Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq

[kpete]

Source: The Observer


Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of Iraq

* Jamie Doward, Gaby Hinsliff and Mark Townsend
* The Observer, Sunday 21 June 2009


A confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein.

The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action.

Bush told Blair the US had drawn up a provocative plan "to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover". Bush said that if Saddam fired at the planes this would put the Iraqi leader in breach of UN resolutions.

The president expressed hopes that an Iraqi defector would be "brought out" to give a public presentation on Saddam's WMD or that someone might assassinate the Iraqi leader. However, Bush confirmed even without a second resolution, the US was prepared for military action. The memo said Blair told Bush he was "solidly with the president"

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/21/iraq-inquiry-tony-blair-bush

[Davis_X_Machina]

1. Not new, not breaking...

...and in play on the BBC website since 2006, at least the U2 shoot-down scam.

Just reported that way.

(not blaming OP, blaming media...)

[shraby]

7. Yup, I read it a long time ago also..we tried to get it

in the news but weren't successful.

[time_has_come]

9. Actually, it is breaking news. Wrongly moved to GD, but oh well...

...mods are usually right, not this time though.

There is breaking news contained within the story, specifically the comments by Philippe Sands, the law professor who will be testifying at the inquiry.

[JackRiddler]

11. Is there a statute of limitations on crimes against humanity?

And if the New York Times were to run this story, it would be the first time they simply reported the facts (though after shutting out the "Downing Street minutes" for some time they did comment lamely and reluctantly after enough people complained).

[ixion]

2. so how much does it take... I mean, how much more evidence do you need?

That * wanted to illegally invade Iraq in an act of aggression is not news to those of us here on DU. How much more will it take, though, before a watershed happens and the neocon war criminals are held accountable?

[struggle4progress]

3. Bush and Blair discussed using American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war (2006)

The White House memo
Updated on 02 February 2006
By Gary Gibbon
Revealed: Bush and Blair discussed using American Spyplane in UN colours to lure Saddam into war
http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/politics/the+white+house+memo/161410

[Uncle Joe]

13. That's kind of like using a "false flag," isn't it?

I wonder where he got the idea?

[struggle4progress]

4. Bush 'plotted to lure Saddam into war with fake UN plane' (2006)

Bush 'plotted to lure Saddam into war with fake UN plane'
By Andy McSmith
Friday, 3 February 2006
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/bush-plotted-to-lure-saddam-into-war-with-fake-un-plane-465436.html

[indepat]

5. Kick to greatest page so more Duers will see: if only someone could clue me in as to why

the US continues to occupy a country invaded apparently as a matter of choice and without justification under international law, how much wiser the writer would be. :shrug:

[robinlynne]

6. This is one of the arguments in the book "Prosecuting George Bush for Murder".

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. OK, that's a war crime according to Nuremberg

What more is needed?

[time_has_come]

10. This is breaking news. A law professor who will testify at the inquiry writes an article....

...how is that not breaking news?

[peacetalksforall]

12. We have to rely on our counterparts in the UK going after Blair If the

reminder of the press in the UK goes silent, silence will occur here. Another task. Call/write your Senate/House representatives, including State. Think how much we paid for thier plotting. The only thing left is more detail, a timeline, and the players in the lines of command.

It's the barons, folks. Bush-Blair-Cheney are the political/government enablers for the barons. Their faces are the faces of the barons.

[Wilms]

14. .

[TacticalPeek]

15. Bush was trying to provoke war with Iraq as early as 2001, with Operation Desert Badger.

Operation Desert Badger, Bush trying to badger Saddam into war in 2001:

Although the assumption has been made that Operation Desert Badger mentioned by President Bush referred to "patrolling the no-fly zone over Iraq" or other such aerial missions, on January 14, 2004, NewsDirector.org points out in its conclusion that that might not be so: <5>

"Bart Laws writes from Beantown on Iraq policy:

"The Globe reported today that GW Bush, responding to former Sec. O'Neill's allegations about when the invasion of Iraq was first planned, said: 'In the initial stages of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with , and so we were fashioning policy along those lines. And then all of a sudden September the 11th hit.' That is not, in fact, what Bush said. The true quotation, as reported in the New York Times and played on radio and television, was as follows: 'And in the initial stages of the administration, as you might remember, we were dealing with desert badger or flyovers and fly-betweens and looks, and we were fashioning policy along those lines.'

"Why censor the President's remarks? This is actually a major news story, since we had never before heard of Operation Desert Badger. (I did a Lexis/Nexis search -- this is the first reference to it in at least the last five years.) Apparently Mr. Bush has revealed a heretofore secret military operation in Iraq that was going on in early 2000.

"Why would the Globe edit the President's statement to conceal this very important revelation? Also, though we had heard that flyovers were going on then, we had not previously heard about the fly-betweens. It is not clear that 'desert badger' refers to 'patrolling the no-fly zone,' as you reported. That conclusion is very likely incorrect, since desert badger doesn't sound like the code name for an aerial operation. Why not just report what the man actually said, rather than cleaning up his remarks to make him look like less of an idiot? Isn't it supposed to be your job to tell the truth?

"This desert badger thing is actually quite noteworthy, I think -- if reporters didn't just assume that Bush is moronic and out of touch with reality, they no doubt would have followed up to find out exactly what desert badger was all about. But they figure it was just a brain fart, so they clean it up for him. Hmm."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Operation_Desert_Badger

TPTB pay the media to not play up things like this.

[Senator]

16. K&R

[magellan]

17. 'The Other Bomb Drops' - The Nation, June 1, 2005

The Nation - article | posted June 1, 2005 (web only)
'The Other Bomb Drops'

Jeremy Scahill

It was a huge air assault: Approximately 100 US and British planes flew from Kuwait into Iraqi airspace. At least seven types of aircraft were part
of this massive operation, including US F-15 Strike Eagles and Royal Air Force Tornado ground-attack planes. They dropped precision-guided munitions
on Saddam Hussein's major western air-defense facility, clearing the path for Special Forces helicopters that lay in wait in Jordan. Earlier attacks
had been carried out against Iraqi command and control centers, radar detection systems, Revolutionary Guard units, communication centers and
mobile air-defense systems. The Pentagon's goal was clear: Destroy Iraq's ability to resist. This was war.

But there was a catch: The war hadn't started yet, at least not officially. This was September 2002--a month before Congress had voted to give
President Bush the authority he used to invade Iraq, two months before the United Nations brought the matter to a vote and more than six months before
"shock and awe" officially began.

At the time, the Bush Administration publicly played down the extent of the air strikes, claiming the United States was just defending the so-called
no-fly zones. But new information that has come out in response to the Downing Street memo reveals that, by this time, the war was already a
foregone conclusion and attacks were no less than the undeclared beginning of the invasion of Iraq.

The Sunday Times of London recently reported on new evidence showing that "The RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs
on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war." The paper cites newly released statistics from
the British Defense Ministry showing that "the Allies dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of
2001" and that "a full air offensive" was under way months before the invasion had officially begun.

more....http://www.thenation.com/doc/20050613/scahill

[magellan]

18. 'RAF bombing raids tried to goad Saddam into war' - Sunday Times UK, May 29, 2005

The Sunday Times (UK)
May 29, 2005

'RAF bombing raids tried to goad Saddam into war'
Michael Smith

THE RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the
allies an excuse for war, new evidence has shown.

The attacks were intensified from May, six months before the United Nations resolution that Tony Blair and Lord Goldsmith, the attorney-general, argued
gave the coalition the legal basis for war. By the end of August the raids had become a full air offensive.

snip

Geoff Hoon, then defence secretary, told the meeting that “the US had already begun ‘spikes of activity’ to put pressure on the regime”.

snip

Tommy Franks, the allied commander, has since admitted this operation was designed to “degrade” Iraqi air defences in the same way as the air attacks
that began the 1991 Gulf war.

more...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article527701.ece

[wildbilln864]

19. This was reffered to as the Manning Memo by Bugliosi...

on an interview he did. :shrug:
Manning memo proves Bush is guilty of murder