URGENT: House Investigation of Downing Street Minutes Nears Vote Deadline [View All]

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URGENT: House Investigation of Downing Street Minutes Nears Vote Deadline
http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m15099&l=i&size=1&hd=0

URGENT: House Investigation of Downing Street Minutes Nears Vote
Deadline

Rick Gagliano
August 26, 2005

Reported on Wednesday, August 24, by a meager number of media outlets
(a search on Google News produced all of ONE result, this, from
Political Affairs Magazine) Congressman Jim Leach (R) of Iowa has
become the first Republican to publicly announce that he would
cosponsor the bill (H. Res. 375) by representative Barbara Lee (D) of
California.

The bill, a resolution of inquiry, introduced by Lee in the House of
Representatives on July 20, 2005 and referred to the Committee on
International Relations on the same day, requests (quoting directly
from the bill), "the President and directing the Secretary of State
to transmit to the House of Representatives not later than 14 days
after the date of the adoption of this resolution all information in
the possession of the President and the Secretary of State relating
to communication with officials of the United Kingdom between January
1, 2002, and October 16, 2002, relating to the policy of the United
States with respect to Iraq."

The bill was originally co-sponsored by 25 other House members, all
Democrats. Since that time, another 28 have signed on as co-sponsors,
including Leach, who has previously been critical of the Bush
administration's policies on the War in Iraq.

The U. S. House of Representatives Committee on International
Relations is comprised of 50 members - 23 Democrats and 27
Republicans. As of this writing, 10 Democrat members of the committee
have publicly signed on as co-sponsors. A majority of 26 committee
members is needed for passage.

A vote on the resolution must take place on or before September 16.

Including Leach with all 23 Democrats on the committee (assuming that
the vote will proceed along party lines), the total now seemingly in
favor of passage is 24. Representative Ron Paul (R), the libertarian
firebrand from Texas, is widely assumed to be leaning toward co-
sponsorship as well, leaving the margin at just one more Republican
vote for passage.

The bill also has the particular status of a privileged resolution,
meaning that if the committee cannot secure the required votes for
passage, Congresswoman Lee has the right to seek a full House vote.

Of course, with the Republican majority in the House, passage of the
resolution on that basis appears slim.

Noting both how close the committee vote may be and the importance of
having the administration disclose vital pre-war documents, it is
incumbent on the American public, and especially those who reside in
the districts represented by members of the International Relations
Committee, to contact their reps and urge their vote in favor of H.
Res. 375.

<snip>

-----> The reality of the situation is stark: if the committee passes the resolution of inquiry, the administration would be required to reveal any and all information and communications with the UK relating to the lead-up to the war in Iraq, which could lead to more information damaging to the Bush administration and eventually focus efforts toward impeachment.

Failure of the administration to release documents could lead to
subpoenas from the committee or charges of contempt of Congress.

The passage of this bill should therefore be of particular interest
to anti-war activists, as an effective means to end the war in Iraq
would be to depose the administration that sent us there in the first
place.

Charges that President Bush, Vice President Cheney and then-Secretary
of State Colin Powell and their staffs purposely misled Congress, the
United Nations and the American public have been levied against them
since the release of the Downing Street Minutes, mostly by internet
bloggers and political web sites, while the complacent - and some say
complicit - mainstream press in America has not seen fit to pursue
the story nor investigate further.

The Downing Street Minutes (or Memo, as it has been called), refers
to a document leaked to the Sunday Times of London and published on
May 1 and May 29, 2005. The "minutes," dated July 23, 2002, are a
classified document covering a meeting between UK Prime Minister Tony
Blair, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and others, ostensibly, Richard
Dearlove, then head of the British intelligence service, who alleged
that the Bush administration had already decided on going to war in
Iraq.

According to the minutes, Dearlove stated, "military action was now
seen as inevitable. 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."

After the revelations of the Downing Street Minutes, Democrat
Congressman John Conyers of Michigan sent a letter - co-signed by 89
other House Members - to the President, seeking information about the
administration's policies concerning Iraq at the time and also asking
whether anyone in the Bush administration questioned the authenticity
of the leaked document.

To date, nobody from the administration has responded to Conyers nor
denied the authenticity of the document.

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Following are links to articles and web sites which relate to this
issue now before Congress, plus a listing of all members of the House
Committee on International Relations.

Article on Rep. Jim Leach cosponsoring resolution of inquiry:
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/1719/1/32/

The text of the Resolution, H. Res. 375, a list of current co-
sponsors, and what you can do to help:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/902

Another link to the full text of H. Res. 375:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=hr109-375