The Raw Story | Congressman Conyers Calls on the President to Publish the Hadley Memo: "Published: Thursday March 30, 2006
Congressman John Conyers today called on president Bush to make publicly available a memo submitted to him by Stephen Hadley in October 2002. This memo clearly explained to the president that the Departments of State and Energy both rejected White House claims that Iraq was seeking materials to build a nuclear weapon. This is a very important document revealing the administration's efforts to build a case for war based on Iraq's nuclear threat to our country when overwhelming evidence disputed this claim. ..
NATIONAL JOURNAL: Insulating Bush (03/30/2006): "By Murray Waas, National Journal | Thursday, March 30, 2006
Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration. Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews.
Hadley was particularly concerned that the public might learn of a classified one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate, specifically written for Bush in October 2002. The summary said that although "most agencies judge" that the aluminum tubes were "related to a uranium enrichment effort," the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Energy Department's intelligence branch "believe that the tubes more likely are intended for conventional weapons."
Three months after receiving that assessment, the president stated without qualification in his January 28, 2003, State of the Union address: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." ...
The Raw Story | NY Times obtains secret memo of Bush, Blair meeting before Iraq war: "RAW STORY | Published: Sunday March 26, 2006 | (Updated after full article was obtained)
The New York Times reports that a secret memo from January 2003 reveals that President Bush and Prime Minister Blair agreed to invade Iraq even without U.N. backing, RAW STORY has learned.
The article, written by Don Van Natta Jr., addresses the Jan. 31, 2003 memorandum which was leaked to a British author and referenced in February of this year. The New York Times was able to obtain a copy of the secret memo, and confirms most of the reports.
"Two senior British officials confirmed the authenticity of the memo, but declined to talk further about it, citing Britain's Official Secrets Act, which makes it illegal to divulge classified information," the Times reports. ...
Khaleej Times Online: "Neocon ambitions and the spectacular disaster of Iraq | BY ERIC S MARGOLIS | 26 March 2006
ON THE third anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq, we are now able to discern the real motivation behind what Washington claimed was a pre-emptive operation to save mankind from the threat of Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction.
In reality, the Bush Administration went to war to attain two objectives: 1. Seizing Iraq’s vast oil reserves, and turning Iraq into a base to dominate the Middle East; 2. Destroying one of Israel’s two main enemies( Iran being the other).
Three years on, the first goal has not been reached while the second was decisively achieved. Large parts of Iraq — once one of the Arab world’s most developed nations — are in ruins, anarchy, or approaching civil war. The squabbling, US-engineered regime in Baghdad represents only the Shia majority."
