Downing Street memo
The Downing Street memo (sometimes abbreviated as DSM) is the protocol of a secret meeting of the Labor -Regierung with defense - and Secret Service agents on 23 July 2002 in Downing Street ( London ). Attending the meeting were Prime Minister Tony Blair , Defense Secretary Geoffrey Hoon , Foreign Secretary Jack Straw , Justice Secretary Peter Goldsmith , Joint Intelligence Committee Chief John Scarlett , Secret Intelligence Service Director Richard Dearlove(named "C" in the memo), Defense Council chief Admiral Michael Boyce , Blair's foreign policy advisor David Manning, spokesman Jonathan Powell , strategy advisor Alastair Campbell, and government advisor Sally Morgan. They discussed the looming Iraq war with direct reference and analysis of US policy at the time. The memo was written by British diplomat Matthew Rycroft and first published in the Sunday Times on May 1, 2005.
The memo received a lot of attention in the UK and later the US and on weblogs . Especially because of the statement of MI6 director Richard Dearlove, who reported after previous talks in Washington that “Bush wants to eliminate Saddam through a military operation that is justified by the combination of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction . But findings and facts would be treated in the interests of politics. ”This statement made it clear that George W. Bush was planning to invade and occupy it as early as eight months before the start of the Iraq war in March 2003.
literature
- Mark Danner: Iraq war is a secret. A memorandum reveals the wrong game with the UN and the public . In: Lettre International No. 69, Summer 2005, pp. 10-14
Individual evidence
- ↑ The secret Downing Street memo . In: The Sunday Times , May 1, 2005. Archived from the original on July 23, 2011. Retrieved March 27, 2007.