Petition To Investigate Downing Street Memo - Please Sign
Congressman seeks 100,000 to sign letter on Downing Street memo inquiry
http://rawstory.com/aexternal/conyer...ing_street_527
A Michigan congressman has decided to take his case for an Iraq inquiry to the people.
Congressman John Conyers (D-MI) seeks to amass 100,000 signatures from U.S. citizens calling on President Bush for more answers about a 2002 meeting during which a senior British official said intelligence was "being fixed" to present a case for the Iraq war, RAW STORY has learned.
The congressman's office says Conyers hopes to present the letter to the President in person, in what may be a media event; they believe the letter could have a "viral effect" and spark new interest in the steps taken by the Bush Administration in the run-up to the Iraq war and the so-called "Downing Street Memo."
The memo, official minutes of a 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair, members of British intelligence MI-6 and various members of the Bush administration, noted that MI-6 director Richard Dearlove said, “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”
The following was posted on the Congressman's website; the petition is viewable here.
Conyers and eighty-eight other members of Congress issued a letter to the White House on May 5 requesting an explanation and answers to questions about whether the President misled Congress into voting for the Iraq war.
The White House has ignored the letter.
White House press secretary Scott said he had “no need to respond,” according to the New York Times.
Conyers has indicated that he may send a delegation to London to further investigate the memo.
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First, the memo appears to directly contradict the Administration's assertions to Congress and the American people that it would exhaust all options before going to war. According to the minutes, in July 2002, the Administration had already decided to go to war against Iraq.
Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere "failure" or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being "fixed" around the decision to go to war.
These are not routine questions within a partisan give and take. Under the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8), the Congress has the sole power to declare war. If the Executive Branch deceives the Congress in this duty, it represents an attack of our democracy of the most serious nature. These Constitutional questions are not going away and must be answered forthrightly and completely by this Administration.
I and 88 of my colleagues (that number is growing - more on that soon) asked the Administration to come clean about these troubling allegations. Our inquiries have been met with silence.
The press has also been negligent is giving this matter the attention it deserves.
I am committed to seeing this through until we get the answers we deserve. But I need your help.
The conventional wisdom, which unfortunately governs Washington's political discourse, hold that the American people have long ago made peace with the mistakes or deceptions which led us into war. Help me prove them all wrong. I want to show the White House, the Press and my congressional colleagues that nothing could be further from the truth.
That is why today I am giving you the opportunity to sign on to a letter asking the same questions of the President that now nearly 100 Members of Congress have asked. If I get at least 100,000 signatures on this, I will personally deliver the letter to the White House.
If you want to sign on to this letter, go to my website (www.johnconyers.com).
I also want you to know that I am exploring many, many avenues to get to the truth about this matter.
Thank you in advance for your help and assistance.
