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The Smoking Bullet in the Smoking Gun: Bush Began Iraq Invasion
in 2002
After the Downing Street Memo: The Case for Impeachment Builds
Son of Antiwar State Senator Becky Lourey Killed in Iraq
The Smoking Bullet in the Smoking Gun: Bush Began
Iraq Invasion in 2002
Democracy Now correspondent Jeremy Scahill reports on new
documents that show President Bush began the invasion of Iraq
more than half a year before Shock and Awe was launched. [includes
rush
transcript]
Writing in The
Nation magazine, Democracy Now! correspondent Jeremy Scahill
reports on Washington's undeclared air war against Iraq in
2002:
"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."
After the Downing Street Memo: The Case for Impeachment
Builds
The fallout from the revelation of a secret meeting between
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his senior national
security team appears to be growing. We take a look at the
so-called "Downing Street Memo" which reveals how
the former director of the British intelligence agency, MI6,
told Prime Minister Tony Blair that the U.S. had already made
plans to attack Iraq as early as July 2002. [includes rush
transcript]
It was marked "Secret and strictly personal - UK eyes
only." That was the header of the Downing Street memo
that exposed a meeting in July 2002 between British Prime
Minister Tony Blair and his senior national security team.
The text to the minutes of the secret briefing was published
by the Sunday
Times of London last month.
In the briefing Richard Dearlove, then-director of the British
intelligence agency, MI 6 - told Blair that the U.S. had already
made plans to attack Iraq. According to the leaked minutes,
Dearlove said the US attack would be "justified by the
conjunction of terrorism and WMD." He went on to say
"the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the
policy." Though the revelation of the so-called Downing
Street memo initially saw very little attention from the mainstream
U.S media, calls for a full investigation, have gained momentum.
89 House members have called on President Bush to answer questions
surrounding the memo; Representative John Conyers is in the
process of collecting 100,000 signatures demanding that the
president address the accuracy of the document.
And Last week, former presidential candidate Senator John
Kerry told the Massachusetts Standard Times newspaper that
he will be raising the issue of the memo when he returns to
Washington this week. He went on to say, "I think it's
a stunning unbelievably simple and understandable statement
of the truth and a profoundly important document that raises
stunning issues here at home. And it's amazing to me the way
it escaped major media discussion. It's not being missed on
the Internet, I can tell you that."
Since the Downing Street memo revelations, more evidence
has come out showing that the U.S and the Royal Air force
increased their air strikes on Iraq in the months preceding
the invasion in order to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving
the allies an excuse for war.
- Jeremy Scahill, Producer and Correspondent, Democracy
Now.
- Hans Von Sponeck, former Assistant Secretary General of
the United Nations. In the late 1990s, he was the coordinator
of the United Nations Humanitarian Mission in Iraq.
- John Bonifaz, lawyer and author of the book "Warrior
King: The Case For Impeaching George W. Bush." He is
also co-founder of afterdowningstreet.org
which is a coalition of various groups urging Congress to
begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush
has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the
Iraq war.
Son of Antiwar State Senator Becky Lourey Killed
in Iraq
We speak with Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey whose
son died in Iraq two weeks ago when his helicopter was brought
down near Baquba. Lourey was a leading opponent in her state
of the invasion of Iraq. In March 2003, she authored an antiwar
resolution signed by eighteen other state senators.
Last month in Iraq, 80 US soldiers died, making it the deadliest
month for the US military since January. That brought the
official number of Americans killed since March 2003 to more
than 1,660. Among those killed in the last two weeks were
two soldiers who died when their helicopter was brought down
near the resistance stronghold of Baquba.
The pilot of that helicopter was on his second tour of duty
in Iraq. He was 40 year-old Matt Lourey from Minnesota. He
happened to be the son of Minnesota State Senator Becky Lourey,
who was a leading opponent in her state of the invasion of
Iraq. In March 2003, she authored an antiwar resolution signed
by eighteen other state senators. Before she introduced the
resolution, Lourey consulted her son Matt and he told her,
"You absolutely have my permission, Mom. Freedom of speech
is imperative."
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
Ana Nogueira, Elizabeth Press, Jeremy Scahill and Parvez Sharma.
Mike Di Filippo is our engineer.
Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Johnny Sender, Rich Kim, Joe Murgio, John Randolph,
Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Eric Rweyemamu,
Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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