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British Memo on U.S. Plans for Iraq War Fuels Critics
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem May 20, 2005 12:27pm |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - New York Times |
| News Date | Friday, May 20, 2005 06:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: May 20, 2005
WASHINGTON, May 19 - More than two weeks after its publication in London, a previously secret British government memorandum that reported in July 2002 that President Bush had decided to "remove Saddam, through military action" is still creating a stir among administration critics. They are portraying it as evidence that Mr. Bush was intent on war with Iraq earlier than the White House has acknowledged.
Eighty-nine House Democrats wrote to the White House to ask whether the memorandum, first disclosed by The Sunday Times on May 1, accurately reported the administration's thinking at the time, eight months before the American-led invasion. The letter, drafted by Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said the British memorandum of July 23, 2002, if accurate, "raises troubling new questions regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity of your own administration."
It has long been known that American military planning for the Iraq war began as early as Nov. 21, 2001, after President Bush directed Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld to begin a review of what would be required to oust Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi leader. By July 2002, the war planning was sufficiently advanced that newspaper accounts that month reported details of some of what was being considered.
On Aug. 26, 2002, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared before the Veterans of Foreign Wars to warn that "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction" and that "there is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, our allies and against us."
But Congress did not vote until Oct. 16, 2002, to authorize Mr. Bush to go to war in Iraq. The White House has always insisted that Mr. Bush did not finally decide to carry out the invasion of March 2003 until after Secretary of State Colin L. Powell presented the administration's case to the |
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