Iraq: When Was The Die Cast?

John Prados
May 03, 2005

John Prados is a senior fellow with the National Security Archive in Washington, DC. He is author of Hoodwinked: The Documents That Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War (The New Press).

Coming just days after the release of the original secret legal advice given to the British government on the lack of foundation in international law for invading Iraq, a fresh leak out of London now reveals with stunning clarity that the goal of overthrowing Saddam Hussein was set at least a year in advance.

Emerging in the final days before the UK's parliamentary election, a memo leaked to the London Sunday Times reveals that Bush decided to go to war by April of 2002, and that by July of that same year it was clear that the United States would fabricate the intelligence necessary to justify the war.