Has Media Awakened On Downing Street Memo?
Is the mainstream media awakening and finally beginning to cover the Downing Street Memo?
I watched CNN's Newsnight with Aaron Brown last night and they did an entire segment on the memo – with Bush and Tony Blair both downplaying it, of course – Hardball on MSNBC did a piece on it in the next hour and it was also mentioned on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
Yellow Dog Blog readers are a pretty sharp bunch but I'll give you the basics just in case you've counted on the media (until last night) to tell you about it.
The Downing Street memo was written by Matthew Rycroft, a top aide to Tony Blair on July 23, 2002. It reports that Sir Richard Dearlove, the chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, had been in talks in Washington and had told other senior British officials that Mr. Bush "wanted to remove" Mr. Hussein "through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and W.M.D.," or weapons of mass destruction.
"But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy," Sir Richard was reported in the memo to have told his colleagues.
This is truly the smoking gun that proves that Bush was going to invade Iraq, come hell or high water. One hopes that last night's coverage is the start of mainstream print and electronic media picking up on this important story and holding the Bush administration accountable.
A total of 89 Democrats in the House of Representatives have written to the White House asking for an explanation on the memo's contents and they have been treated to deafening silence. Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, has said there is "no need" to respond to the letters.
Congressman John Conyers disagrees and has set up a web site to get Americans to sign a letter demanding a response. I urge you to go there and sign this letter and add to the 250,000 signatures that Conyers wants to drop on Bush's doorstep.
Also, you can go to The Downing Street Memo web site for more information, including the memo itself.
Let's hope this thing really starts catching fire and the American people truly begin to see how much they have been duped.
I watched CNN's Newsnight with Aaron Brown last night and they did an entire segment on the memo – with Bush and Tony Blair both downplaying it, of course – Hardball on MSNBC did a piece on it in the next hour and it was also mentioned on Countdown with Keith Olbermann.
Yellow Dog Blog readers are a pretty sharp bunch but I'll give you the basics just in case you've counted on the media (until last night) to tell you about it.
The Downing Street memo was written by Matthew Rycroft, a top aide to Tony Blair on July 23, 2002. It reports that Sir Richard Dearlove, the chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, had been in talks in Washington and had told other senior British officials that Mr. Bush "wanted to remove" Mr. Hussein "through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and W.M.D.," or weapons of mass destruction.
"But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy," Sir Richard was reported in the memo to have told his colleagues.
This is truly the smoking gun that proves that Bush was going to invade Iraq, come hell or high water. One hopes that last night's coverage is the start of mainstream print and electronic media picking up on this important story and holding the Bush administration accountable.
A total of 89 Democrats in the House of Representatives have written to the White House asking for an explanation on the memo's contents and they have been treated to deafening silence. Scott McClellan, the White House press secretary, has said there is "no need" to respond to the letters.
Congressman John Conyers disagrees and has set up a web site to get Americans to sign a letter demanding a response. I urge you to go there and sign this letter and add to the 250,000 signatures that Conyers wants to drop on Bush's doorstep.
Also, you can go to The Downing Street Memo web site for more information, including the memo itself.
Let's hope this thing really starts catching fire and the American people truly begin to see how much they have been duped.
posted by Bob Geiger at 6/08/2005 09:45:00 AM
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