This from Arianna Huffington on her website:
Take the biggest under-reported story of the moment (at least in America): what the Downing Street Memo reveals about the Bush administration and how it led us into the Iraq war.For those of you not up on the details -- and considering the woeful lack of coverage in the American mainstream media, who can blame you? -- the Downing Street Memo, disclosed by The Sunday Times of London, details a secret meeting on July 23rd, 2002 -- eight months before the invasion of Iraq -- at 10 Downing Street between Tony Blair and Richard Dearlove, the head of MI-6, who, just back from Washington, reported that Bush was determined to go to war. Here is the money quote from the memo:
Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. [Bush's National Security Council] had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
I have consciously tried to stay above the muck of politics lately. So, I have pretty much laid low on this downing street memo story. However, the absolute lack of attention that this story is being given in the American press is beyond negligence, it is outright defiance towards the truth. The media clearly does not have time to report on real stories. They are too busy deciding whether Michael Jackson is guilty, or whether or not Tom Cruise has lost his mind. They are so busy playing in the circus that they are just letting the world outside the tent fall apart.
Posted by Paul Hina at June 3, 2005 09:53 PM