The leaked memo written by U.K. Chief Foreign Policy Advisor David Manning on January 31, 2003 discussed that day’s meeting between President Bush and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair. “Without much elaboration, the memo also says the president raised three possible ways of provoking a confrontation. …’The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft […]
Category: quotes
1/31/2003
On January 31, 2003, while seeking help in monitoring the ‘Middle Six’ countries on the UN Security Council who were undecided in regards to invading Iraq, “Frank Koza, the [National Security Agency’s (NSA’s)] Sigint [signals intelligence] department’s deputy chief of staff for Regional Targets, sent a Top Secret/Codeword memo to the NSA’s Five Eyes partners […]
1/31/2003
On January 31, 2003, U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair visited Washington D.C. “to tell [President] Bush that the British needed a second [UN] Security Council resolution citing the failure of Saddam to comply with demands that he disarm and explicitly authorizing military action. Bush, impatient, insisted that the first resolution, 1441, already sanctioned the use […]
1/31/2003
“[T]he State Department’s INR [Bureau of Intelligence and Research] fact-checked an early draft of [Secretary of State Colin] Powell’s speech [which he was to deliver to the U.N. on February 5, 2003]. On January 31 [2003]…they sent a memo to Powell asserting that thirty-eight allegations in the speech were ‘unsubstantiated’ or ‘weak.’ As a result […]
1/31/2003
” ‘After September the 11th, the doctrine of containment just doesn’t hold any water, as far as I’m concerned,’ is how President Bush characterized the new stance in a [January 31, 2003] news conference with Prime Minister Tony Blair of Great Britain a few weeks before the war [in Iraq] began.” – Todd S. Purdum […]
1/31/2003
From the Chilcot inquiry, the British public inquiry into their involvement in the war in Iraq: “One of [Prime Minister Tony] Blair’s notes is believed to relate to a two-hour White House meeting with [President] Bush on 31 January 2003. A memo written by Sir David Manning, Blair’s chief foreign policy adviser and stamped ‘extremely […]
1/31/2003
As stated in “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry – Executive Summary:” “Mr Blair and President Bush meet in Washington.” – Commissioned by the Prime Minister The Right Honourable Gordon Brown MP, “The Report of the Iraq Inquiry: Executive Summary,” IraqInquiry.org.uk, Jan. 31, 2003 […]
1/31/2003
“President Bush hosted [Tony] Blair at the White House again on January 31, 2003. Blair said they needed a second UN resolution- one that made it clear that an invasion of Iraq was the only answer. (Resolution 1441 had not done this.) Many British people were opposed to the war, and Blair might lose the […]
1/30/2003
President Bush met with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi on January 30, 2003. Bush told him that “Iraq would be disarmed and Saddam would not be allowed to stay in power. ‘We have put together a lethal military and we will kick his ass. We will take every step to avoid civilians.’ ” – Bob […]
1/30/2003
On January 30, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell’s Chief of Staff Larry Wilkerson said, regarding the Bush Administration’s WMD case: ” ‘It was clear the thing was put together by cherry-picking everything from The New York Times to the DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency],’ he said. When Wilkerson and the team began to examine the […]