Protest draws attention to [Downing Street] memo

[lostnfound]

Protest draws attention to memo;
The "Downing Street Memo" indicates an agreement on invading Iraq in July 2002.
http://sptimes.com/2005/06/03/Hillsborough/Protest_draws_attenti.shtml

TAMPA - Just a stone's throw away from a life-size gorilla dressed in military fatigues was another oddity along Kennedy Boulevard Thursday - people protesting about a memo.

"Did you get the memo?" read the fliers. "Air the truth!" said a poster held by retired Air Force Lt. Col. Joseph F. Bohren, outside the WTVT-Ch. 13 studios with about 10 others.

They were there because of what has become known as the "Downing Street Memo," minutes from a meeting between Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers on July 23, 2002, at No. 10 Downing St., published May 1 by the Sunday Times of London . The minutes indicate that the United States and Britain had agreed to invade Iraq by the summer of 2002 - months before President George W. Bush asked Congress for permission to engage in military action.

<...>

"If what's in these minutes is accurate, and we have been given no reason to doubt that, then it would appear that the president has committed high crimes, specifically lying to the American public and Congress and engaging in a conspiracy with his administration," said David Dawson, a Washington organizer for the Web site AfterDowningStreet.org, which has reproduced the memo.

<...more >

**********
Send thanks to Kevin Graham at [e-mail] for covering the story. Please be nice. This newspaper can be our friend.. ;) It's independent. I'm hopeful that there will be more to come.

[wicket]

1. This one's for you, Lt. Col. Joseph F. Bohren!

:patriot: :kick:

[leftchick]

2. St. Pete Times is a great newspaper!

This is excellent!!

:woohoo:

[Coexist]

3. I love the Times - it's "my" paper

and they said MINUTES!!!!!!

[UpInArms]

4. kicking for the truth to come out!

:kick:

[goclark]

5. Wow! That is great!! Let's keep rolling!!!

[bunny planet]

6. That's my paper. I love them.

Way to go St.Pete Times.

[Supersedeas]

15. I'll second that!!!

[Hissyspit]

7. I need to remember to go check St. Pete Times more often. nt

[KurtNYC]

8. Let 1000 Deep Throats bloom!

[rockedthevoteinMA]

9. So yahoo is covering it, the star tribune, NPR, and sptimes?

:woohoo: :woohoo:

[babylonsister]

11. And don't forget Bangor!

Administration's Offenses Impeachable
by Bangor Daily News Staff 6/2/2005, Bangor Daily News

<snip>

"It was all a lie. Many of us have said for a long time it was a lie. But here it is in black and white: Lies from a president who has taken a sacred trust to uphold the Constitution of the United States.

"So, what does it mean? It means that our president and all of his administration are war criminals. It's as simple as that. They lied to the American people, have killed and injured and traumatized thousands of American men and women doing their patriotic duty, killed at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians, destroyed Iraq's infrastructure and poisoned its environment, squandered billions and billions of our tax dollars, made a mockery of American integrity in the world, changed the course of history, tortured Iraqi prisoners, and bound us intractably to an insane situation that they have no idea how to fix because they had no plan, but greed and empire, in the first place."

What does it mean? It means that everyone in this administration should be impeached." <snip>

http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=114420

[rockedthevoteinMA]

14. Just read that one on the other thread in GD.

Someone posted that the BDN is not a liberal paper...
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3777126#3777384

[babylonsister]

17. That's even better! nt

[cthrumatrix]

12. corp media is STAYING AWAY.... tooooo hottttttttttttt

[MzShellG]

24. Is it fear? Or...

Is the corporate media a part of the coverup? The mind ponders.

[lady lib]

10. Now that's speaking truth to power

:applause:

[Supersedeas]

27. if only that could become more commonplace !!!

[Dhalgren]

13. Man, thank the gods for everyone out there who would not let

this story die. Every day it seems that more and more coverage of these "minutes" is popping up. I hate to get my hopes up, but damn it, there they go...

[calimary]

20. Well, we can't be complacent now.

Do by all means get your hopes up. And then BACK THEM UP WITH ACTION!!!

This commentary in the Bangor, Maine, newspaper, is a HUMDINGER. It could be quoted EASILY because it's FILLED with talking points in case you think you might get tongue-tied when you...

CALL YOUR REPS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OR, when you...

CALL YOUR MEDIA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Honest to God, if they think you don't care, THEY WON'T, EITHER!!!

And BTW: WHEN (not if, dare I be so presumptuous... :D ) you call your reps, ESPECIALLY IF THEY VOTED FOR THE WAR: Give them the following:

"All you have to say to your constituents to get you off the hook, and being COMPLETELY TRUTHFUL ABOUT IT, which EVERYONE WOULD UNDERSTAND, is to explain in TEN (10) simple words: 'BECAUSE I TRUSTED MY PRESIDENT. AND HE LIED TO ME.' "

When you exhort your reps tp begin impeachment proceedings, give them that. It's a face-saving way out, and it also just happens to be the truth. They went along with him because they believed what he said. And in the post-9/11 climate in this country, they wanted to give him EVERY benefit of the doubt. They thought it was their patriotic duty. They were DUPED, BETRAYED, and LIED TO.

[progressivebydesign]

16. Maybe this is what we have to do to get the media to notice!

Dress up like a gorilla? hey, if it works.

[lostnfound]

22. No, no..the gorilla is unrelated to the protest.

I think there was some underlying symbolism there, but the gorilla wasn't a protester.

[OnionPatch]

18. Good on the St. Pete Times

It's a great paper. I lived in St. Pete for ten years and read it every day. I miss that paper.

[lonestarnot]

19. Woohoo! Power to the PEOPLE!

[ET Awful]

21. The SP Times learned long ago not to be afraid to report the truth

After all the threats and harrassment they've gone through at the hands of the Church of Scientology (who all but own the whole neighboring town of Clearwater), they've learned not to be intimidated in reporting the truth.

I always got a chuckle out of the whole name "SP Times" too, since Scientologists call their enemies "SP" or "Suppressive Persons".

That paper has been through the ringer to print the truth before, and I don't think they'll stop now.

[Seabiscuit]

23. Don't forget Poland!

Are there any Warsaw new outlets covering the Downing Street Memo?

[yorkiemommie1]

25. My Ltte re: Downing St. Memo

"might be published" in LA Times Monday. It's short and sarcastic but that's all I could produce in the rush to get ready for work.

They just called me.

I was vastly irritated that they put a fluff piece re: Tom Cruise and his new gf on the EDITORIAL page so I wrote and told them so:


_____
"Did you REALLY mean to put this fluff on the editorial page? This junk belongs in the tabloids, not on the editorial page of a major newspaper.

How about talking more about the Downing Street memo of July 2002? This document has world shattering implications.

Oh. Wait. Maybe that is exactly why the fluff appeared on your
editorial page. Another red herring to distract us."


should have said MINUTES... i'll have to hit them again.

____

[defiant1]

26. Did he actually say that?? With a straight face??

"In terms of the intelligence ... if anyone wants to know how the intelligence was used by the administration, all they have to do is go back and look at all the public comments over the course of the leadup to the war in Iraq, and that's all very public information. Everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence," McClellan said.

(Hmmm....I wonder if he's referring to those public comments about W.M.Distractions, Al-Qaeda ties, and yellowcake.)

"And in terms of the intelligence, it was wrong, and we are taking steps to correct that and make sure that in the future we have the best possible intelligence, because it's critical in this post-Sept. 11th age, that the executive branch has the best intelligence possible," he said.

Oh, he was. So he admits that the intelligence that cost the US 1600 lives(and counting), tens of thousands of Iraqi CIVILIAN lives(and counting), and over 200 billion dollars(and counting) was WRONG. I know accountablity and repubs go together like oil and water, but this is just ridiculous.

:banghead:

[BigBearJohn]

28. RECOMMENDED - thanks for the thread!!!!