The Smoking Gun

Back in 2002, I asked a lawyer friend of mine if willfully misleading the public was an impeachable offense. He never replied to my email.

The Downing Street Memo offers further evidence that:

(1) The president had "made up his mind to take military action" well before telling the public "We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq". Well before asking the US Congress for the authority to use force, if necessary. In fact, the memo references "spikes in activity" that the US was already taking part in. Spikes that, according to the Sunday London Times, "dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001". The War in Iraq was not a "last resort" but a pre-determined end. The means of which, this administration continually attempts to justify. A means that has killed 1,674 United States soldiers and 10s of thousands of Iraqis.

(2) Aside from the testimony of people like former treasury secretary Paul O'Neil, there has not been much evidence of suspect intelligence usage leading up to the War in Iraq. This memo, written by foreign policy aide Mathew Rycroft to Ambassador David Manning (cc: UK Defense and Foreign Secretaries, Attorney General, and others) states "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy". "Fixed around the policy". No wonder bush told UN weapons inspectors to leave Iraq after only a few months. He must have had the intelligence and facts right where he wanted them. There are those that say this administration was not the only administration, foreign or domestic, to believe that saddam had weapons of mass destruction (nucLEar included), but this administration was the ONLY administration to find this "intelligence" actionable enough to base a "shock and awe" war on.

Rep. John Conyers has demanded an investigation into the build up to the war in Iraq based on this Downing Street Memo. A letter to the president regarding questions arising from the Downing Street Memo is available for your signature at his website. He has also written defense secretary rumsfeld regarding the "spikes of activity" during late 2002. Senators Kennedy and Kerry seem to be following suit.

The mainstream media has been slow to pick up this story, but it does seem to have more teeth than the questionable election results in Ohio, or an administration paying actual journalists to praise presidential policies in their columns, or allowing a fake journalist to ask the president and his mouth piece soft ball questions for two years, or divulging the identity of an undercover CIA agent to the press. I could go on, but maybe it's better if you check them out for yourself. At least he didn't lie under oath about cheating on his wife, right? Maybe it's time we put him under oath, without cheney at his side, and see what comes out of that smirk.


To the Impeachment of George W. Bush!