<<SNIP>>
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1647567,00.htmlDowning Street minutes that lasted for months
By Philippe Naughton, Times Online
It is not that often, we have to admit, that an item posted one night on Times Online is still getting hundreds of thousands of hits six weeks later, especially when what bloggers like to call 'the mainstream media' have largely ignored its existence.
But that is what happened to the now infamous secret Downing Street memo, posted on the site on May 1 alongside a story by Michael Smith of The Sunday Times.
And if the document has taken on a life of its own it is largely because of the bloggers and their web-savvy allies on the US Left. The memo is not actually a memo, but the minutes of a top-secret meeting in Downing Street on July 23, 2002, when Tony Blair gathered senior ministers and advisers for a briefing on the Iraq situation. Among those they heard from was Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of the UK foreign intelligency agency MI6, who was identified only as 'C'.
.....
Almost six weeks after its publication, "memogate" continues to pick up steam. Senators Kennedy and Kerry have waded in, as has the consumer advocate Ralph Nader, who suggested that the President should face impeachment for lying to the American people over the need for war in Iraq.
Just remember, you read it first in the "Times of London".
<</SNIP>>