WaPo: Deep Throat of Downing Street...

[ailsagirl]

By Jefferson Morley
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 14, 2005; 10:18 AM

Deep Throat now has an English accent.

Reporter Michael Smith of the Sunday Times of London scored an international scoop this weekend with a story about a sensational Iraq war document provided by an anonymous high-level official source who, like W. Mark Felt of Watergate fame, seems to have taken up a mission of helping an investigative reporter probe allegations of misconduct and cover-up.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair (R) looks at U.S. President George W. Bush speak at a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House in Washington June 7, 2005. President Bush and Blair had talks on Tuesday looking to paper over differences over Blair's ambitious plan for Africa with an agreement to help out on famine relief. (Jason Reed - Reuters)

The document, a British government briefing paper from July 21, 2002, informed Prime Minister Tony Blair's cabinet ministers eight months before the invasion of Iraq that Blair had already committed Britain to supporting an American-led attack and that "they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal."

The eight-page document labeled "PERSONAL SECRET UK EYES ONLY," whose authenticity has been confirmed by British government sources, also served as the basis of a Page 1 story in the Sunday Washington Post. Staff writer Walter Pincus emphasized a different passage in the document, which said "the U.S. military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a " protracted and costly" postwar occupation of Iraq.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/14/AR2005061400494.html

[oldtime dfl_er]

1. Let's see now, when did Robin Cook resign?

This one may not be that hard to crack...

http://www.cafepress.com/scarebaby/662042

[muriel_volestrangler]

4. Not necessarily

By 2002, Cook was the Leader of the House of Commons - in charge of organising Parliamentary business. That position wouldn't necessarily mean he saw these kind of documents; and it was a demotion from his job until 2001, Foreign Secretary, which indicates he wasn't in Blair's 'inner circle' anymore, and might not be privy to the decisions about war.

[BigBearJohn]

2. Link?

[ailsagirl]

3. Thanks-- just added it to original message n/t