Bush and 'the memo' + GOP chairman halts Patriot Act heari

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2005/06/10/EDGMMD62O01.DTL

Bush and 'the memo'

Friday, June 10, 2005

PRESIDENT BUSH apparently thinks he can dismiss the damning "Downing
Street memo" with a few glib words.

If he is right, it is a sad commentary on the state of American democracy
and values.

The memo, recounting the details of a July 23, 2002, meeting at British
Prime Minister Tony Blair's official residence on 10 Downing St., strongly
suggested that the message had been sent across the Atlantic that the Bush
White House had made the decision to wage war on Iraq. The minutes of the
meeting indicated that Blair and his top-level intelligence and
foreign-policy aides were given clear signals that military action was
"inevitable."

In the most disturbing passage of the minutes, the head of Britain's MI6
intelligence service, reporting on his recent trip to Washington, told the
group that "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy" of
a war to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Bush was finally asked about the memo directly this week, during a media
availability with Blair. Bush tried to discredit the memo because of the
timing of its disclosure -- just days before Blair's re-election. But it
is important to note that no one has challenged the authenticity of the
memo nor the accuracy of its account of the meeting.

Bush also scoffed at the suggestion that the decision to go to war had
been made by July 2002, nearly a year before U.S. bombs began raining on
Baghdad. "There's nothing farther from the truth," Bush told reporters.
"My conversation with the prime minister was, how can we do this
peacefully?"

Americans deserve to have a more intensive investigation and expansive
explanation to the extremely serious allegation that their government
"fixed" intelligence to justify a pre-emptive war. The White House wants
to dismiss it as "old news" and the Republicans who control both houses of
Congress assume they can shrug off the demands of a bloc of Democrats --
led by Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. -- for hearings on the Downing Street
memo.

There should be no statute of limitations -- or shortness of public
attention span -- on an issue that cuts to the core of this government's
integrity and credibility. Congress must fully investigate the actions in
Washington that led the highest officials in Great Britain to be convinced
that the Bush administration was hell-bent on war and working to concoct a
rationalization for it.

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5/25/2005 - PATRIOT Act Hearing Thursday
http://judiciary.house.gov/default.aspx

WATCH DEMOCRACY BEING THWARTED AT THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE
http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/index_weekend.php

GOP chairman halts Patriot Act hearing
Seattle Times, WA - 11 hours ago
By Mike Allen. WASHINGTON — The Republican chairman walked off with the gavel, leaving Democrats shouting into dead microphones ...
MORE:>>

RANDI RHODES WEB POLL
Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner abruptly ended a hearing on C-Span this Friday morning about the Patriot Act when Democrats attempted to repond and comment about the impact of the Patriot Act. Sensenbrenner should:
http://www.therandirhodesshow.com/index_weekend.php

Democracy thwarted at Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Patriot Act
Chairman silences Democrats at a hearing on the Patriot Act by cutting the microphones
SEE VIDEO:
http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/fl20_schultz/judgavelledoff.html