Juan Cole: June 10, 2005

Attacks in Yusufiyah, Mosul, Kut
Islamic Parties Meet to Shape the Constitution

A vehicle accident near Hit in Iraq left a Marine dead on Wednesday, according to AP. 1,683 US military personnel have died so far in Iraq.

al-Sharq al-Awsat: A mortar attack aimed at a military site at Yusufiyah instead hit two civilian homes and killed two Iraqis and wounded 3. Guerrilla attacks in Mosul killed two policemen and wounded several other persons, including the wife, children and relatives of one of the policemen, whose house was targetted. The other policeman died when mortar shells rained down on the police station in Mosul. 5 were wounded in that attack. In Telafar the day before yesterday, a car bomb went off prematurely and killed 4 guerrillas. In Kut, police said that the day before yesterday, a grenade attack on the center of the Islamic Action Organization in the city left 2 persons wounded and wrought extensive damage to the building and its environs.

Piles of Smoking Guns

Kind readers have drawn my attention to other leaked documents on the British side that lend support to the implications of the Downing Street memo, which alleges that Bush had decided on a war against Iraq by summer, 2002 and would fix the intelligence around the policy.

The Downing Street Memo and "Fixing Around"

At least one commentator has been quoted in the press as questioning what British Intelligence chief Richard Dearlove meant in the Downing Street Memo by the phrase "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." The full passage reads, "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."