The secret Downing Street memo, July 23, 2002

The secret Downing Street memo, July 23, 2002, -- also known as the 'Smoking Gun' Memo -- regarding U.S. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair's plans for war in Iraq, was revealed by the United Kingdom's The Sunday Times, May 1, 2005.

"It's possible it's less a dud than a bomb with a long, slow fuse," Dan Froomkin wrote May 17, 2005, in the Washington Post. [1]

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Corroborating Documents from the National Security Archives

On August 17, 2005, "the National Security Archives at George Washington University released some stunning documents, that seem to further corroborate the Downing Street Minutes, as well as buttress the argument that there was precious little post-war planning in the rush to topple Saddam," according to Richard Cranium, AllSpinZone.

• Document 1: State Department cable, Future of Iraq Project Expert Working Groups, July 8, 2002.
• Document 2: State Department briefing, Future of Iraq Project, November 1, 2002.
• Document 3: State Department Information Memorandum for Paula J. Dobriansky, Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, Iraq Contingency Planning, February 7, 2003.
• Document 4: State Department Action Memorandum for Secretary of State Colin Powell, Response to Secretary Rumsfeld, April 10, 2003.
• Document 5: State Department, Report to Congress Submitted consistent with PL 107-243: 'Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002', December 15, 2003.

Prime Minister's Meeting Minutes

The document is actually the July 23, 2002, Minutes of the Prime Minister's meeting to discuss Iraq written by Matthew Rycroft, the document was marked "SECRET AND STRICTLY PERSONAL - UK EYES ONLY."

SourceWatch Resources

• After Downing Street
• Bush administration lies that led to war
• Bush administration rationales for war in Iraq
• Bush administration scandals
• Bush lies and deceptions
• Downing Street documents
• Downing Street Memo Campaign
• Exit Strategy from Iraq
• Future of Iraq Project
• invasion of Iraq
• Oil and War in Iraq
• Pentagon Papers
• The case for impeachment of President George W. Bush
• The leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, July 21, 2002: "Iraq: Conditions for Military Action"
• weapons of mass destruction investigation

External links

Smoking Gun

• "Smoking Gun," according to the Investopedia, is "Something that serves as indisputable evidence or proof, especially of a crime."

Websites

• After Downing Street website.
• Big Brass Alliance/Big Brass Blog.com. See Wikinews item.
• Downing Street Memo.com website.
• Down Strett Memo, FreewayBlogger.com.
• Madder'n Hells website.
• The Google Bomb Project website: Downing Street Memo.

Articles & Commentary

Analysis

• Detailed Analysis: "Leaked Cabinet Office papers, September 2004: Evidence of false statements made by Tony Blair to Parliament and the media," University of Cambridge's Student Run Computing Facility (SRCF) website.
• Also see Downing Street memo article in the Wikipedia.

News Citations

• Erik Mattheis has compiled U.S. media citations of the "Downing Street memo" dating from May 1, 2005, to present, which can be viewed at fearofclowns.com (accessed June 8, 2005).

2004

• "Clarke's Take On Terror," CBS News, March 19, 2004: Richard A. Clarke "says that as early as the day after the attacks, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was pushing for retaliatory strikes on Iraq, even though al Qaeda was based in Afghanistan."

2005

• Ward Harkavy, "Bush, Blair Decided in '02 to Invade Iraq and Worry About Justification Later, Say Brit Papers," Village Voice, April 30, 2005.
• Michael Smith, "Blair planned Iraq war from start,", The Sunday Times (UK), May 1, 2005.
• Raymond Whitaker, Andy McSmith and Francis Elliott, "Revealed: documents show Blair's secret plans for war. PM decided on conflict from the start. Blair told war illegal in March 2002. Latest leak confirms Goldsmith doubts," The Independent, May 1, 2005.
• Katherine Baldwin, "Blair Will Win Election Despite Iraq Row -- Poll," Reuters, May 1, 2005.
• "Dyke condemns Blair's government," BBC, May 2, 2005.
• "W.'s "runaway bride" and the 'gotcha' story that wasn't gotten," Attytood/PNI Online, May 2, 2005.
• Allan Cowell, "New claim hits Blair on his decision to go to war," New York Times, May 2, 2005.
• George Galloway, "These are Blair's last days. Iraq is our greatest foreign policy calamity in modern history and the reckoning has only just begun," Guardian Unlimited/UK, May 3, 2005.
• John Prados, "Iraq: When Was The Die Cast?" Tom Paine.Common Sense, May 3, 2005.
• Raymond McGovern, "Proof Bush Fixed The Facts," Tom Paine.Common Sense, May 4, 2005.
• "Why Blair must be impeached," The Sunday Herald UK, May 5, 2005.
• Greg Palast, "Impeachment Time: 'Facts Were Fixed'," Special to BuzzFlash, May 5, 2005.
• Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott, "British memo indicates Bush made intelligence fit Iraq policy," Knight Ridder, May 5, 2005.
• "High Crimes and Misdemeanors: Dan Plesch argues that impeachment charges on Tony Blair would strengthen democracy in Britain," Birkbeck University of London, May 6, 2005.
• Juan Cole, "Secret British Memo Shows Bush Tampered with Iraq Intelligence," Informed Comment, May 6, 2005.
• Joe Conason, "Afraid to tell the truth. A secret memo publicized in Britain confirms the lies on which Bush based his Iraq policy. Why has it received so little notice in the U.S. press?," Salon, May 6, 2005.
• "Smoking Gun Memo? Iraq Bombshell Goes Mostly Unreported in US Media," FAIR, May 10, 2005.
• Op-Ed: "Memo to Congress: No mushroom cloud, but here's smoking gun," Seattle Times, May 10, 2005.
• Molly Ivins, "They Lied to Us," Working for Change, May 11, 2005.
• John Daniszewski, "British Documents Stir Protest in United States," Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2005.
• Walter Pincus, "British Intelligence Warned of Iraq War. Blair Was Told of White House's Determination to Use Military Against Hussein," Washington Post, May 13, 2005.
• Greg Mitchell, "Downing Street War Memo Gains Traction in U.S. Press," Editor & Publisher, May 14, 2005.
• Michael Getler, "News Over There, but Not Here," Washington Post, May 15, 2005.
• David Michael Green, "Stop the Crime of the Century," Axis of Logic, May 15, 2005: "What has turned this crime into an astonishing demonstration of the depth of American democracy's decay is the complicity of the media establishment in hiding the original crime, and in thus doing so, ripping a gaping hole in the fabric of our political system."
• Paul Krugman, "Staying What Course?" New York Times, May 16, 2005.
• Matthew Clark, "Why has 'Downing Street memo' story been a 'dud' in US? A mid-2002 British memo saying US was planning to 'fix' intelligence to fit plans to invade Iraq has not been big news," Christian Science Monitor, May 17, 2005.
• "White House challenges UK Iraq memo," CNN, May 17, 2005: "Claims in a recently uncovered British memo that intelligence was 'being fixed' to support the Iraq war as early as mid-2002 are 'flat out wrong,' White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Monday."
• David Sarasohn, "Smoking gun still sending smoke signals," The Oregonian, May 18, 2005.
• Doug Giebel, "The Grand Illusion - A Nation Willingly Deceived," Scoop (New Zealand), May 18, 2005.
• Juan Cole, "The lies that led to war," Salon, May 19, 2005: "A leaked British memo, and other documents, make it clear that Bush intended all along to invade Iraq -- and lied about it to the American people. The full gravity of his offense has not yet sunk in."
• John Downs, "The flaming gun," Rutland Herald (Vermont), May 25, 2005.
• Ward Harkavy, "Downing Street Memo: Coverup Then, Coverup Now," Village Voice, May 28, 2005.
• Molly Ivins, "Catapulting the propaganda," The Free Press, May 30, 2005.
• Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, "Downing Street Memo Mostly Ignored in U.S.," Fox News, June 1, 2005.
• Robert Parry, Commentary: "The Answer is Fear," Baltimore Chronicle, June 2, 2005.
• Tim Russert, Transcript: Interview with Kenneth B. Mehlman, Chairman of the Republican Party, June 5, 2005.
• "Russert Grills Mehlman on Impeach Memo," NewsMax, June 5, 2005.
• James S. Robbins, "Causing a Commotion. 'Downing Street Memo' is old news," National Review Online, June 6, 2005.
• Josh Richman, "'Downing Street memo' on Iraq met mostly with silence. Bush officials mum despite calls for answers on Brit report," San Mateo County Times, June 7, 2005.
• David Michael Green, "Bring It Down. Now," Common Dreams, June 7, 2005.
• Editorial: "Elaborate fraud," North Jersey Record (New Jersey), June 7, 2005.
• Jefferson Morley, "The Downing Street Memo Story Won't Die," Washington Times, June 7, 2005.
• Joshua Micah Marshall, "Understanding our National Denial about Iraq," TPM Cafe, June 7, 2005.
• Dan Froomkin, "The Memo Comes In From the Cold," Washington Post, June 8, 2005.
• Mark Memmott, "'Downing Street Memo' Gets Fresh Attention," USA Today, June 8, 2005, posted at Common Dreams.
• Mark Danner, "Tomgram: Mark Danner on the British Smoking-Gun Memo," The New York Review of Books, June 9, 2005 issue.
• Philippe Naughton, "Downing Street minutes that lasted for months," Times (UK) Online, June 9, 2005.
• Tony Allen-Mills, "Washington confronts 'memogate'," Times (UK) Online, June 9, 2005.
• Eric Boehlert, "Bush lied about war? Nope, no news there! Why did it take more than a month for the U.S. press to report on the serious revelations in the Downing Street memo?" Salon, June 9, 2005. Registration required.
• Mark Danner, "The Secret Way to War," The New York Review of Books, June 9, 2005.
• Editorial: "Bush and 'the memo'," San Francisco Chronicle, June 10, 2005: "President Bush apparently thinks he can dismiss the damning 'Downing Street memo' with a few glib words."
• David Corn, "The Downing Street Memo Reconsidered," The Nation, June 11, 2005.
• "Readers' Representative: Downing Street memo's route to paper," Star Tribune (Minneapolis), June 11, 2005.
• Manning Pynn, "A missing story?" Orlando Sentinel, June 12, 2005.
• Philip Gailey, "The American people have been had," St. Petersburg Times, June 12, 2005.
• Ward Harkavy, "Downing Street Afterschlock: CNN Makes Good on 'Storytelling' Vow. Headline News channels regime-change facts into fiction," Village Voice, June 12, 2005.
• Eric Boehlert, "We 'dropped the ball' on Downing memo," AP, June 14, 2005. Posted at Salon; requires subscription.
• Action Alert: "Downing Street Memo Activists 'Wing Nuts,' 'Paranoid'," FAIR, June 14, 2005.
• Jefferson Morley, "Deep Throat of Downing Street," Washington Post, June 14, 2005.
• David Johnson and Jonathan Schwarz, "Damning evidence can't be ignored," Baltimore Sun, June 15, 2005.
• Michael Smith, Transcript: "The Downing Street Memo," Washington Post, June 16, 2005. "Smith was online Thursday, June 16, at 10 a.m. ET to discuss the Downing Street Memo and his reporting."
• David Corn, "The Latest Downing Street Memos," Capital Games/The Nation, June 16, 2005.
• Molly Ivins, "Don't Dismiss Downing Street," AlterNet, June 22, 2005: "I don't know if these memos represent an impeachable offense. But they strike me as a hell of lot worse than anything Richard Nixon ever contemplated."
• Mark Drolette, "The march of the madder'n hells," Part 1, maddernhells.netfirms.com, June 24, 2005.
• Mark Drolette, "The march/swarm of the madder'n hells," Part 2, maddernhells.netfirms.com, July 1, 2005.
• Mark Drolette, "The swarm of the madder’n hells," Part 3, The Smirking Chimp, July 8, 2005.