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The Downing Street Memo Reveals
Blood on the Hands of Our Complicit Corporate Media and the
Hijacking of Our Collective Fear
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- By Anthony Wade
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- June 10, 2005
- www.OpEdNews.com
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- On September the Eleventh, 2001, our worst fears were
realized. I will never forget that day and traveling home by
subway in New York City. Looking into the shell-shocked faces of
people I never met, would never see again, realizing how truly
close we all were. We were bound together by the experience. A
collective outrage, a collective understanding that we were in
this together. Unfortunately, some took this opportunity to
capitalize on our collective fear.
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- Terrorism became the tool, the weapon wielded so effectively
by this administration for five years now. They color-coded our
fear, using the terror chart to influence elections, and to
distract from potentially damaging news. They warned us over and
over again that it could happen again. They made us go buy duct
tape and brought us new terms like “dirty bomb”. Just enough to
keep everyone on edge, and distracted, while they implemented the
agenda they had all along. All the while, deregulating media, and
winning hearts and minds of the corporations behind the mainstream
media.
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- How much will be enough America? How many more lies will you
tolerate from a media that is in the pocket of this President?
This is not about party or even politics. It is about human
decency in an age lapsing dangerously into moral corrosion. This
is not about patriotism; it is about our collective civilization
as we see the decay of society based on greed and corporate
dominance. It is about the legacy we leave to our children and how
history will view what we did as a people to respond to such
egregious violations of basic humanity.
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- Every day there is another story that verifies our deepest
fears about the government we now have. There are stories every
day that should make the press outraged and demand answers.
Instead we see coverage of the benign and misshapen. We should be
dealing in the heart of the issues affecting this country and this
world, and instead, we get the freak show. Tonight on “Hardball”,
Chris Matthews spent the first half-hour interviewing Russell
Crowe, because let’s face it, when a movie star admits to throwing
a phone at someone, that apparently should take precedence over
the true news of the day. In a segment during the second half of
the show, Matthews interviewed White House Communications Director
Nicole Devenish and played his very best whiffle ball. In what can
only be described as beyond fluff, Matthews paid lip service to
the recently exposed, “Downing Street Memo”, by asking her to
comment on the fact that the memo apparently indicates that
intelligence was “fixed” to justify the war in Iraq. Devenish
responded by blowing it off and saying the memo arose during an
election cycle in England and saying that Bush and Blair had
already refuted it. Matthews smiled and moved on without the
obvious follow up that America was screaming for.
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- For those who are unaware, because of the corporate media
blackout, the Downing Street Memo are actually minutes from a
meeting that occurred in Britain months before the Iraq War
started. Richard Dearlove (“C”), the head of Britain's spy agency
MI6 had reported in this meeting on his recent visit with Bush.
The authenticity of the memo is not in question, as England and a
US Administration official have verified that it is indeed wholly
accurate. The parts which are quite telling are:
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- C reported on his recent talks
in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military
action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam,
through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism
and WMD. But the intelligence and
facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC
had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for
publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little
discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
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- The Defence Secretary said that
the US had already begun "spikes of activity" to put pressure on
the regime. No decisions had been taken, but he thought the most
likely timing in US minds for military action to begin was
January, with the timeline beginning
30 days before the US Congressional elections.
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It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military
action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But
the case was thin.
Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and
his WMD capability was less than that
of Libya, North Korea or Iran.
We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back
in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal
justification for the use of force.
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- The
Prime Minister said that it would make a big difference
politically and legally if Saddam refused to allow in the UN
inspectors. Regime change and WMD were linked in the
sense that it was the regime that was producing the WMD. There
were different strategies for dealing with Libya and Iran. If the
political context were right, people would support regime change.
The two key issues were whether the military plan worked and
whether we had the political strategy to give the military plan
the space to work.
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- Let’s review the basic facts about this memo.
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- 1) The memo has been verified as authentic.
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- 2) The memo is from months before the invasion.
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- 3) “Military action was now seen as inevitable”.
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- 4) “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action,
justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.
But the intelligence and facts were
being fixed around the policy.
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- 5)
It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take
military action, even if the timing was not yet decided.
But the case was thin
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- 6) Saddam was not threatening his
neighbours, and his WMD capability
was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran
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- There is no question that this is a smoking gun that finally
proves the facts we all suspected for some time. George Bush lied
us into a war and tens of thousands of people are now dead because
of it. These are war crimes, and certainly a basis for Articles of
Impeachment. The spin coming out on the right so far has been
tepid in its reality. We have heard so far:
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- Spin - The memo was leaked during the run up to Blair’s
re-election in Britain recently.
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- Truth - Simply put, who cares? That does not detract from its
veracity, which has already been established.
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- Spin – The 911-Commission has debunked the facts contained in
the memo.
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- Truth – This is patently false. The commission never addressed
the pre-war intel into the Iraq War.
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- Spin – Bush was simply acting on the intelligence everyone
else, including Clinton had.
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- Truth – Another fabrication. First of all, the intelligence
was cooked by the Office of Special Plans, headed by top Neocon,
Douglas Feith. The Clinton intelligence was from 1998, and
President Clinton bombed Iraq for four days, he did not invade the
country for three years. This comparison is juvenile and a clear
attempt to muddy the issue.
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- Spin – The word “fixed” can mean different things.
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- Truth – Anyone remember the definition of the word “is”? Word
parsing cannot save Bush from the obvious statement that he had
decided to FIX the intel and the facts, around the policy, of
invasion.
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- As if this was not all bad enough, this memo came out months
ago. It has been 35 days since a demand for a Congressional
investigation was made. Have you heard about this memo? Have you
seen a story on it? The mainstream American media has virtually
ignored this issue. This has been the recent pattern under the
Bush administration. The president is caught fudging global
warming facts and employing a former oil executive to do so, and
we get lead stories about Michael Jackson. American soldiers kill
an innocent man in Afghanistan by beating his legs until they
turned into pulp, and we get lead stories for a week about the
runaway bride. No explanation for billions of dollars missing in
Iraq, and we get Russell Crowe. Maybe in the third segment, there
might be one question, with no follow up, about something
substantive. If all else fails and the PR is getting to be too
bad, a top official will soon be giving an “exclusive” to Sean
Hannity so they can pimp more lies to the American people. Move
along, nothing to see here. Everyone in America knows who won, and
came in second, on American Idol, but how many of them have ever
heard of the Downing Street Memo? That is part of what has gone
horribly awry in this country. There are no “deep throats” left in
America because they are all waiting to see who America’s next top
model will be.
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- While the average American needs to be more responsible for
holding our elected officials responsible, it is the media that is
complicit. Our media has failed us time and again, only
this time; there are people who have lost their lives because of
it. When a verified memo arises that proves the President lied
this country into a war that has killed tens of thousands of
people, the blood screams out from the ground for justice. When
the media, who are supposed to report the truth, no longer serve
that truth, the blood is then on their hands.
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- It is time to demand accountability. It is time to tell your
members of Congress (http://www.congress.org/congressorg/home/)
that they must do something this time. It is time you told them
that the legacy we are leaving is no longer acceptable. It is time
to call and write your media, and demand objective coverage of
this story or you will simply no longer buy their product. Their
product is now bathed in the blood we simply should not tolerate
anymore. That blood was spilled over a lie. That lie has now been
exposed.
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- Somewhere back in time we experienced a terrible moment of
collective fear in this country. That fear was legitimate and
pure. This administration took advantage of that fear. They
exploited it for their own designs and purposes. They tainted and
corrupted it. That collective fear has now been perverted and in
its wake, the collective blood of humanity, spilt for lies, is
screaming out to us from the sands of a desert where our fear was
used as a weapon of mass destruction. It is screaming out to all
of us. It is time to collectively honor it.
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Anthony Wade, a
contributing writer to
opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies
and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer
from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple
websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation
Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that
you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies
and excess.
Anthony Wade’s
Archive:
http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm
Email
Anthony:
takebacktheus@gmail.com
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