The Smoking Gun?
Do you remember when we were sounding the alarm about the administration’s reasons for the war, stating that the real reason might be oil? Well, LiberalOasis pointed to a news story Counterspin Central, who linked readers to Judicial Watch.
Judicial Watch has just released Cheney Energy Task Force documents that feature maps of Iraqi oilfields. In addition, they include Commerce & State Department Reports to Task Force Detail Oilfield & Gas Projects, Contracts & Exploration. These task force documents were prepared in March 2001, long before September 11th.
An Unexpected Death
Britain has been rocked by the death of scientist/advisor/consultant David Kelly for the government’s Ministry of Defense department. Friday, he was found in a forested area near his home in what appears to be an apparent suicide. As of today, however, the cause of death has not been determined or published.
Last Wednesday, Kelly appeared in front of the Parliament Foreign Affair’s Committee of lawmakers attempting to prove or disprove the validity of the claim that Saddam Hussein had the ability to strike Britain with chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes.
A soft-spoken man, and a previous weapons inspector, David Kelly was believed to be the "insider" who met with the BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan to leak that the intelligence had been "sexed up" to get public backing for the war. At the hearings, however, it seemed, due to Kelly’s answers, that he couldn’t have been the source. Today, however, the BBC revealed that Kelly was, in fact, their source.
Prior to his disappearance late Thursday, he had told his wife the overt pressure he was under from the press and the government officials he worked for. His wife mentioned that he was very angry at how things had been handled and that "this was not the kind of world he wanted to live in," as reported to ITV news in Britain by Television Journalist Tom Mangold.
Commentary about this turn of events has been sharp toward both the media and Government, especially Blair, who has been asked to step down because of the incident, as reported today by Beth Gardiner of the AP.
Blair, who has been touring Asia, has seemed dazed and pre-occupied in his state appearances. In Japan on Saturday, it was reported that "his characteristic wide grins were replaced by a withering glare when a reporter shouted: ‘Have you got blood on your hands, prime minister?’"
Friends have come forward since his disappearance to cry foul, stating that the manner in which Kelly was treated was "absolutely inexcusable."
For more news and commentary regarding this story, please visit the following articles:
A Man Broken By Events, by Patrick Wintour of The Guardian
Kelly’s Treatment was Absolutely Inexcusable, say Friends, by Jason Deans and Chris Tryhorn, The Guardian
Kelly didn't stand a chance against the frenzy of No 10, by Hugo Young, The Guardian
Moral Blackmail Won’t Do
An excellent article was published in the Guardian yesterday by a former advisor to Margaret Thatcher, Malcolm Rifkind. Rifkind believes that the failure of not finding WMD not only damages Blair, but more importantly damages the doctrine of pre-emption.
As a teaser, I’m including a section of noteworthy commentary:
What changed was George Bush's arrival in the White House and 9/11. Thereafter Blair recognised that in order to retain the confidence of the new president, and to ensure British influence in Washington, he would have to support regime change in Iraq and the new doctrine of pre_emptive wars. He knew that geopolitical arguments would be unlikely to convince the Labour party or the British public of the need for war.
But he also, rather shrewdly, concluded that a combination of an imminent threat of WMD in the hands of Saddam Hussein combined with a reminder of the human rights abuses of his regime would have the best prospect of swinging recalcitrant MPs and the British public behind him.
This led directly to dodgy dossiers, weapons that could be launched in 45 minutes and an unhealthy reliance on raw intelligence reports. I don't doubt that Blair was sincere in his protestations. Disraeli's remark about Gladstone is very apposite: "He could convince most people of most things and himself of almost anything." I was one of those who, with deep reservations, concluded that if there was reliable evidence available to the British government and if they and the US were determined to go to war they should have our support, and the quicker it was over the better.
It is difficult to exaggerate the significance of the failure to find WMD and the resultant deep belief that parliament and the public were misled on the supreme issue of peace and war.
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