From the Online Edition of The Independent:
Revealed: documents show Blair's secret plans for war
PM decided on conflict from the start. Blair told war illegal in March 2002. Latest leak confirms Goldsmith doubtsBy Raymond Whitaker, Andy McSmith and Francis Elliott
01 May 2005
Tony Blair had resolved to send British troops into action alongside US forces eight months before the Iraq War began, despite a clear warning from the Foreign Office that the conflict could be illegal.
A damning minute leaked to a Sunday newspaper reveals that in July 2002, a few weeks after meeting George Bush at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, Mr. Blair summoned his closest aides for what amounted to a council of war. The minute reveals the head of British intelligence reported that President Bush had firmly made up his mind to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, adding that "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy".
At the same time, a document obtained by this newspaper reveals the Foreign Office legal advice given to Mr. Blair in March 2002, before he traveled to meet Mr. Bush at his Texas ranch. It contains many of the reservations listed nearly a year later by the Attorney General in his confidential advice to the Prime Minister, which the Government was forced to publish last week, including the warning that the US government took a different view of international law from Britain or virtually any other country.
Think about what we are talking about here. Since long before the war, many believed that the Bush administration was trumping up a weak case for an unnecessary war, but the degree to which that is slowing revealing itself to be true is utterly shocking.
July of 2002 puts us 8 month out from invasion. This makes clear that the "diplomatic course" was nothing more than a very effect propaganda campaign enacted upon the American public specifically and the rest of the world in general.
Let's go back and see what President Bush was saying in March of 2003, eight months after Tony Blair informed his government that President Bush had already decided on war, and as we stood on the brink of invasion.
...we have arrived at an important moment in confronting the threat posed to our nation and to peace by Saddam Hussein and his weapons of terror. In New York tomorrow, the United Nations Security Council will receive an update from the chief weapons inspector. The world needs him to answer a single question: Has the Iraqi regime fully and unconditionally disarmed, as required by Resolution 1441, or has it not?
Why is the President play acting? In this speech right here, we see the construction of the big lie. This is clearly meant to send the misleading message that the US is still following a course of diplomacy, but those attempts are being rebuffed by an armed and uncooperative Iraq. This is nonsense, and since the President has already decided to invade Iraq, any insinuation that war can be avoided is quite simply a lie.
Iraq's dictator has made a public show of producing and destroying a few missiles -- missiles that violate the restrictions set out more than 10 years ago. Yet, our intelligence shows that even as he is destroying these few missiles, he has ordered the continued production of the very same type of missiles.
Is this intelligence that was offered by Ahmed Chalabi, or is it intelligence that was offered by the operative known as "Hardball?"
The fact is Chalabi had his own agenda that happened to fit in nicely with the Bush Administrations intention to invade Iraq. Any information he provided turned out to be completely self serving and utterly incredible.
As for "Hardball," he was an Iraqi in the custody of German intelligence officials, who insisted that his statements were contradictory and unreliable, and they refused to accept the validity of any information he was providing. The Bush Administration however used this information by selectively accepting as fact the parts of his story that fit their predetermined policy of invasion.
Iraqi operatives continue to hide biological and chemical agents to avoid detection by inspectors. In some cases, these materials have been moved to different locations every 12 to 24 hours, or placed in vehicles that are in residential neighborhoods.
We know from multiple intelligence sources that Iraqi weapons scientists continue to be threatened with harm should they cooperate with U.N. inspectors. Scientists are required by Iraqi intelligence to wear concealed recording devices during interviews, and hotels where interviews take place are bugged by the regime.
These are not the actions of a regime that is disarming. These are the actions of a regime engaged in a willful charade. These are the actions of a regime that systematically and deliberately is defying the world. If the Iraqi regime were disarming, we would know it, because we would see it. Iraq's weapons would be presented to inspectors, and the world would witness their destruction. Instead, with the world demanding disarmament, and more than 200,000 troops positioned near his country, Saddam Hussein's response is to produce a few weapons for show, while he hides the rest and builds even more.
"With the world demanding disarmament..."
Let's be honest for a moment. The world may have been demanding disarmament, but they were not demanding invasion. The world agreed on principle that an armed Iraq is dangerous to the Middle East. The world agreed that if Saddam had weapons, he should rid himself of those weapons.
The world however was strongly against the invasion. The decisions of our European allies were strongly opposed by the citizens of those countries.
We know now that Iraq posed no risk. We now know that the entire spectacle of the US's diplomatic efforts were a complete deception.
Colin Powell was used as a puppet by this administration. He was put before the UN to argue the case for war based on misleading evidence that had been cherry picked by those in the administration with more access and clout.
They chose Colin Powell as Secretary of State knowing full well from the very beginning of the administration that the invasion was a go. They chose Powell because he was the most popular face in the Republican Party. They chose Powell because he was a hero among those in the middle who do not blindly follow republican dogma. They chose him knowing that he would be the one to make the case for war with Iraq. They chose him because of his association with the popularity of the first gulf war. They needed him so people would buy it.
Propaganda works. The public bought it.
If you can still somehow rationalize the deceit of the Bush administration, just look at this.
What you will find there are a few of documents that Judicial Watch received in a Freedom of Information Act document release relating to Vice-President Cheney's still secret energy task force.
Included in the documents are maps that had been drawn up dividing Iraq's oil fields in to numbered sectors. Also included you will find the maps companion form that explains what major companies around the world will have claim to each of the numbered sections.
This would explain why VP Cheney feels so compelled to keep the task force such a secret. Super Secret meetings on energy policy make no sense. If the meeting were really about energy policy, why would they need to be secret? Nearly anyone in the world could tell you that Oil Companies wanted to expand the areas in which they are allowed to drill, and they wanted less regulation when they did it.
That's no more of a secret than the fact that we border Canada.
If on the other hand, Dick Cheney is holding a meeting in which the major energy corporations are pre dividing the potential spoils of an invasion and occupation of Iraq, that would fall under National Security in a heartbeat. Future war plans get to stay secret.
Is there any other reason that requests for information and documentation about the VP's energy taskforce have been so forceful and completely stonewalled?
That leaves us with the perpetual question about this administration: What else are they hiding?
-The Oklahoma Hippy
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