Bush-Blair Planned Iraq Invasion One Year Before The War While
They were Publicly Propagating Diplomatic Solution
By Countercurrents.org
18 October, 2015
Countercurrents.org
Bush and Blair, the two world imperial leaders, planned the Iraq war one year before the war was launched although they were publicly telling that they were for a political solution of the Iraq-problem. Recently released Hillary-e-mails exposed the document.
The document shows Tony Blair, the UK prime minister at the time, was preparing to act as “spin doctor” for Bush, the US president at the time, and Bush was assured “the UK will follow [US] lead”. However, publicly, Blair was claiming to be looking for diplomatic solution – a direct contrast to email revelations.
The documents show, a top US official claimed in a memo written a year before the war, Blair would support the US if military action was needed in Iraq. The document, written in March 2002 by ex-US secretary of state Colin Powell to US president George W Bush, has been published by The Daily Mail on October 18, 2015. It said: “Blair will be with us should military operations be necessary.”
It should be mentioned that Blair and Bush met at the US president's Texan ranch in April 2002, 11 months before the outbreak of Iraq war. The pair spent long periods discussing Iraq without their advisers, leading to suspicion that they privately cut a deal for the conflict. At the start of the summit, Blair said: “We're not proposing military action at this point in time.” For the whole of 2002, Blair claimed no decision had been taken and in the run-up to war. He said that Saddam Hussein could avoid conflict by co-operating with UN weapons inspectors. In September 2002, in an attempt to prove Saddam was a threat, No 10 Downing Street falsely claimed Saddam could deploy biological weapons ‘within 45 minutes', and Blair went around the world trying to drum up UN backing for action against Iraq. Despite mass anti-war protests, Britain and America invaded Iraq in March 2003 without the backing of the UN.
The Daily Mail from London says the document was written a week before Blair met Bush at the former president's ranch in Crawford, Texas – and a year before the British MPs voted to support the invasion of Iraq. Powell wrote that Blair was convinced “the threat is real” and “success” against the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein “will yield more regional success”.
The report headlined “Smoking gun emails reveal Blair's 'deal in blood' with George Bush over Iraq war was forged a YEAR before the invasion had even started - despite claiming he wanted peace” said:
“A bombshell White House memo has revealed for the first time details of the ‘deal in blood' forged by Tony Blair and George Bush over the Iraq War.
“The sensational leak shows that Blair had given an unqualified pledge to sign up to the conflict a year before the invasion started.
“It flies in the face of the Prime Minister's public claims at the time that he was seeking a diplomatic solution to the crisis.
“He told voters: ‘We're not proposing military action' – in direct contrast to what the secret email now reveals.”
The report by Glen Owen and William Lowther said:
“The classified document also discloses that Blair agreed to act as a glorified spin doctor for the President by presenting ‘public affairs lines' to convince a sceptical public that Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction – when none existed.
“In return, the President would flatter Blair's ego and give the impression that Britain was not America's poodle but an equal partner in the ‘special relationship'.
“The damning memo, from Secretary of State Colin Powell to President George Bush, was written on March 28, 2002, a week before Bush's famous summit with Blair at his Crawford ranch in Texas.
“In it, Powell tells Bush that Blair ‘will be with us' on military action. Powell assures the President: ‘The UK will follow our lead'.”
The documents, obtained by The Mail on Sunday, are part of a batch of secret emails held on the private server of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton which US courts have forced her to reveal.
The Powell document, headed ‘Secret... Memorandum for the President', lifts the lid on how Blair and Bush secretly plotted the war behind closed doors at Crawford.
The documents show:
Powell writes to Bush: ‘He will present to you the strategic, tactical and public affairs lines that he believes will strengthen global support for our common cause,' adding that Blair has the presentational skills to ‘make a credible public case on current Iraqi threats to international peace'.
Raising internal move in the UK following the exposure, the report said:
“The disclosure is certain to lead for calls for Sir John Chilcot to reopen his inquiry into the Iraq War if, as is believed, he has not seen the Powell memo.”
It quoted the former Tory Shadow Home Secretary David Davis:
“The memos prove in explicit terms what many of us have believed all along: Tony Blair effectively agreed to act as a frontman for American foreign policy in advance of any decision by the House of Commons or the British Cabinet.
“He was happy to launder George Bush's policy on Iraq and sub-contract British foreign policy to another country without having the remotest ability to have any real influence over it. And in return for what?
“For George Bush pretending Blair was a player on the world stage to impress voters in the UK when the Americans didn't even believe it themselves.”
A senior diplomat with close knowledge of Blair-Bush relations, according to The Mail report, supported Davis. The senior diplomat said: “This memo shows beyond doubt for the first time Blair was committed to the Iraq War before he even set foot in Crawford.
“And it shows how the Americans planned to make Blair look an equal partner in the special relationship to bolster his position in the UK.”
Bush used spies in Labour Party
The report cites another memo from the same cache, which is also explosive as it reveals: Bush used “spies” in the Labour Party to help him manipulate British public opinion in favour of the war.
Five months after the Bush-Blair summit, the Downing Street produced the notorious “45 minutes from doom” dossier on Saddam Hussein's supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction. After Saddam was toppled, the dossier's claims were exposed as bogus.
The report said:
“Nowhere in the memo is a diplomatic route suggested as the preferred option.
“Instead, Powell says that Blair will also advise on how to ‘handle calls' for the ‘blessing' of the United Nations Security Council, and to ‘demonstrate that we have thought through “the day after” ' – in other words, made adequate provision for a post-Saddam Iraq.”
Critics of the war say that the lack of post-conflict planning has contributed to the loss of more than 100,000 lives since the invasion – and a power vacuum which has contributed to the rise of Islamic State terrorism.
Domestic turbulence
The US memo dealt the internal politics of the UK. The report said:
“Significantly, Powell warns Bush that Blair has hit ‘domestic turbulence' for being ‘too pro-U.S. in foreign and security policy, too arrogant and “presidential”', which Powell points out is ‘not a compliment in the British context'.
“Powell also reveals that the splits in Blair's Cabinet were deeper than was realised: he says that apart from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon, ‘Blair's Cabinet shows signs of division, and the British public are unconvinced that military action is warranted now'.
“Powell says that although Blair will ‘stick with us on the big issues', he wants to minimise the ‘political price' he would have to pay: ‘His voters will look for signs that Britain and America are truly equity partners in the special relationship.'”
During the Crawford summit, Blair he was the first world leader to be invited into Bush's sanctuary for two nights. Tony and Cherie Blair stayed in the guesthouse close to the main residence with their daughter Kathryn and Cherie's mother, Gale Booth. Bush took the highly unusual step of inviting Blair to sit in on his daily CIA briefing, and drove the UK prime minister around in a pick-up truck. Mystery has long surrounded what was discussed at Crawford as advisers were kept out of a key meeting between the two men.
The report said:
“Sir Christopher Meyer, who was present in Crawford as Britain's Ambassador to the U.S., told Chilcot that his exclusion meant he was ‘not entirely clear to this day... what degree of convergence was, if you like, signed in blood at the Crawford ranch'.”
The report said:
“But in public comments during his time at Crawford, Blair denied that Britain was on an unstoppable path to war.
“‘This is a matter for considering all the options', he said. ‘We're not proposing military action at this point in time'.”
“During his appearance before the Chilcot inquiry in January 2010, Blair denied that he had struck a secret deal with Bush at Crawford to overthrow Saddam. Blair said the two men had agreed on the need to confront the Iraqi dictator, but insisted they did not get into ‘specifics'.
“‘The one thing I was not doing was dissembling in that position,' he told Chilcot.
“‘The position was not a covert position, it was an open position. This isn't about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception. It's a decision. What I was saying... was “We are going to be with you in confronting and dealing with this threat.”'
“Pressed on what he thought Mr Bush took from their meeting, he said the President had realised Britain would support military action if the diplomatic route had been exhausted.”
The report referred to Blair's memoirs, in which Blair said it was “a myth” he had signed a promise “in blood” to go to war, insisting: “I made no such commitment”.
The report said:
“Critics who claimed that Mr Blair acted as the ‘poodle' of the US will point to a reference in Mr Powell's memo to the fact Mr Blair ‘readily committed to deploy 1,700 commandos' to Afghanistan ‘even though his experts warn that British forces are overstretched'.”
Public and press
The Mail report mentions another document that included in the email batch is a confidential briefing for Powell prepared by the US embassy in London, shortly before the Crawford summit.
According to the report, “The memo, dated ‘April 02', includes a detailed assessment of the effect on Blair's domestic position if he backs US military action.”
The document says, according to the report, “A sizeable number of his [Blair's] MPs remain at present opposed to military action against Iraq... some would favor shifting from a policy of containment of Iraq if they had recent (and publicly usable) proof that Iraq is developing WMD/missiles... most seem to want some sort of UN endorsement for military action.
“Blair's challenge now is to judge the timing and evolution of America's Iraq policy and to bring his party and the British people on board.
“There have been a few speculative pieces in the more feverish press about Labor [sic] unease re Iraq policy… which have gone on to identify the beginnings of a challenge to Blair's leadership of the party.”
The paper, the report says, “draws on information given to it by Labour ‘spies', whose identities have been hidden.”
The paper states: “[name redacted] told us the intention of those feeding the story is not to bring down Blair but to influence him on the Iraq issue.
“Some MPs would endorse action if they had proof that Iraq has continued to develop WMD since UN inspectors left.
“More would follow if convinced that Iraq has succeeded in developing significant WMD capability and the missiles to deliver it.
“Many more would follow if they see compelling evidence that Iraq intends and plans to use such weapons. A clear majority would support military action if Saddam is implicated in the 9/11 attacks or other egregious acts of terrorism.
“Blair has proved an excellent judge of political timing, and he will need to be especially careful about when to launch a ramped-up campaign to build support for action against Iraq.
“He will want neither to be too far in front or behind US policy... if he waits too long, then the keystone of any coalition we wish to build may not be firmly in place. No doubt these are the calculations that Blair hopes to firm up when he meets the President.”
Question now comes: Have the memos been seen by the Chilcot Inquiry in the UK? It is not thought the £10 million, six-year inquiry has asked to see American Government material.
The Mail reproduced the Blair-Bush documents. Pictured below is the memo from Colin Powell to George Bush:
This second explosive memo, reproduced by The Mail, drafted by the US embassy in London that reveals how Bush used Labour 'spies' to manipulate British public opinion:
BBC political correspondent Chris Mason said:
“The document appeared to offer a revealing insight into how Mr Blair was perceived at the very highest level in Washington, in the year before the Iraq War.”
BBC added in its report:
While giving evidence at the Iraq Inquiry in 2011 Mr Blair said he “regretted deeply and profoundly the loss of life” during and after the 2003 conflict.
