It’s A Matter of Minutes — DOWNING STREET DOSSIER

A matter of MINUTES – DOWNING STREET EVIDENCE

“The war in Iraq is illegal,” Kofi Annan, September, 2004

The Downing Street Dossier

1.    The Goldsmith March 7, 2003 Legal Opinion Illegality Iraq Invasion; Iraq War a premeditated crime of aggression in knowing violation of UN Security Council; Liability of Prosecution before the International Court of Justice (UN); The International Criminal Court; and further legal action taken against the British govt. by Campaign for Nuclear DisarmamentGoldsmith Legal Opinion (See below)

2.    MINUTE :  Wilmshurst Resignation Letter in Protest of Illegal Invasion, March 18, 2005; proof of Charge Iraq War a crime of aggression in knowing violation of UN Security Council and International Law; Proof that Goldsmith was aware of war’s illegality. The Wilmshurst Minute

3.  DOWNING STREET MINUTES; confidential intel meeting July 23, 2002; Intelligence was fixed to deceive the British people, Intention to violate the  UN Security Council; Misrepresent Efforts to Use Diplomacy; Ruse of Disarmanent to cover intention to invade regardless of Iraq’s efforts to disarm; non-co-operation with UN weapons inspector; Attempt to manipulate UN weapons inspector to provoke Saddam to start war; Pressure to Violate UN Law came from Washington; Plan to deceive the British people on true case and cause for war with Iraq. Downing Street Minutes
4.   BBC Transcript; Tony, Iraq and the Truth; March 20, 2005; documentary; Includes and authenticates Downing Street Minutes; includes references to “cooked” intel and measures taken Blair to deceive the people; includes reference to Goldsmith opinion and the forced reversal; Manning’s reasurrance to Rice that the war was on go as of March 2002; John Bolton saying in 2002 that the war was a done deal;BBC TRANSCRIPTS  

MISSING DOCUMENTS:

1.   CRAWFORD MINUTE:The “Crawford Minute”; documenting Blair’s visit to Bush’s Crawford Texas Ranch; where deal was struck to strike Iraq pre-emptively; March 2002? (See below)
2.  nbsp;GOLDSMITH MINUTE 1: The Goldsmith-Gonzales-Ashcroft Memorandum; March 2003
3.   COOKED INTEL CIVIL DEFENSE; Iraq WMD’s target Britain; Civil Defense Report
4.   GOLDSMITH MINUTE 2: Minutes of Meeting with Blair, Morgan, Falkoner, and Goldsmith March, 2003, in which Goldsmith is forced to recant and rewrite his opinion that the war in Iraq is illegal, and that they should delay to fulfill UN Security Council requirements for disarmament and weapons inspection; his opinion that they should not go to war with Iraq until UN gave further ruling on UN SC 1441 Resolution.  This one is key.

GOLDSMITH MARCH 7, 2003 OPINION: As Important as the Downing Street Minutes:

First leaked, then released from Downing Street, the March 7, 2003 opinion in which he stated the invasion of Iraq was probably illegal, and if they went ahead with US pressure to invade by the 18th it would be in violation of UN Security Council. (Source: Goldsmith Legal Opinion

Goldsmith had three grave reservations:

1.     Liability for war crimes before the International Court of Justice (UN)

2.     Liability for prosecution of war crimes before the International Criminal Court.

3.     Liability for further prosecution by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament.

Source for Goldsmith, and a whole lot more:

No. 10 Downing Street; Government Files

The rest can be found at:

Illegality of the War in Iraq

THE CRAWFORD MINUTE

May 17, 2005; Prime Minister’s Officer’s Statement:

Asked if there was any leak inquiry into the “extraordinary” number of secret documents leaked to Sunday newspapers during the election campaign that were later found to be genuine, such as the minute of the Crawford Texas meeting and the Attorney General’s advice the Prime Minister’s Official said that we took very seriously the leaking of any document and this kind of document in particular. He had not heard any explanation as to why there were so many leaks, but he had no doubt that there would be the proper inquiries made. As to what form they would be that was a matter for the Cabinet Office.

The Crawford Deal: did Blair sign up for war at Bush’s Texas ranch in April 2002?

We know that arguments raged about the legality of the war right up to a crucial cabinet meeting on 17 March 2003, two days before the attack began. But now new evidence pieced together by the ‘IoS’ strongly backs the suspicion that the PM had already made the decision to strike a year earlier. The Crawford Minute

FROM BBC TRANSCRIPTS:

The quote from Ross that says you can’t go around toppling governments, can be referenced to the House of Commons, Hansard Debates 21, December, 2004.

UK GOVERNMENT REPORTS

1.  The Butler Report; February – July, 2004; The Butler Review of Intelligence on Weapons of Mass Destruction. Download copies of Lord Butler’s report and the government dossiers on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction. The Butler Report

“WMD may still be found”  Once again another peer, Lord Butler, whitewashes over the blatent misuse and fabrication of intelligenceand comes to the unbelievable conclusion that no one is to blame!!!Lord Butler also suggested that because of 911 and the US axis of evilspeech that Iraq became a target. He states that because of these factorsintelligence was gathered to enhance the possibility of War in Iraq.  (Inquirer (UK) July 14, 2004)

2.  The Hutton Report; Inquiry into the death of Dr. David Kelly; January, 2004; The Hutton Report

“COOKED INTELLIGENCE”

1.   “Sexed Up” September 2003 Dossier; referred to in The Downing Street Minutes. The “Sexed Up” September Dossier
2.   DIS EXPRESSED CONCERNS ABOUT COOKING INTEL;… “Concerns expressed by DIS Staff”; July, 2003;. The concerns fall into 3 main groups. Recent Production of CBW Agent. The DIS personnel concerned suggested that …;CONCERNS EXPRESSED BY DIS STAFF
3.   ACCESIBLE HUTTON INQUIRY EVICENCE   (Contains 14 Minutes)… Note of concerns expressed by DIS Staff 17/07/03; “Speaking note” of Dissent in DIS to Iraq WMDDossier,Accesible Hutton Inquiry Evidence
4.   THE FORGED INTELLIGENCE DOSSIER ON IRAQ ; Archive of News Reports, Documents and Analysis; compiled by Michel Chossudovsky Forged Intelligence Dossier
5.   ‘THE PUBLIC MUST LOOK INTO WHAT IS MISSING IN REPORTt’ Scott Ritter; January 2004 — “A review of testimony submitted to the inquiry elicits a single reference to Operation Rockingham, a secretive intelligence activity buried inside the Defence Intelligence Staff, which dealt with Iraqi WMD and activities of the UN special commission (Unscom). This acknowledged that Rockingham managed the interaction between David Kelly, the weapons expert whose suicide led to the Hutton inquiry, and the UN. But Lord Hutton dug no further into this. If he had, some interesting insight would have been provided on several issues of concern, including the possibility of the “shaping” of UN intelligence data by Rockingham to serve the policy objectives of its masters in the Foreign Office and the joint intelligence committee. Ritter: Public Must Look Into What’s Missing
6.   DOSSIER NOTHING LIKE REALITY: UN CHIEF INSPECTOR: September 1, 2003; A British intelligence dossier “did not correspond to reality” by suggesting Saddam Hussein’s regime could deploy weapons of mass destruction within 45 minutes, the chief UN weapons inspector has said. Dossier Nothing Like Reality says UN Chief Inspector
7.   BLAIR USES BUTLER REPORT TO BACK UP CLAIMS IRAQ WAR LEGALHouse of Commons; – 14th July 2004 “had became convinced after the 11 September attacks that a stand had to be taken against potential threats and “the place to make that stand was Iraq”. The report provides an invaluable analysis of the general threat in respect of weapons of mass destruction and the potential acquisition of WMD by terrorists. Although it devotes much of its analysis to Iraq, it also goes into detail on the WMD threat posed by Iran, Libya, North Korea and A.Q. Khan. Some of the intelligence disclosed is made available for the first time and gives some insight into the reasons for the judgments that I and other Ministers have been making. I hope that the House will understand if I deal with it in some detail.” “no one lied. No one made up the intelligence. No one inserted things into the dossier against the advice of the intelligence services Hansard, House of Commons

I have been working on this research for the last 30 days.  If you use it please give credit, as it belongs to another site.  I’ll take a “minute” to let you digest the above, before the next doc dump on the Downing Street Dossier.  Look for my next diary concerning Goldsmith and the 10 days from illegal to legal Iraq war.

“The game’s afoot, Watson!”   

Keep Digging, Sleuths!

Cross-posted from Daily Kos, May 27, 2005)