Author: Apian

I was born in Boston in 1954. I've seen a lot of changes.

The Downing Street Minutes TAKING IT TO COURT

“Reality-based community” is used to suggest that the person takes an objective and empirical view of events.  The term has been defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from their judicious study of discernible reality.”

THE DOWNING STREET MINUTES

If any one looked objectively they would know.

If anyone used a dictionary they would know.

If anyone asked a secretary they would know.

If anyone studied judiciously they would know.

A memo is an inter-office communication.

Minutes are the real-time record of a meeting, whose veracity is checked by all members attending, and are given to all members attending, and must be kept by all attending.  Minutes are the true and accurate testimony of what transpired.  If a conspiracy to commit a crime happened during a meeting, and those minutes were made public, and the criminals were government ministers, and the crime was an illegal war — there SHOULD BE HELL TO PAY.  
As evidence, they would weigh in far greater than Nixon’s Rosemary Woods tape.  But until the truth comes out, this story will continue to be managed by the WH Press Corps, Sen. McCain and the spin-doctors.  The basic impetus of this story has been to make it go away.

In the last 30 days I have gone from being insistant that the Downing Street Minutes be called minutes, not “memo”, to being a dissident voice in a only-read-the-headline world, to being a Militant.  On this word I take my stand.

On this word I draw the line.


CONSIDER ME
ONE OF THE MINUTEMEN

I don’t give a flaming farthing for who calls them what.  I know what I am looking at.  I know why Conyers’ is taking it to Bush, and why he is circulating his letter to get 100,000 signatures.  I know why he is organizing a Congressional Committee to investigate the Downing Street Minutes in London.  I know why John Bonifaz and the AfterDowningStreet.org Coalition are demanding an Resolution of Inquiry.

I don’t have to ask the dKos community if this is “politically correct” or “politcally appropriate” or if the timing is not right considering the 2006 election.  I don’t have to frame my language so as not to offend or upset those who have invested in a term that does not reflect the truth.

The Downing Street Minutes are the most damning incontrovertable evidence we have seen in 5 years of a criminal regime.  They are not going to go away.  And neither, I must say, am I.

Criminals Belong in Prison

    By William Rivers Pitt

    t r u t h o u t | Perspective

    Friday 06 May 2005

“There are a hundred or more people wandering around Washington today who have heard the ‘real stuff,’ as they put it – and despite their professional caution when the obvious question arises, there is one reaction they all feel free to agree on: that nobody who felt shocked, depressed or angry after reading the edited White House transcripts should ever be allowed to hear the actual tapes, except under heavy sedation or locked in the trunk of a car. Only a terminal cynic, they say, can listen for any length of time to the real stuff without feeling a compulsion to do something like drive down to the White House and throw a bag of live rats over the fence.” – Hunter S. Thompson, 04 July 1973

We need two exit strategies: one to get our forces out of that country as soon as humanly possible, and the other to get George W. Bush out of the White House and into a cellblock in The Hague. Save a bunk for Mr. Blair, too. Criminals belong in prison.

 
William Rivers Pitt

OF MINUTES & MINISTERS Legal Considerations Downing St. Minutes

Confidential Minutes of UK Intel Briefing, July 23, 2003

SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL – UK EYES ONLY

IRAQ: PRIME MINISTER’S MEETING, 23 JULY 2002.

SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL:

This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.

Manning, Hoon, Straw, Goldsmith


Scarlett, Dearlove, Wilson, Richards


Boyce, Powell, Morgan, Campbell

Bush, Tenet, Dearlove, Blair

OF MINUTES AND MINISTERS

Security, document classifications, and the distribution of Cabinet papers and minutes on a “need to know” basis have also been an important feature of Cabinet government under successive administrations. Cabinet and Cabinet committee papers and minutes are not given to all Ministers and chief executives. Each paper or minute is distributed only to the Ministers who are members of the committee to which the paper was submitted, and to Ministers and chief executives with an interest in the subject matter. The purpose of “need to know” distribution of Cabinet papers and minutes ensures that the relevant people are kept informed, while minimising the risk of unauthorised disclosure. (Some reflections on continuity and change in the Cabinet Office Diane Morcom, Secretary of the Cabinet IPANZ seminar, 20 April 2005)

www.ipanz.org.nz PDF format)

18. The principle of collective responsibility and the need to safeguard national security, relations with other countries and the confidential nature of discussions between Ministers and their civil servants impose certain obligations on former Ministers who are contemplating the publication of material based upon their recollection of the conduct of Government business in which they took part. They are required to submit their manuscript to the Secretary of the Cabinet and to conform to the principles set out in the Radcliffe Report of 1976 (Cmnd 6386) (see also paragraph 107).(Code of Conduct and Guidance on  Procecures for Ministers, p.2)http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/)

Blair hit by new leak of secret war plan

Michael Smith; May 1, 2005

www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1592904,00.html

A SECRET document from the heart of government reveals today that Tony Blair privately committed Britain to war with Iraq and then set out to lure Saddam Hussein into providing the legal justification. The Downing Street MINUTES, headed “Secret and strictly personal — UK eyes only”, detail one of the most important meetings ahead of the invasion.

…It records a meeting in July 2002, attended by military and intelligence chiefs, at which Blair discussed military options having already committed himself to supporting President George Bush’s plans for ousting Saddam.

“If the political context were right, people would support regime change,” said Blair. He added that the key issues were “whether the military plan worked and whether we had the political strategy to give the military plan space to work”.

A separate secret briefing for the meeting said Britain and America had to “create” conditions to justify a war.

Proof Bush Fixed The Facts

by Ray McGovern

Published on Wednesday, May 4, 2005 by TomPaine.com

www.tompaine.com/articles/ proof_bush_fixed_the_facts.php

Intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy.

Never in our wildest dreams did we think we would see those words in black and white–and beneath a SECRET stamp, no less. For three years now, we in Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) have been saying that the CIA and its British counterpart, MI-6, were ordered by their countries’ leaders to fix facts to justify an unprovoked war on Iraq. More often than not, we have been greeted with stares of incredulity.

It has been a hard learning–that folks tend to believe what they want to believe. As long as our evidence, however abundant and persuasive, remained circumstantial, it could not compel belief. It simply is much easier on the psyche to assent to the White House spin machine blaming the Iraq fiasco on bad intelligence than to entertain the notion that we were sold a bill of goods.

Well, you can forget circumstantial. Thanks to an unauthorized disclosure by a courageous whistleblower, the evidence now leaps from official documents–this time authentic, not forged. Whether prompted by the open appeal of the international Truth-Telling Coalition or not, some brave soul has made the most explosive patriotic leak of the war by giving London’s Sunday Times the official MINUTES of a briefing by Richard Dearlove, then head of Britain’s CIA equivalent, MI-6. Fresh back in London from consultations in Washington, Dearlove briefed Prime Minister Blair and his top national security officials on July 23, 2002, on the Bush administration’s plans to make war on Iraq.

British military chief reveals new legal fears over Iraq war

observer.guardian.co.uk/ politics/story/0,6903,1474276,00.html  

Sunday May 1, 2005 ;Observer

The man who led Britain’s armed forces into Iraq has said that Tony Blair and the Attorney General, Lord Goldsmith, will join British soldiers in the dock if the military are ever prosecuted for war crimes in Iraq.

THE MAY 7,2003 GOLDSMITH OPINION

The Blundering Actions of a Desperate Man

by John Kampfner

Published on Friday, April 29, 2005 by the Independent (UK)

www.commondreams.org/views05/0429-22.htm

The story is worse than people think. Now that the government has been forced to disclose the full legal advice submitted by Lord Goldsmith, the extent to which Parliament and the country were misled is clear for all to see.

The issue at stake is not whether, when or why the Attorney General changed his mind on the legality of war in Iraq. Tony Blair and Jack Straw have pointed out, with the customary slipperiness of a profession they know well, that it is the right of a lawyer to elide from one line of argument to the next. Goldsmith’s views may well have evolved. In fact, I have previously documented how they did.

What matters is that MPs were not made aware of – to put it politely – the progression of his thinking. When Goldsmith sat in the cabinet seat vacated hours earlier by Robin Cook, he was asked by the Prime Minister to make a presentation of the legal case for invasion. Blair did not invite questions before the Attorney was thanked for his contribution and left.

MOTION TO IMPEACH BLAIR(Nov 7, 2004)

http://www.news24.com

London – A draft of a parliamentary motion to impeach British Prime Minister Tony Blair accuses him of “gross misconduct” over the US-led invasion of Iraq, a newspaper said on Sunday. The Independent on Sunday said it had obtained the text of the motion from a cross-party group of MPs, adding it would be offered for debate soon after the new parliamentary session begins later this month. The motion calls for a select committee to investigate the “conduct of the PM in relation to the war in Iraq,” the daily said. The committee would draw up the “articles of impeachment” and a panel of law lords would judge whether Blair deliberately misled the nation into waging an unlawful war, it said. A guilty verdict would see Blair arrested by parliament’s Sergeant at Arms. Michael Martin, the speaker in the House of Commons, must rule on whether the motion can be proposed for debate on the floor of the house. The newspaper said that although Blair had little chance of losing an impeachment vote, the very fact it was held would represent a serious humiliation.

Bereaved accuse Tony blair of war crimes

Independent, UK – May 7, 2005

Tony Blair’s government has been accused of committing war crimes in Iraq in a complaint by the families of dead British soldiers to the International Criminal Court.

These Are The Crimes That Try Men’s Souls

TomPaine.com, D.C. – May 10, 2005

http://www.tompaine.com

… regarding the legal justifications for the war as well … document with the minutes of a secret meeting from … Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a July 2002 meeting …

Afraid to Tell the Truth

By Joe Conason

Salon.com

www.salon.com/opinion/ conason/2005/05/06/bush_blair_iraq/  

Friday 06 May 2005

…Are Americans so jaded about the deceptions perpetrated by our own government to lead us into war in Iraq that we are no longer interested in fresh and damning evidence of those lies? Or are the editors and producers who oversee the American news industry simply too timid to report that proof on the evening broadcasts and front pages?…

…On May 1, the Sunday Times of London published the confidential MINUTES of a meeting held almost three years ago at 10 Downing Stree, residence of the British prime minister, where Tony Blair and members of his Cabinet discussed the British government’s ongoing consultations with the Bush administration over Iraq. Those in attendance included the defense secretary, the foreign secretary, the attorney general, the intelligence chief and Blair’s closest personal aides.

But for Americans, the most important lines in the July 23 MINUTES are those attributed to Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, or MI6, who in spy jargon is to be referred to only as C. The MINUTES indicate that Sir Richard had discovered certain harsh realities during a visit to the United States that summer…”

The Answer Is Fear

By Robert Parry

May 26, 2005

http://www.consortiumnews.com

…You also hear more detailed questions: “Why won’t the press do its job of holding George W. Bush accountable for misleading the country to war in Iraq? How could the intelligence on Iraq have been so wrong? Why do America’s most powerful institutions sit back while huge trade and budget deficits sap away the nation’s future?”

There are, of course, many answers to these questions. But from my 27 years in the world of Washington journalism and politics, I would say that the most precise answer can be summed up in one word: fear.

It’s not fear of physical harm. That’s not how it works in Washington. For the professionals in journalism and in intelligence, it’s a smaller, more corrosive fear – of lost status, of ridicule, of betrayal, of unemployment. It is the fear of getting blackballed from a community of colleagues or a profession that has given your life much of its meaning and its financial sustenance…”

What are the legal implications of the public release of confidential minutes of an intel briefing July 23, 2002 for the Blair and Bush administratiions?  Blair is being charged with war crimes before the International Criminal Court, 89 Congressman have sent a letter to Bush demanding explanation into evidence contained in Downing Street minutes, Congressman Conyers is leading an investigation team to London, Congressman Conyers has is seeking 100,000 signatures to a letter demanding inquiry, and a US coalition is seeking an inquiry into impeachable offences.

Have I seen the “memo”?  No, I have not.  But I’ve seen the minutes all right, and I am counting the minutes until the American public sees them, too.

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

    1.  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
    2.   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.

BBC Interview:

6 April 2002

CARNE ROSS

First Secretary, UK Mission to the UN

1998-2002

This is what we were instructed to say.  The public argument was of course that it was illegal.  You can’t just go around and topple governments you don’t like, that’s not legal, and that’s what we would say in the UN because the UN is a place of law and of rules.  But privately what we would discuss with our allies

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)

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Intel — ILLEGAL WAR IRAQ

Might As Well Make A Meal Of It

First Course — SOMETHING LIGHT

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

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 PMOS 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.
Asked why the Foreign Secretary was in the United States the PMOS said that he had planned to be in the US to meet with Condoleeza Rice and to give a speech. He had planned to do so before the opposition choose tomorrow as the day for the Foreign Affairs debate. As people would know doubt be aware it was the opposition that choose the order of debates and not the Government.

10 Downing Street Web Site

Prime Minister’s Officer’s Statement

Second Course — SOMETHING FISHY

Hoon has backing of Prime Minster and Cabinet

September 11, 2003

Times Online – HomeBY RICHARD COLWILL AND PA NEWS

Geoff Hoon, the Defence Secretary, today defended his evidence to the Commons intelligence committee after it accused him of withholding information from their inquiry on Iraq.

Mr Hoon told the Commons that he had “no intention whatsoever other than to be open and straightforward” with the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) over the Iraqi dossier.

He added: “I regret any misunderstanding that might have arisen.”

The ISC said earlier today it was “disturbing” that Mr Hoon did not disclose full details of the concerns expressed by Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS) about the Government’s Iraq weapons dossier.

The ISC said in its report on the Iraq affair, which was published today, that the initial failure of the Ministry of Defence to reveal details of the concerns had been “unhelpful and potentially misleading”.

Main Course — THE MEAT OF THE MATTER

Too Many Cooks Spoil the Intel

All Intel from The Hutton Report.  This and all resources can be found at: EUROLEGAL

What you’re looking at is the result of a chefs conference on just how the intel should be “cooked.”  They were concerned that if they followed the recipe, the intel would be overdone, cooked too much.  This is the “intelligence that was being fixed to fit the policy.”

What do I think?  Well, I’m wondering what we’re going to have for dessert.