May 15, 2005

News Over There, Not Over Here

Finally, the US Media is beginning to pay attention to the war documents released by the British government. Michael Getler, of the Washington Post, was the first to break through the main stream media's coverage of the story yesterday, followed by an editorial by Paul Krugman of the New York Times today. Getler's piece in particular, looks at the story with some astonishment, asking why there has been a media blackout of the story in the United States. His article is the closest the main stream media has come so far, in reporting the truth - of the most incindiary kind. "Intelligence was fixed around the policy" of an illegal invasion of Iraq. The second most explosive piece of information came from an "unnamed former senior US official" who is quoted as saying the account of the senior British Intelligence officer's visit to Washington as "an absolutely accurate description of what transpired." These two statements could mean the beginning of the end for the Bush administration.

Why This Story Is So Critically Important

As a result of ignorance, Sen. John McCain has come out today on CNN as saying he disagrees with the "memo." Well, that's like me saying I disagree that sunrise follows sunset. Senator McCain may be suffering the effects of the media blackout that has been going on for quite a while. But that does not explain why most Americans are unaware of the story, or that the "memo" can not be disputed, having been released from Downing Street and Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Reading Getler's piece today reveals why so few people are outraged over the evidence of a crime we have all known about for years. To begin with, the left, right, and center have minimized and confused the story by calling the Downing Street war documents "a memo." The set (so far) is actually five pieces of damning incontrovertable evidence. BBC transcript; minutes of a war council attended by attorney general, prime minister's closest aide, intelligence minister, defence minister, and staff.; Goldsmith's March 7 legal ruling on the illegality of the Iraq war; the March 17 final ruling that further UN Resolutions were not necessary and the invasion would proceed; and the Civil Defence report that is the "cooked intelligence."

Evidence In Plain Sight

The story concerning the Downing Street documents first broke with the BBC on March 20, 2005. The leaked documents were released over a three week period. First Lord Peter Goldsmith's March 7, 2003 opinion on the illegality of war in Iraq ws released on the 25th of April. Then on May 1, 2005 the Sunday Times did an intel dump -- the minutes of a July 2002 war council meeting, the Goldsmith ruling, the March 17 war declaration, and the Civil Defense report.

The effect of these documents on the British elections? It brought about the demise of Tony Blair. The tide was turned when families of 10 British soldiers killed in Iraq, confronted Blair face to face. They charged him with war crimes -- that their sons had died in an illegal war, and Blair was to blame for leading their country into an illegal war. That case is being brought by the bereaved families before the International Criminal Court. Tony Blair's political career is finished. Baroness Morgan, who co-authored, with Lord Falkoner the final Iraq invasion ruling on the 17th of March, has resigned from government. One Labour party minister said, "Tony Blair has become a liability."

News Over Here, Not Over There

There is no excuse for any American not knowing this story. No excuse for Sen. McCain, no excuse for the New York Times, no excuse for the Washington Post, no excuse for dKossacks either. This story comes from the BBC world news service, the evidence has been released from the British government.Any American who is unaware of this story and its import is unaware because they have blinders on. American foreign policy for the last 5 years has reflected the attitude that the rest of the world, its news reporting, its leaders and its people do not exist, do not matter. This attitude is nowhere so blatant that in Bush and Co's disregard for the United Nations, the International Criminal Court, the Geneva Conventions, and international humanitarian law.

US Diplomacy of Brutality

In this case, Sen. McCain's pleading ignorance was disingenious. Ignorance, arrogance, and disrespect has been the foundation of American foreign policy for the last five years. If anyone read and understood this story it would be the end of John Bolton, for starters. Who else is implicated? John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzales, Bybee, Haynes, Condoleezza Rice and John Bolton. And there are loads of documents not yet uncovered

The contrasts between the UK and the US are revealed dramatically in the coverage or non-coverage of this story. In Britain, a free press and a government accountable to its people, corrupt leaders shamed and forced to stand down from government. In the United States censorship of the news, a public that accepts a corrupt government and an illegal war, and representatives in government like Sen. McCain, who plead ignorance, and who explain away the Iraq war as a "massive failure of intelligence," which means, again, ignorance -- of which Sen. McCain should not be proud.

Who Will Stop This War?

All the evidence of war crimes is laid out for judicial review, and, thanks to the BBC and the Sunday Times, for the inspection and review before the court of public opinion. But nothing, no bombshell memorandum, no tabloid headlines, no amount of media or academic attention has had the impact of the grief wracked faces of the bereaved families of the military dead. Ten families have changed the course of the British government, the course of history in the illegal war in Iraq, and ultimately the fate of the Bush administration. For more about this story I refer you to the website of one of those family members, Reg Keys who campaigned against Blair in the May 5 election. The story of the minutes and release of the Goldsmith opinon is all there, too.

There are some true heroes in this story; and some criminal geniuses who conceived of and continue to spread the crime of illegal war in Iraq. There are some very honourable people who serve in the military; and there are some who have resigned rather than take part in war crimes including conscientious objectors. But of all the players in this drama of war and corruption, heroism and cold-blooded insane murder, the ones who have the most power to bring about change and bring a stop to this war are, in fact, "the least among you." My heartfelt gratitude goes to Bereaved Military Families, and to all the families who have lost men, women, and children in this insane, and criminal war.



(Source:
Keys for Sedgefield:
http://www.keysforsedgefield.org.uk/press/Iraq_War_Parents.h
tml

Military Families Against the War:
http://www.mfaw.org.uk/ )


Courtesy and copyright of Grace Reid