Cabinet 'not told of secret war plans'

[cal04]

Robin Cook and Clare Short have revealed that the Cabinet were kept in the dark about secret plans to prepare Britain for war in Iraq.The former ministers said a leaked Pentagon document obtained by the Evening Standard had underlined their belief that Tony Blair agreed an invasion with George Bush well before the conflict.

Their remarks came as Tory leader Michael Howard for the first time accused the Prime Minister of lying to the nation over the war and the intelligence that drove it.

The leaked Pentagon paper showed that British and American commanders took part in a highlevel planning conference in June 2002.
Labour MP Alice Mahon said she would try to raise the Evening Standard's revelations in today's debate on Iraq at the party conference in Brighton.


In a further controversial disclosure, the document - a Pentagon chronology prepared for US defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld - also reveals that Israel was involved in the preparation process from an early stage.

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/13506454?source=Evening%20Standard

[OKNancy]

1. Wes Clark

Remember when so many ridiculed Clark for saying his friends in the Pentagon told him that plans were underway to attack Iraq? Whenever he said that, people like Wolf Blitzer would sneer.

[unfrigginreal]

4. Clark could have been a hero had he said it when he found out about it.

Instead, he sat on that information until he decided to run for President.

[cal04]

2. Britain confirms Australia involved in early war planning

Britain has confirmed Australia was invited to take part in planning for war shortly after British and US military officials started preparations nine months before Iraq was invaded.

The Evening Standard reported that orders to prepare military operations were given on October 7, 2002, more than a month before UN resolution 1441 which issued Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein with a final warning to disarm.

The paper said full battle plans were issued on October 31, eight days before Resolution 1441 and a month before arms inspectors resumed work in Iraq.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3596223&thesection=news&thesubsection=world

[rooboy]

6. For some reason this story hasn't taken off in Australia...

but I suspect if the heat gets turned up on Blair, the local press will start to go after Howard for answers.

Shit, we're only 10 days away from a Federal election...

[acmavm]

3. Old Tony is sure being shown for he lying sack of shit he is. Now why

in the world does this matter to the Brits, while the fact that the biggest liars in the Iraqi mess run this country and get away with it?

I know I phrased this poorly, but my frigging dogs were on the warpath all night and I can't get with it.

[Demit]

5. "why does this matter to the Brits?" Uh, maybe they care about their

country? What is it you are trying to say? That they should only care about what happens in the US?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

8. It matters to the Brits because they had people get killed and maimed....

...in this illegal and unnecessary war, too.

[gratuitous]

15. I think acmavm was asking

Why is the Blair government's deceptiveness being aired and discussed openly in Great Britain while the Bush administration's greater deceptiveness continues to be elided by the media here in this country?

[UpInArms]

7. was this the mission of the OSP?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,999737,00.html

excerpt:

The agency, called the Office of Special Plans (OSP), was set up by the defence secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, to second-guess CIA information and operated under the patronage of hardline conservatives in the top rungs of the administration, the Pentagon and at the White House, including Vice-President Dick Cheney.

The ideologically driven network functioned like a shadow government, much of it off the official payroll and beyond congressional oversight. But it proved powerful enough to prevail in a struggle with the State Department and the CIA by establishing a justification for war.

<snip>

Mr Gingrich visited Langley three times before the war, and according to accounts, the political veteran sought to browbeat analysts into toughening up their assessments of Saddam's menace.

Mr Gingrich gained access to the CIA headquarters and was listened to because he was seen as a personal emissary of the Pentagon and, in particular, of the OSP.

In the days after September 11, Mr Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, mounted an attempt to include Iraq in the war against terror. When the established agencies came up with nothing concrete to link Iraq and al-Qaida, the OSP was given the task of looking more carefully.

William Luti, a former navy officer and ex-aide to Mr Cheney, runs the day-to-day operations, answering to Douglas Feith, a defence undersecretary and a former Reagan official.

...more...

[randome]

9. "Israel was involved"?

Wow. Who could have seen that coming?

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. So it was the 'coalition of the willing'

'plus the shady background partner who we can't admit to'? Wow, this will go down well in Iraq, won't it?

[Eloriel]

14. Confirms what I said last night

in another thread, that we're now in the position of fighting Israel's proxy war(s). ANYone who at this point doesn't get it that directly or indirectly Israel has far too much influence (if not control!) over U.S. foreign policy is just being intentionally obtuse.

AMAZING revelation, just amazing.

[Supersedeas]

11. secret war -- Democracy in Action

[BadGimp]

12. Kerry has Bush in a Lie here

Bush and his misadminastration had long before the announcment been actively and comprehensively been planning for the invasion. And this was not "just in case" level of planning.

Bush sad repeatedly when asked if he had made up his mind, that he had not, when in fact the decision had already been made. This is a lie and Kerry should call him on it.

[gratuitous]

16. Yes, Bush lied repeatedly

And the media let him get away with it. In one story, they would report on the massive numbers of troops, ships, planes, and other materiel being massed in the no-fly zones, Kuwait, Turkey, and the waters around Iraq. Right after that, they'd go to some clip of Bush saying that he hadn't made up his mind yet on whether or not he was going to invade -- it was all up to Saddam and whether he'd disarm, or allow inspections, or give up the weapons of mass destruction that Bush "knew" he had and was hiding.

Gee, 250,000 troops massed on the perimeter of Iraq. Ya think we're gonna use 'em? I dunno, Wally; George keeps saying he hasn't made up his mind. Impossible to say, really. Ha-yuk, ha-yuk.

[BadGimp]

13. Kerry has Bush in a Lie here

Bush and his misadminastration had long before the announcment been actively and comprehensively been planning for the invasion. And this was not "just in case" level of planning.

Bush sad repeatedly when asked if he had made up his mind, that he had not, when in fact the decision had already been made. This is a lie and Kerry should call him on it.

[KoKo]

17. The American Media already knew this, maybe that's why Protestors were

not covered. They knew it was a "done deal" so why bother covering those folks who marched to stop this Invasion. Who cared...we were Invading anyway. Novak, Russert, Judith Miller, all the rest of the "stovepipes" knew.