Making Up History as He Goes...

This article from Think Progress, one of many blogs reporting on the leaked British memo with links included.

British Memo Busts Bush

Sure, we all knew it.

But now there’s even more proof the White House was determined to go to war no matter, without letting pesky facts stand in its way.

According to recently leaked notes from a 6/23/02 meeting between Britain and President Bush, the chief of Britain’s intelligence service worried Bush had made up his mind to overthrown Saddam Hussein and was pushing to manipulate intelligence into backing him up.

(Side Note: Keep in mind, in June 2002, President Bush was telling Americans there were no plans yet to attack Iraq. In August 2002, remember, the State Department deputy spokesman said shot down ideas that the administration was pushing for war saying, “There are no plans to attack Iraq on the President’s desk. He has said that.")

In the leaked memo, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stated, “Bush has made up his mind to take military action.” The British intelligence chief went further, charging “the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” Straw also noted, “the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.”

After the invasion of Iraq failed to turn up any weapons of mass destruction, the White House tried to shrug off accountability and just blame faulty intelligence. Last summer, the Senate Intelligence Committee released a report slamming U.S. intelligence community. Taking place in an election year, the Committee sidestepped the question of White House culpability, saying they would do a second phase report after the November 2004 election.

Recently Sen. Pat Roberts, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, blew off the second phase of the report, saying it would be a “monumental waste of time” to investigate further. As this new memo shows, it would be a monumental mistake not to.