Mr. Blair, standing at Mr. Bush's side in a joint news conference in the East Room of the White House, said, "No, the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at all."
And then we have the text of the memo:
From: Matthew Rycroft
Date: 23 July 2002
S 195 /02
cc: Defence Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Attorney-General, Sir Richard Wilson, John Scarlett, Francis Richards, CDS, C, Jonathan Powell, Sally Morgan, Alastair Campbell
[...]
C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. 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. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.
So,
- either Mr. Rycroft absolutely *sucks* as an aide and takes really bad minutes, or,
- Sir Richard Dearlove, the chief of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service, who reported on the results of the "recent talks" in Washington, did so really, REALLY poorly and in a highly misleading manner...
- ...or someone's not being entirely truthful, here.
Who? That's all I'm asking.
BBA | After Downing Street
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