Commentary and links relating to media coverage of war; both before, during, and after. William A. Dorman is Professor of Government at California State University, Sacramento, and has taught a course in War, Peace and the Mass Media since 1970. Web Page U.S. Foreign Policy Blog E-Mail: dormanw at csus.edu   Archives << current

War, Peace, and the Mass Media   Friday, May 06, 2005   British memo indicates Bush made intelligence fit Iraq policy By Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott Knight Ridder Newspapers May 5, 2005 Blog editor's note: If this memo proves to be authentic--and the Blair government has yet to repudiate it--it offers the clearest evidence yet that the Bush Administration misled the American public in what one observer has characterized as "impeachable" ways. The disquieting thing about the memo, which surfaced last weekend, is that the news media so far have given it scant attention. WASHINGTON - A highly classified British memo, leaked in the midst of Britain's just-concluded election campaign, indicates that President Bush decided to overthrow Iraqi President Saddam Hussein by summer 2002 and was determined to ensure that U.S. intelligence data supported his policy. The document, which summarizes a July 23, 2002, meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair with his top security advisers, reports on a visit to Washington by the head of Britain's MI-6 intelligence service. The visit took place while the Bush administration was still declaring to the American public that no decision had been made to go to war. To read the full text, see Knight-Ridder 8:17 AM