Downing Street Memo

The "Downing Street Memo" has not gone away and United States Representative John Conyers, Jr., D. Michigan is making sure that we get some much needed answers. The Downing street memo first came to light May 1st, in the Times of London article that had the printed text of the memo. The Memo is the actual document containing minutes transcribed during the British Prime Minister's top secret meeting on July 23, 2002 - a full eight months PRIOR to the invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003. In the memo some disturbing insight as to what the Bush administration really believed the Iraq threat was comes to light and that intelligence was "fixed" to sell the case for war. Of course the story has received little media attention in the United States. But that has not meant the story has gone away and it should not. Representative Conyers has written a letter to the White House asking for an explanation. He also decided to ask anybody interested to sign the letter (signed electronically from his web site). I happened to see this letter when he first posted it while researching a different subject. He had been hoping for a few thousand signatures to "impress" the White House. As of Friday June 3 he had 110, 000 SIGNATURES and now is going for 250,000! This is unprecedented for a congressman to receive such strong support in such a short time. His site received so much traffic it crashed but they got it back up quickly and the movement continues. You can read the letter: LETTER TO PRES BUSH and sign at the bottom if you wish. You will receive an email confirmation after you sign. It is also being reported today that Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts is reportedly planning to present Congress with The Downing Street Memo. This could be the beginning of a major political fight. "The Iraqi Liberation Act of 1998" may have given President Bush all of the legal recourse necessary for the war. Stating directly from the bill: "Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 - Declares that it should be the policy of the United States to seek to remove the Saddam Hussein regime from power in Iraq and to replace it with a democratic government." The H.R. 4655 law was signed into effect October 31,1998. But did that give Bush the power to lie to Congress and the American people to get to approval for the war, I would not agree. We have wasted an enormous amount of American life and treasure in this pursuit and we the people deserve an answer.