CLOCKWORK BUSH: The press is burning up with the announced capture of Al-Zarqawi’s “chief aide.” Never mind that six more U.S. soldiers have died. Uh-huh. The timing of the news of the capture …
“The Downing Street Minutes and the conduct of the Bush Adminstration as they prepared for war in Iraq must be discussed at a national level and the American people should know about it!” – Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass), who has set up a petition so you can ask your Senator “to speak out about the Downing Street Minutes.”
Today: Rep. John Conyers’ meeting of Democratic members of the House Judiciary Cmte. on the Downing St. Memo and Iraq War, C-SPAN3, 2:30pm ET
Witnesses include: “Joe Wilson, WMD expert and former ambassador; Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst; Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq; and John Bonifaz, renowned constitutional attorney.” (Apian’s diary has more.)
After the hearing, Conyers says, “We will go to Lafayette Park and I will personally deliver your signatures to the White House.” Below:
Howie Martin adds this from Editor & Publisher:
”Bare Truths about the War, from a Small Paper”
Thursday, June 16
“Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., accused President Bush of lying to the nation about a war which has consumed tens of billions of dollars and claimed more than 1,700 American lives — including the life of (her son) Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan. …
Let’s see how the big newspapers perform on Thursday when Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Democratic colleagues hold a hearing on the so-called Downing Street Memo. Sheehan is scheduled to testify, as are outspoken opponents of the Iraq war such as former ambassador Joe Wilson and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
How will the event be covered in Friday’s editions of the New York Times and Washington Post? Or will newspaper editors at those newspapers decide not to wield that most beautiful tool of democracy – the First Amendment – and run no story at all, as they appear to have done so often these last few years?
-from the article in Editor and Publisher.