More leaked memo's in Britain

There's a new set of memo's leaked in the British press currently. This is on top of the prior memo, leaked during the recent election campaign.

The new set of memo's provide more ammunition to my prior writings on this subject. The memo's show the political calculations going around the British government in the Summer of 2002, leading up to a meeting between Bush and Blair at Bush's Crawford TX "ranch". It shows in more detail the concerns that the evidence was weak, and that they would have to manipulate the public in order to get the war going. Finally, it shows that in the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attack, the push was to topple Iraq's government, regardless of any other consideration.

My previous writings on this issue are:

• Visibility building on Bush war memo: Congress finally saying the ‘I’ word
• Bush asked to explain UK war memo
• Bush/Blair planned Iraq invasion in July 2002

The Associated Press has the memo's online here:

• Iraq: Legal Background
• Prime Minister: Your Trip to the U.S.
• Iraq and Afghanistan: A Conversation with Wolfowitz
• Iraq: Options Papers
• Iraq: Advice for the prime minister
• Crawford/Iraq
• Iraq: Conditions for Military Action
• Iraq: Prime Minister's Meeting, 23 July

And the Associated Press has published this overview: Newly leaked memos add to debate on war motives Blair aide noted concern on US rush to invade (By Thomas Wagner, Associated Press | June 19, 2005)

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/ also has the memo's, and is tracking the story.