Inspired by Kos diary, bloggers take on U.S. over 2002 Iraq planning memo

By John Byrne | RAW STORY Editor

What do a communications manager from an industrial multinational, a law student, a graphic designer and a Canadian civil servant have in common?
Advertisement Click Here

The answer? DowningStreetMemo.com.

In response to U.S. media silence surrounding a pre-war memorandum leaked on the eve of the recent British elections, the foursome created a website referencing the memo written in the heart of British government, 10 Downing Street.

Authored by a foreign policy aide to British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the memo is perhaps the most damning ammunition in the arsenal of those seeking to demonstrate that the decision to go to war in Iraq was fixed.

“Military action was now seen as inevitable,” Blair aide Matthew Rycroft penned in his account of a July, 2002 meeting. “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.”