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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Media Contact: Progressive Democrats of America Make National Call of
Support for
Congressional Letter Demanding Investigation of British Intelligence Leak on Iraq Invasion Strategy (WASHINGTON, DC) — Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), ranking minority member of the House Judiciary Committee, has released a letter signed by 88 fellow Representatives. The letter demands an investigation into the revelation that the American and British governments colluded secretly to manipulate intelligence as a means of justifying a decision to invade Iraq that had already been made. The Conyers letter and names of the House signatories can be read here: http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/letters/bushsecretmemoltr5505.pdf The revelations came on Monday, May 2nd by way of a report published in the London Telegraph, which described a leaked British intelligence memo from July of 2002. The memo, stamped “Secret,” described concerted efforts by both British and American officials to “fix intelligence and facts around the policy.” The policy in question was the invasion of Iraq. The memo noted specifically that the invasion would be illegal if a justification were not found or created. The London Telegraph report can be read here: The British memo in question can be read here: Rep. Conyers’ letter specifically notes that the secret British memo includes revelations that: · Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a meeting at which he discussed military · British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war · A separate secret briefing for the meeting said that Britain and America · A British official “reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was The information revealed by this memo, which has not been denied by either the American or British governments, confirms accusations by a wide variety of ‘whistleblowers’ who have accused the Bush administration of manufacturing evidence for war against Iraq. Among these are: · Richard Clarke, former White House Counter-Terrorism Czar, who accused the · Tom Maertens, National Security Council director for nuclear · Roger Cressey, Clarke's former deputy, who witnessed one of the most · Donald Kerrick, a three-star General who served as deputy National · Paul O'Neill, former Treasury Secretary for George W. Bush, was afforded a · Greg Thielmann, former Director of the Office of Strategic, Proliferation, · Joseph Wilson, former ambassador and career diplomat, who personally The most damning testimony regarding "fixing intelligence and facts around the policy" came from Air Force Lt. Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski in a 2004 interview with Salon magazine. The Kwiakatowski interview with Salon can be read here: Kwiatkowski worked in the office of Undersecretary for Policy Douglas Feith, and worked specifically with a secretive Pentagon organization run by Feith called the Office of Special Plans. Kwiatkowski reported: "From May 2002 until February 2003, I observed firsthand the formation of the Pentagon's Office of Special Plans and watched the latter stages of the neoconservative capture of the policy-intelligence nexus in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq." "I saw a narrow and deeply flawed policy," continued Kwiatkowski, "favored by some executive appointees in the Pentagon used to manipulate and pressurize the traditional relationship between policymakers in the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence agencies. I witnessed neoconservative agenda bearers within OSP usurp measured and carefully considered assessments, and through suppression and distortion of intelligence analysis promulgate what were in fact falsehoods to both Congress and the executive office of the president." Progressive Democrats of America stands with Rep. Conyers and the 88 House members who are signatories to his letter and demands that a full and complete investigation be immediately undertaken into this matter.
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