[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [uslawaffiliates] Rep. Waters Leading the 'Out of Iraq' Caucus Calls Attention to 'Downing Street Memo'

[Alfred Kagan]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: LAUSLAW1 at aol.com
> Date: June 22, 2005 1:51:46 AM CDT
> To: uslawaffiliates at lists.riseup.net, 
> uslaw_steeringcommittee at list.riseup.net
> Subject: [uslawaffiliates] Rep. Waters Leading the 'Out of Iraq' 
> Caucus Calls Attention  to 'Downing Street Memo'
>
>
> From: lauslaw1 at aol.com
> Date: June 20, 2005 2:10:16 PM CDT
> To: kentwong at ucla.edu, lauslaw at lists.riseup.net, leskelsen at nea.org, 
> lsmithline at bravenewfilms.org, Mariaelenadurazo at aol.com, 
> Mathcoach7 at aol.com, mbillirakis at nea.org, mwm_committee at yahoo.com, 
> NRomer at brooklyn.cuny.edu, nwohlforth at opeiudc.org, ooa at igc.org, 
> rnicosia at starpower.net, rweaver at nea.org, sbgluck at csulb.edu, 
> sdonato at harrybridges.com, swelsh at kpfk.org, susieshannon at comcast.net, 
> thomasbacon at uslaboragainstwar.org, tonia4 at earthlink.net, 
> twmckenzie at sbcglobal.net, wisters at comcast.net
> Cc: muhammed.el-hasan at dailybreeze.com
> Subject: [lauslaw] Rep. Waters Leading the 'Out of Iraq' Caucus Calls 
> Attention  to 'Downing Street Memo'
>
>
> Exciting stuff!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: LAUSLAW1
>
>
>
>   Maxine Waters came to our Saturday night event (6/18) with the Oil 
> Workers Leaders and made this announcement to a highly appreciative 
> crowd--we have great footage of her meeting Hassan and Faleh and will 
> get that out as well.
>
>  Another amazing highlight was when we visited Arlington West at Santa 
> Monica beach early Sunday morning as the Veteran's for Peace began to 
> lay out the exhibit (crosses, moons, and stars to commemorate the 
> american soldiers killed which has been put up every Sunday for over a 
> year--the names of all the victims, and a sign acknowledging that if 
> they commemorated the Iraqis killed the exhibit would take up the 
> entire beach).
>
>  HAssan and Faleh were interviewed by the filmmakers, Sally Marr and 
> Peter Dudar (Arlington west movie--available for sale through me) with 
> the Vets and volunteers putting up the crosses in the 
> background--quite amazing--but then, as the interview was completed, 
> the two of them picked up crosses and planted them in the sand--there 
> was not a dry eye on the beach!
>
> A more complete report will follow!
>
> Yours in struggle and unity,
> Andy Griggs
> 310-704-3217
>
>
> For Immediate Release Contact: Mikael Moore
>
> June 16, 2005 (202) 225-2201
>
>
>  Congresswoman Waters Leading the 'Out of Iraq' Caucus Calls Attention 
> to the
>
> 'Downing Street Memo'
>
>
>  Washington, DC - Today, Congresswoman Maxine Waters (CA-35) announced 
> the formation of the 'Out of Iraq' Caucus and co-hosted a hearing with 
> other Members of Congress to call attention to the 'Downing Street 
> Memo' which outlines the British government's belief that the Bush 
> Administration had decided to go to war with Iraq as early as 2002 and 
> that the Bush Administration was shaping intelligence to support the 
> decision.
>
>
>  "This memo confirms what many of us already knew, the president was 
> determined to go to war with Iraq no matter what the evidence told 
> us," said Congresswoman Waters. "The President misled the American 
> people about the threat that Iraq posed to the United States. The 
> decision to go to war without unimpeachable evidence is shocking and 
> dangerous. This war, which has cost more than 1,700 US service members 
> their lives and more than $200 billion, could have been avoided."
>
>
>  Written on July 23, 2002, the 'Downing Street Memo' summarized a 
> meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the British Defense 
> Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General and other senior 
> British officials eight months before the start of the war in Iraq.
>
>
>  The memo said, "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush 
> wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the 
> conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction (WMD). But 
> the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy .... 
> There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after 
> military action."
>
>
>  The memo continued, "It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind 
> to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But 
> the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his 
> WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran."
>
>
>  Congresswoman Waters continued, "The war in Iraq has severely 
> disrupted our efforts to bring those responsible for the 9-11 
> terrorist attacks to justice. Osama Bin Ladin and his terrorist 
> network murdered 3,000 people on September 11th and yet we have only 
> about 19,000 troops in Afghanistan trying to track him down. In Iraq, 
> we have about 140,000 troops fighting and spending $5 billion a month 
> to fight a war that has nothing to do with 9-11 and has not made us 
> more secure."
>
> -- More --
>
>  Earlier this week, Congresswoman Waters formed the 'Out of Iraq' 
> Caucus with Representative Lynn Woolsey, Representative John Conyers, 
> Representative Charlie Rangel, Representative Barbara Lee, 
> Representative Jan Schakowsky, and Representative William Delahunt. To 
> date, the Caucus has forty-one members.
>
>
>  The "Out of Iraq" Caucus will coordinate anti-war activities of 
> Congress, hold regular meetings to plan legislative and organizing 
> strategies, organize press events, coordinate with national peace 
> groups and work with families and veteran against the war.
>
>
>  Congresswoman Waters concluded, "The President has been misleading 
> the American people for far too long. It is time to end our 
> involvement in this illegitimate war. I urge the President to develop 
> a plan to bring our troops home as soon as possible."
>
>
>
> -- End --
>
>
>
>
>
>
>


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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