The Real News in the Downing Street Memos

[brettdale]

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=11241&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported

It is now nine months since I obtained the first of the 'Downing Street memos,' thrust into my hand by someone who asked me to meet him in a quiet watering hole in London for what I imagined would just be a friendly drink. At the time, I was defense correspondent of the London Daily Telegraph, and a staunch supporter of the decision to oust Saddam Hussein. The source was a friend. He'd given me a few stories before but nothing nearly as interesting as this.

[whistle]

1. The real news then is....

<snip>
Put simply, U.S. aircraft patrolling the southern no-fly zone were dropping a lot more bombs in the hope of provoking a reaction that would give the allies an excuse to carry out a full-scale bombing campaign, an air war, the first stage of the conflict.

British government figures for the number of bombs dropped on southern Iraq in 2002 show that although virtually none were used in March and April, an average of 10 tons a month were dropped between May and August.

But these initial 'spikes of activity' didn't have the desired effect. The Iraqis didn't retaliate. They didn't provide the excuse Bush and Blair needed. So at the end of August, the allies dramatically intensified the bombing into what was effectively the initial air war.

The number of bombs dropped on southern Iraq by allied aircraft shot up to 54.6 tons in September alone, with the increased rates continuing into 2003.

In other words, Bush and Blair began their war not in March 2003, as everyone believed, but at the end of August 2002, six weeks before Congress approved military action against Iraq.

The way in which the intelligence was 'fixed' to justify war is old news.

The real news is the shady April 2002 deal to go to war, the cynical use of the U.N. to provide an excuse, and the secret, illegal air war without the backing of Congress.

<end snip>

[AlwaysQuestion]

3. ...and the media snakes report not

I find it inconceivable that this information is not reported in mainstream media. That it is not supports yet again the majority thinking here that the fix is in. The media and all its overly high paid deliverers of propaganda sleep with the neoconic admin. It will take a multiple of flukes (miracles for the religiously bent) to force the media back on track of meeting what should be its ultimate objective--delivering up impartial, well researched, fact-filled news casts. I'm sick to death of what passes for news today.

[Auntie Bush]

4. Welcome to DU

:hi:

[AlwaysQuestion]

7. Thanks! Much appreciated

Why, thanks, Auntie Bush--but in future, can I call you "Auntie" for short as that last name of "yours" sends me into a rage!! :]

A thousand posts--that's pretty damn impressive!!

[Auntie Bush]

8. Sure...Most everyone calls me Auntie.

Just wait...you'll be there before you know it. But watch out...this place is addictive!

[ThomWV]

10. Misuse of Appropriated Funds

Which means among other things that the person who ordered the dropping of those bombs, without congressional approval for war, is personally responsible for their cost - all of the cost. Start with the daily operating cost for the Aircraft Carriers that provided the aircraft. Then the fuel. Then the pay. Then the cost of the bombs themselves.

Write us a refund check George, because you sure as hell had no authorization, real or apparent, to spend those funds.

[eleny]

2. Starts out like a novel or a film

[Fridays Child]

5. Kicked and nominated

[Fridays Child]

6. And, for reference, here's a map of the area we bombed illegally:

The southern no-fly zone encompasses nearly half of the country. Six weeks before Congress gave him the authority to invade Iraq, Bush began dropping up to 54.6 tons of bombs per month on the Iraqis who lived there. These actions constitute an open-and-shut case for war crimes.

[Pirate Smile]

9. Yoo hoo. I don't think this is going away. Hopefully, it is just getting

ready to break wide-open.

From Michael Smith at The Sunday Times:

"Last week one US blogger, Larisa Alexandrovna of RawStory.com, unearthed more unsettling evidence. It was an overlooked interview with Lieutenant-General T Michael Moseley, the allied air commander in Iraq, in which he appears to admit that the “spikes of activity” were part of a covert air war.

From June 2002 until March 20, when the ground war began, the allies flew 21,736 sorties over southern Iraq, attacking 349 carefully selected targets. The attacks, Moseley said, “laid the foundations” for the invasion, allowing allied commanders to begin the ground war.

The bloggers may have found their own smoking gun."

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=1581735&mesg_id=1581829
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1669292,00.html

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1581735

lala_rawraw (1000+ posts) Sat Jun-25-05 08:43 PM
Response to Reply #13
21. I am breaking this on Monday... so it might sound like
a smoking water gun now, but tip my hat to Mick, he is amazing. oh, and Raw not blog, but no biggie, may as well be, given that Blogs are the people's voice.