McDermott/Downing St Memo

(Click to enlarge - taken today by Slugbug at Seattle Labor Temple - see http://www.downingstreet.org, http://www.democracycellproject.net, http://www.backbonecampaign.net for companion story)

I'll also reprint it here.

Jim McDermott: Seattle Labor Temple

Greetings!

I was unable to blog directly from the Labor Temple but kept my eyes and ears open & rushed home via the first bus possible, to upload my photos & get on-line! (I'll also be posting at http://www.democracycellproject.net, http://www.backbonecampaign.org & http://www.silencedmajority.blogs.com)

I had always intended to read the Downing Street Memo in full but hadn't completed the task, so the skit - sponsored by the Backbone Campaign - was stunning in its overt plotting behind the backs of the British & American people. The readers wore the costumes and nametags of Jack Straw, Geoff Hoon and other British dignitaries/neocons & Tony Blair was played by a puppet that looked like something between a poodle and a lamb.

I was sitting in the front row between a guy from Vets for Peace/ Washington Truth in Recruiting & a guy who was scaring the heck out of me with conspiracy theoriees. To my left, really close up, was the familiar face of Congressman Jim McDermott. He's familiar because he's from my district, he was in Fahrenheit 9/11, I've voted for him many times, & I was not surprised to see that he was reading the New York Times.

Bill Moyer of the Backbone Campaign introduced Jim and mentioned that he was the first recipient of the Backbone Award (there are also Spinless Awards). When Jim accepted the invitation, he didn't check with his scheduling people - he just said yes, he'd be glad to speak.

When Congressman McDermott was going to return to Iraq on a fact-finding mission (he had been there multiple times before, investigating depleted uranium effects after the lst Gulf War), he first met in Washington DC with the Ambassador to Iraq. He was told that even if Saddam let the weapons inspectors back in, it was expected that Bush would go into Iraq regardless. This was in September of 2002. The war started in March of 2003. Now the Downing Street Memo proves that what McDermott heard was true.

At that time, in September of 2002, Jim decided to call a press conference to let it be known that the President would mislead us into war. A month later, Jim went to Iraq and was asked by George Stephanopolous whether he still believed this. He said yes, knowing full well that if he didn't,
they'd pull out his statement from a month before. This unleashed an assault from the rightwing press such as FOX and Limbaugh and earned him the moniker "Bagdad Jim."

Yet he points out that if the American people had really known and absorbed the truth, we would never have gone to war! Absolute untruths were first told on the floor of the House, then by the President to the people in the form of the State of the Union Address.

Thanks to Ambassador Joe Wilson's piece in the New York Times, the truth was told about the Niger/uranium claim. This unleashed another full-scale assault, this time on both Wilson and his wife.

Recently, Jim sat with retired CIA officers who are very unhappy about the fact that an officer's identity has been "outed" and that the President won't protect agents. This creates a dire emergency and lowers morale. On top of that, there is the matter of Rove, who if "convicted" will probably lose his position rather than going to prison like anyone else would. Jim believes that Judith Miller is probably sitting in prison because she is protecting someone.

Then there is the matter of the Vets. Did the government ever think ahead when rushing to war? & what about the 25,000+ Iraqis killed? The administration now admits we may be in Iraq for 12 years or more. "America is not safer. The Republicans refuse to admit it."

Jim then produced his folder copy of the New York Times and reminded us that today, "everything above the fold is about terrorism" and that more terrorism was unleashed by starting this war. As we know, the American military has the power to bomb but what do they do once the bombing stops? We seem to have turned Iraq into another training ground, like Afghanistan was. This is a democracy?!

Almost half of the Iraqi Parliament signed a letter asking us to end the Occupation, much as in our country, Congressman Conyers did something similar. The US government says we can't leave til they ask us to leave, but then when they do, we can't explain how we will leave or why we are building
four full military bases there.

There will be an "Out of Iraq Caucus" with as many as 60 members, probably having a hearing in September. The focus will be ways to extricate ourselves from Iraq, which we need a plan to do. Of course it can't be sudden, with so many there. Jim also informed us that yesterday there was an amendment to a bill in Congress which gives us more of a "blank check" for staying in Iraq.

He compared it to the old West, where we had forts all over the Indian territory, only now it's throughout the middle east. He reminded us that Vietnam War was stopped because of people power, and that democracy, as Churchill said, is not an orderly form of government. We need to organize, to support Barbara Lee's letter of Inquiry which is the first step. We need information and we need a very good case, for cleaning up the mess in Washington.

Comments

[karen]

Hey DiAnne,

I just got back from seeing "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" with my son--it was both his reward for his great photography today as well as an escape from the heat of the afternoon.

So your story is here and the pics are great, as usual, and thank you for all you do!

[oncall]

You are so fortunate to have a Congressman with a brain. I am stuck with Henry Hyde. Soon that should change. We are mobilizing to replace him with Christine Cegelis

[not my president]

Thanks for hitting our blog - come check it out anytime!
It's cool that we did this Downing Street thing coast to coast & I hope it's the start of an inquiry that leads logically to where it needs to go - housecleaning!

[DiAnne]

Video Special: Downing Street Memo Teach-In | Part I: The Case Against Bush
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm
t r u t h o u t was in Los Angeles where Congresswoman Maxine Waters led a teach-in that included actor and activist Mike Farrell, Reverend Jim Lawson and Fernando Suarez Del Solar. We will be posting video clips from the event throughout the week.

Overflow Crowds Mark Anniversary of Downing Street Memo
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072405A.shtml
Hundreds of people were turned away yesterday as capacity crowds packed public forums in US cities to discuss the Downing Street Memo and related evidence that President Bush lied about the reasons for war.

[not my president]

Someone asked if yesterday's Downing Street Memo events were getting much publicity - I did a Google News Search and it's pathetic. Coverup!!

main outlets:
SF Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, Oakland Tribune.

Here are some of the outlets that reported on the events of yesterday or mentioned them - mostly small and obscure:

The Argus (CA), Montclarion, American Chronicle, Uruknet (Italy), Kansas City InfoZine, Contra Costa Times, Political Affairs Magazine, Louisville Counter Journal, KESQ (CA), Common Dreams, Poughskeepie Journal, Dissident Voice, Daily Review On-Line, Oakland Tribune, One World net, Eunweb, Waldo Village Soup, OpEd News, Pacifica Radio, the New American, SitNews (ARK), Washington Date Line, Scoop, BuzzFlash (Turd Blossom Baloney Distracting From Downing Street Memo), People's Weekly World, CounterPunch, InfoShop, Mother Jones.

The Wall Street Journal called it the "so-called Downing Street Memo."

Most of the news searches say "11 related" or "16 related."

Sad - it's like when 11 million of us worldwide protested simultaneously against rushing into a calamitous and morally wrong war and were ignored.

Still, the Downing Street Memo is real and the death caused by the miscalculations and deceitfulness are real. We have to do this.