I came across this interesting article this morning entitled
"Blair faces US probe over secret Iraq invasion plan":
SENIOR American congressmen are
considering sending a delegation to London to investigate Britain's role in preparations for the war in Iraq.
Democratic opponents of President George W Bush have seized on a leaked Downing Street memo, first published three weeks ago by The Sunday Times, as evidence that American lawmakers were misled about Bush's intentions in Iraq.
A group of 89 Democrats from the House of Representatives has written to Bush to ask whether the memo is accurate.
The article goes on to describe the Bush Administration reaction, saying that it "tried to shrug off Conyers letter":
Scott McClellan, Bush's spokesman, said the White House saw "no need" to respond to an affair that one newspaper dubbed "memogate".
I thinky Scotty may find a need to respond soon, given recent relevations in the Washington Post that the NSC warned Bush way before the war that "the case was weak" AND that there would be no WMD. It just keeps piling on, and Conyers, god bless him, has taken the lead to bring that truth to the American people.
Conyers is quoted as saying that the Bush administration just wants to "wait it out" and hope it blows over; but it appears that this is one thing that Conyers rightly is refusing to let Bush get away with:
By sending investigators to London,
Conyers hopes to stir the US media into re-examining a story largely ignored in America since Bush's re-election victory in November.
"I deplore the fact that our media have been so reticent on the question of whether there was a secret planning of a war for which neither the Congress nor the American people had given permission," Conyers said.
"We have The Sunday Times to thank for this very important activity. It reminds me of Watergate which started off as a tiny little incident reported in The Washington Post. I think that the interest of many citizens is picking up."
I think so too. Our site (and by "our" I mean the Daily Kos community, since all of us worked together to create it) has had about 145,000 visitors with over a quarter of a million page views. It's been mentioned in the New York Times, the Seattle Times, Michael Moore's link of the week, the Huffington Post, and countless other sites and sources. It was also covered in the local news here.
I also like the framing Conyers has taken up. He's put this in an issue of Contitutional importance. Only Congress has the constitutional right to declare war. Not the President. What the memo (minutes! minutes!) prove is that Bush essentialy declared war first, and then deceived Congress into giving persmission.
The launching of a British investigation, if it does indeed occur, is an interesting strategic move by Conyers. Conyers knows that the British press will cover his investigation; the more noise in the British press, the more the American media will be forced to address the issue.
I think this is a wise move by Conyers, and as a member of this community, he knows that we'll help him out in any way we can to get the truth out.
Update [2005-5-22 18:59:48 by georgia10]:: From Congressman Conyer's blog:
On Friday afternoon, I spoke with reporters for the London Times (which broke the "Downing Street Memo" story several weeks ago), and today's London Times runs a major article by Tony Allen-Mills and Tom Pattinson covering our letter signed by 89 Representatives to Bush. Although we are -- thanks to your help -- seeing somewhat of an uptick in coverage in the U.S., I continue to be amazed that the foreign press is willing to be so much more aggressive on this front than the U.S. press is.
Among other things, the London Times article also notes that my friend Danny Davis (D-IL) observes that the scandal may have implications for the 2006 mid-term elections here. I would go farther than this and observe that miselading our citizens during the lead up to the Iraq War could also have implications for the future of our separation of powers and our ability to trust our government on matters of war.
I would also note that the article also discusses the apparent plan by the Bush Admnistration to disregard our letter. I am planning several immediate responses to the possible stone-walling. First, I am planning to organize a massive open letter by concerned citizens such as yourselves to the president demanding answers -- more on that in the coming days. Second, I am considering organizing a U.S. congressional delegation to travel to London to press the inquiry further. Third, I have organized a media bias hearing on Tuesday -- to be aired live on the Al Franken Show from 1-3 P.M ET.