One June 12th 2005, the Sunday Times printed a story headlined Ministers were told of need for Gulf war ‘excuse’, disclosing two cabinet/Downing Street memos from July 2002 that clearly state that the decision to attack Iraq had been made for the purpose of regime change and that a ‘political framework’ had to be created to make this legal.

The warning, in a leaked Cabinet Office briefing paper, said Tony Blair had already agreed to back military action to get rid of Saddam Hussein at a summit at the Texas ranch of President George W Bush three months earlier.
The briefing paper, for participants at a meeting of Blair’s inner circle on July 23, 2002, said that since regime change was illegal it was “necessary to create the conditions” which would make it legal.
This was required because, even if ministers decided Britain should not take part in an invasion, the American military would be using British bases. This would automatically make Britain complicit in any illegal US action.

I don’t read the Sunday Times so I missed this particular story this past weekend. The first I knew about it was reading the story at Irregular Times where you can also read the actual memos.

So here we have apparently confirmed information, albeit leaked, of a Bush/Blair conspiracy to falsely create the conditions wherein the British public and Parliament would accept sending troops into Iraq. Yet so far, the UK media seems more concerned with French posturing on EU Budgets and the forthcoming Live 8 concerts. Oh yes – and now Michael Jackson. Why is the British news media not all over this story?

And perhaps the most interesting bit of all? Direct criticism of the Shrub and USA for having absolutely no idea what might happen in the aftermath of an invasion. And all this several months before the fact.