Downing Street MemoGate

On May 1, 2005, a highly confidential memo of minutes of a July 23,2002 meeting was leaked to the Times of London. The memo recorded a meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair; Richard Dearlove, head of the British intelligence service; and other British intelligence and military chiefs. On June 12, 2005, additional, related British memos were leaked.

The memos are named after 10 Downing Street, official home of the British Prime Minister, where the July 23, 2002 meeting was held.

Neither George Bush nor Tony Blair, nor any of their representatives, have denied the authenticity of the minutes and memos known as the Downing Street Memos.

The US press hesitated to report the May 1, 2005 leaking of these documents due to authenticity concerns. Of course, Dan Rather, former CBS anchor, suffered great embarrassment in 2004 when he reported on documents later found to be fraudulent. In mid June 2005, the Downing Street Memo disclosures became US headlines.

In October 2002, Congress relied on Bush warnings of WMDs in Iraq when passing legislation granting him the authority to wage war on Iraq. Congress urged, but did not require, UN approval for war. Iraqi leader Hussein was portrayed as an imminent threat to US security.

In November 2002, the UN passed a resolution on the matter, but did not specifically authorize a US strike on Iraq. Instead, the UN continued to inspect for WMDs.

The US and Britain first attacked Iraq in March 2003.

In May, Rep John Conyers (D-MI)submitted a letter to President Bush signed by 94 House members requesting answers to 5 questions about Downing Street Memo disclosures. (See questions below.)

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said that there is "no need" to respond to the letter.

On June 16, Conyers will hold an unofficial hearing into this matter. Unofficial because no Republicans will attend, and House Republicans refuse to schedule a formal hearing.

In addition to 94 US House members, 500,000 American citizens have signed Rep John Conyers, Jr's letter to President Bush. The 5 questions asked in the letter were.....

1. Do you or anyone in your administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked documents?

2. Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies. before you sought Congressional authorization to go to war? Did you or anyone in your administration obtain Britian's commitment to invade prior to this time?

3. Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war, as the minutes indicate?

4. At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?

5. Was there a coordinated effort with the US intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?

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