are waking up to the illegitimate government, all avenue of peaceful dissent or redress of grievances have been blocked. This criminal cabal that has put a stranglehold on the American people is not going to give up their grip without a fight.
      If the Diebold electors don’t put on a show impeachment of the puppet Bush, I fully expect the globalists to stage another terroist attack to quell the rising tide of popular dissent. Maybe they will use another false flag type 9-11 and implement the martial law operation they have been planning for so long?
      The whole world is being held captive to this criminal elite not just the American people.
      Knowing this danger, it is more important than ever that we stand behind Conyers and others to expose the liars and to scream about the Memo until justice is served.

    • Whoever said Conyers for president was right on. The wheels are already churning to stick Hillary Clinton out front for 2008 to either get steamrolled by the Republican Diebold Express or to continue Bill’s " I feel your pain " legacy while serving the corporate masters. If there’s any way to get Conyers to run in a FAIR election, he’d smoke all comers. It’s time to rise up against the machine, people !
      -J.C.-

  • A few years ago NPR was infiltrated by US Army PSYOPS personel (during the Kosovo war).

    http://www.wsws.org/articles/2000/apr2000/cnn-a18_prn.shtml

    Why would it be any different now?

    A few months ago Fresh Air was talking about the economy. The "expert" said, and I kid you not, the weak dollar was good for US factory workers and farmers and only bad if "collect French wines or plan on buying a house in [France]". Terry Gross’ follow-up came in the form of a giggle. So there you have it: You only worry about the economy if you love France, which means you hate America. (No more renewing my NPR station membership.)

  • I long ago realized the trend in so-called public broadcasting to veer towards republican views. It has been obvious to me. For a number of years, I felt I was in an information desert, and maybe we all are, if we rely on the MSM to feed us the knowledge we need to live informed, and therefore, honest, lives. How dare they steal that from us!

    Things have changed, are changing, because of the clearly stated views of people like you. I appreciate that your views are informed by caring for democracy and adhering to the best information available.

    I am disappointed in PBS, but it is only a confirmation. I don’t watch them. I get all my information from the internet. Who needs PBS?

    Well, we do! We pay for it, and there should be NO political agenda to the network. It must represent EVERYONE.

    We get this, it’s just asshole republicans muddying the waters.

  • I have to say im not all that interested in politics but that confrence on the downing street memo impressed me and my friend who told me to watch it with him the ray mcgovern guy made such a compelling case he basically just told it like it is I can see why the major networks wouldnt want to mention him 27 years in the CIA this guy sure as hell knows what he is talking about.

  • Bush’s Favorite Terrorist Buddy

    Poppy Bush funneled money to Saddam Hussein

    http://billstclair.com/911timeline/main/AAsaudi.html THE BIN LADEN FAMILY, SAUDI ARABIA CORRUPTION AND SUPPORT OF TERRORISTS, CONNECTIONS TO BUSH

    : President Bush repeated the mantra that "if you aid a terrorist, if you hide terrorists, you’re just as guilty as the terrorists"

    The cozy friendship continued for decades. After a terrorist attack at a barracks in Saudi Arabia, which killed 19 Americans, the bin Laden family received a multi-billion dollar contract to re-build. And incredibly, George Bush Sr. was in a business meeting at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Washington on the morning of September 11th with one of Osama Bin Laden’s brothers

    http://www.questionsquestions.net/docs04/khashoggi-911.html

    http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&geopolitics_and_9/11=binladenFamily

    http://www.onlinejournal.com/Special_Reports/Chin111402/chin111402.html

    During the nineteen-eighties, when the Reagan administration secretly arranged for an estimated $34 million to be funneled through Saudi Arabia to the Contras in Nicaragua

    Was it such an anomaly, after all, that Mahfouz, the Saudi banker and part-owner of BCCI - later a key suspect in the 911 plot - Adnan, and Bush were tight? W. had been bailed out three times when his business ventures went under. In 1988, the year his father won the presidency, a gaggle of Saudis bought into Harken Oil. Later the same year, Harken drilled for oil in the Persian Gulf, the company’s first offshore contract. Two of the investors in Harken were Mahfouz and Osama’s brother, Salem bin Laden.3

    shocked by the continuous stream of "revelations." "In politics, truth is often stranger than fiction," wrote Martin Rivers at the Center for Research on Globalization. "Sheikh Mahfouz’s sister is actually one of four wives of Osama bin Laden, making the two men brothers-in-law, a fact that former CIA Director James Woolsey revealed in 1998 Senate testimony. Thus, Osama bin Laden is sleeping with the sister of Bush’s [and Khashoggi’s] business partner. Really."

    The BCCI-BNL-Iraqgate Skeletons That Keep Rattling

    As CIA director, and throughout the Reagan-Bush administrations, Poppy Bush funneled money to Saddam Hussein without congressional approval, through the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) and Banca Nazionale del Lavoro (BNL). It was through these loans and other covert arrangements that Iraq’s war machine was armed.

    BCCI itself was a product of the original Soviet-Afghan War, the primary covert bank for the CIA, global crime syndicates, and virtually every world government. Officials of both US political parties were deeply involved. Among BCCI’s other clients were the Medellin Cartel, Manuel Noriega, and Golden Triangle heroin warlord Khun Sa.

    the bin Laden family says the family’s overall investment with Carlyle is considerably larger. He called the $2 million merely an initial contribution. "It’s like plowing a field," this person said. "You seed it once. You plow it, and then you reseed it again."

    The Wahhabi Taliban in Afghanistan had the blessings of the Saudi royal family and of The Big Three—the bin Laden family, the al Ahmoudi family, and the Mahfouz family—the richest clans in that medieval kingdom. (Khalid bin Mahfouz is bin Laden’s brother-in-law). The desert oligarchs profited from world-wide investments as well as sleazy banking schemes such as the infamous Bank of Credit and Commerce International.

    Yet few Americans realised that these two dynasties, the Bush family and the House of Saud, had a history dating back more than 20 years. Not just business partners and personal friends, the Bushes and the Saudis had pulled off elaborate covert operations and gone to war together. They had shared secrets that involved unimaginable personal wealth, spectacular military might, the richest energy resources in the world.

    Who Benefits from Crime?
    The Hidden Financial Ties between the Bush and the Bin Laden Families.

    http://www.voltairenetwork.net/article110.html

    From BCCI to the Carlyle Group
    BCCI’s main responsible and clients are found today in the Carlyle Group, an investment fund in administration specialized in the management of financial capitals. It was created in 1987, for years before BCCI bankruptcy. Currently, Carlyle manages 12 billion dollars and has major shares in Seven Up (which also bottles the Cadbury Schweppes), Federal Data Corporation (which equipped the Federal Aviation Administration and its system of civil air traffic surveillance) and the United Defense Industries Inc. (the main military supplier of the American, Turkish and Saudi Arabic armies). Through the companies it controls and manages, the Carlyle Group is the 11 among the American arms companies.

    In 1990, the Carlyle Group was accused of funds extortion. A lobbyist of the Republican Party, Wayne Bernman, had “racketed” the pension funds of the American retirees to finance the Bushes electoral campaigns. One of the persons in charge of the said funds accepted to give a million dollars to the Carlyle Group in order to get a public contract in the state of Connecticut. The Carlyle Group manages the most important part of the Saudi Bin Laden Group financial funds. Among its managers, we have Sami Mubarak Brama, the representative in Great Britain of the Khaled Ben Mahfouz and Talat Othmann, a former manager of the Harken Energy Corporation, the society that helped George W. Bush to become rich illegally.

    The Carlyle Group is managed by Frank C. Carlucci (former deputy director of the CIA and later Secretary of Defense) who is advised by James A. Baker III (President Reagan former chief of staff, later Secretary of the Treasury and then Secretary of State of George Bush father). Another adviser is Richard Darman (former Budget Director). Contrary to what the whole world think, Osama Bin Laden has been not only a CIA intermediary hired to fight the Arab nationalism and the Soviet Union when it invaded Afghanistan, thus raising the radical Islamism, but still, he and his family are one of the main financial partners of the Bush family.

    If as some American official think, the Bin Laden family maintains its relations with Osama Bin Laden and finances his political activities then, the Carlyle Group which manages the millionaire funds of the Saudi Bin Laden Group would be involved in the financial crime. Consequently, Bush father would then be one of the luckiest who benefited from the speculative schemes of September 11, 2001

    • The military industrial complex rules....the oil barrons win....follow the money. Everyone cried foul when Michael Moore began to expose the Bush crime family and the Saudi crime family story....but all one has to do to get the whole picture is a little research and the whole thing starts to stink to high heaven. The stench wafting over the country from that garbage dump in D.C. as the plastic tarp of deception starts to tear and flap.

  • I watched the hearings in full on C-Span. They can still be viewed for anyone wishing to see it. This is a moment in history. It is as important as the signing of the Declaration of Independence because this small group of powerful leaders in the US took back our democracy. They gave Americans a voice. They asked the questions that needed to be asked and they lay bare the deceit. It’s there. It’s all there. It will not go away, President Bush. It will not go away Vice President Chaney. It will not be twisted Karl Rove. The emporer wears no clothes.
    Jeanne

  • I watched the Conyer hearing on the Downing Street memo and in light of everything else I have read and learned it was not so surprising. It certainly, beside so many others, is a valid reason to impeach Bush. However, at the same time I was reading David Ray Griffin’s THE NEW PEARL HARBOR. This in depth and specific outline of the conspiracy behind 9/11 made me want to cry. Is anyone else reading it? Shouldn’t this also be brought to the attention of the public?