Scoop has an Ethical Paywall
Scoop Link: Wash. Post Downing St Memo Feature
SCOOP LINK: From Memos, Insights Into Ally's Doubts
On Iraq War
British Advisers Foresaw Variety of
Risks, Problems
By Glenn Frankel
Washington Post
Foreign Service
Tuesday, June 28, 2005; Page A01
See full story…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062701584.html
LONDON -- In the spring of 2002, two weeks before British Prime Minister Tony Blair journeyed to Crawford, Tex., to meet with President Bush at his ranch about the escalating confrontation with Iraq, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw sounded a prescient warning.
"The rewards from your visit to Crawford will be few," Straw wrote in a March 25 memo to Blair stamped "Secret and Personal." "The risks are high, both for you and for the Government."
In public, British officials were declaring their solidarity with the Bush administration's calls for elimination of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. But Straw's memo and seven other secret documents disclosed in recent months by British journalist Michael Smith together reveal a much different picture. Behind the scenes, British officials believed the U.S. administration was already committed to a war that they feared was ill-conceived and illegal and could lead to disaster.
.. snip…
This article is based on those memos, supplemented by interviews with officials on both sides of the Atlantic -- none of whom was willing to be cited by name because of the sensitivity of the issue -- and written accounts. Spokesmen for the Foreign Office and the prime minister's office declined to comment but did not question the authenticity of the documents.
See full
story…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/27/AR2005062701584.html
Scoop
Scoop Independent News
Scoop is NZ's largest independent news source; respected widely in media, political, business and academic circles for being the place on the internet for publishing "what was really said", and for the quality of its analysis of issues.
Binoy Kampmark: Blinken Atrocious In A Dangerous World
Jim Mikoz: Look Out Rocks … Oops Too Late
Peter Dunne: Dunne’s Weekly - National And Labour Combine To Shut Out Greens
Ramzy Baroud: Voting Against Genocide - How Gaza Defeated The Democratic Establishment 
Alastair Thompson: Google's Support For Democracy And Media In NZ | Part 2
Eugene Doyle: BBC Goes Full Goebbels In Support Of Israeli Soccer Hooligans