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The Downing Street Memo Comes To Washington; Conyers Blasts
"Deafening Sound of Silence"
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till: New Documentary Uncovers
Evidence in 1955 Murder
The Downing Street Memo Comes To Washington; Conyers
Blasts "Deafening Sound of Silence"
We speak with Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) who is convening
a public hearing tomorrow in Washington on the so-called Downing
Street Memo and other newly released documents that he says
show the Bush administration's "efforts to cook the books
on pre-war intelligence." We also speak with former CIA
analyst Ray McGovern. [includes rush
transcript]
Tomorrow in Washington, Congressmember John Conyers of Michigan,
the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, will
convene a public
hearing on the so-called Downing Street Memo and other
newly released documents that Conyers says show the administration's
"efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence."
Conyers also says that he plans to raise new documents that
back up the accuracy of the Downing Streets memo, which is
actually the classified minutes of a July 2002 meeting of
Tony Blair and his senior advisers.
The minutes, which were published May 1 by the Sunday Times
of London, paint a picture of an administration that had already
committed to attacking Iraq, was manipulating intelligence
and had already begun intense bombing of Iraq to prepare for
the ground invasion. This was almost a year before the actual
invasion officially began. The minutes are from a July 23,
2002 briefing of Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national
security advisers by British intelligence chief Richard Dearlove.
The minutes contain an account of Dearlove's report that President
George W. Bush had decided to bring about "regime change"
in Iraq by military action; that the attack would be "justified
by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD" (weapons of
mass destruction); and that "the intelligence and facts
were being fixed around the policy."
Meanwhile, this past weekend, The Sunday Times of London
had another expose, showing that British cabinet members were
warned that the UK was committed to taking part in a US-led
invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way
of making it legal. The memo was written in advance of the
Downing Street meeting that produced the Downing Street Minutes.
Despite the explosive information in these documents, they
have received very little attention in the corporate media
in this country and Bush administration officials have only
been asked about it a handful of times. On June 7, after more
than a month of media silence, a reporter for the Reuters
news agency finally questioned President Bush and Tony Blair
on the Downing Street Memo.
- President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair, Joint news
conference, June 7, 2005.
The Conyers hearing is scheduled for tomorrow on Capitol
Hill but only today did Conyers announce that they would be
inside of the Capitol. Until this morning, they were scheduled
to take place at the Democratic National Committee because
the Republicans controlling the House Judiciary Committee
refused to permit the ranking Democratic Member, John Conyers,
to hold official hearings. Conyers now says he has managed
to get an official room.
Among those scheduled to testify tomorrow are former US ambassador
to Iraq, Joe Wilson, attorney John Bonifaz and parents of
soldiers killed in Iraq. The hearings will be followed by
a rally outside the White House tomorrow evening and a petition
with some half a million signatures will be delivered to the
White House, calling on Bush to answer questions on the memo.
- Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), tomorrow he will be convening
hearings on Capitol Hill on the Downing Street Minutes.
- Ray McGovern, 27-year career analyst with the CIA. During
the Reagan administration, he was the senior intelligence
briefer of then-Vice President George HW Bush. He is co-founder
of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity.
For more information go to: AfterDowningStreet.org
The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till: New Documentary
Uncovers Evidence in 1955 Murder
Half a century after Emmett Till's mutilated body was found
in a Mississippi river, investigators have unearthed his casket
and reopened the case. We play excerpts of a new documentary,
"The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till" that uncovers
new evidence in the case and we speak with the filmmaker,
Keith Beauchamp.
On June 1st of this year, 50 years after Emmett Till's mutilated
body was found in a Mississippi river, federal investigators
unearthed the teen's casket in search of clues in a murder
case that helped kindle the civil rights movement. Mississippi
prosecutors and the FBI have said DNA or other evidence might
help determine who killed the 14 year-old and whether anyone
still alive should be prosecuted.
In August of 1955, Till was abducted, beaten and shot near
Money, Mississippi after he allegedly whistled at a white
female store clerk. The clerk's husband, Roy Bryant, and his
half-brother, J.W. Milam, were tried and acquitted by an all-white
jury. The two later confessed to beating and shooting Till
in a magazine article. Both men have since died.
The U.S. Justice Department announced last year it would
reopen an investigation into Till's slaying, saying it was
triggered by several pieces of information including a documentary
by filmmaker Keith Beauchamp.
- "The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till", excerpt
of documentary.
- Keith Beauchamp, producer and director of "The Untold
Story of Emmett Louis Till."
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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