Progress Report: An Explosive Downing Street Memo

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Mon, 28 Nov 2005 07:31:13 -0800

Progress Report: An Explosive Downing Street Memo

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AMERICAN PROGRESS ACTION FUND

The Progress Report

by Judd Legum, Faiz Shakir, Nico Pitney

Amanda Terkel and Payson Schwin

 

 

www.progressreport.org

11/28/2005

 

For news and updates throughout the day, check out our new blog at

http://ThinkProgress.org.

 

MEDIA

An Explosive Downing Street Memo

 

Last Tuesday, the British tabloid the Daily Mirror reported President

Bush revealed a plan " to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly

Qatar...at a White House face-to-face with [Prime Minister Tony]

Blair on April 16 last year. " (At the time " the administration was

infuriated with the al-Jazeera coverage of [a] battle [in Fallujah],

and the way the station focused on the deaths of hundreds of people,

including civilians, rather than the necessity of ridding the town of

dangerous terrorists. " ) According to the Mirror, Blair talked him out

of it. The details of the conversation are allegedly contained in " a

'Top Secret' No 10 [Downing St.] memo. " One source cited by the Mirror

said Bush's threat to bomb al-Jazeera was " humorous, not serious. "

Another claimed, " Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is

absolutely clear from the language used by both men. " Although the

report remains largely uncorroborated and unconfirmed, both the Bush

administration and the British government have reacted to the news as

if they have something to hide.

 

BRITISH GOVERNMENT THREATENS TO PROSECUTE NEWSPAPERS THAT PUBLISH THE

MEMO: The British attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, " threatened

newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the

contents " of the document which allegedly contains Bush's threat to

bomb al-Jazeera. Under that Act, it " is an offense to have come into

the possession of government information, or a document from a crown

servant, if that person discloses it without lawful authority. " The

Guardian reports that it is " the first time the Blair government has

threatened newspapers in this way. " Previously, the British government

had " never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked

documents, including highly sensitive ones about the run-up to the

invasion of Iraq. " (Goldsmith claims he was " not attempting to gag

newspapers but merely pointing out the legal position. " ) Leo O'Conner,

a former researcher for a British MP, and David Keogh, a former

Cabinet Office official, have already been charged under the Official

Secrets Act for receiving and passing the document.

 

TORY MP OFFERS TO GO TO JAIL TO GET THE TRUTH OUT: Boris Johnson, a

Tory MP, wrote in the Daily Telegraph that he was " quite prepared to

believe that the Daily Mirror is wrong. " But Johnson noted " if there

is one thing that would seem to confirm the essential accuracy of the

story, it is that the Attorney General has announced that he will

prosecute anyone printing the exact facts. " At the end of his column

Johnson makes a generous offer: " If someone passes me the document

within the next few days I will be very happy to publish it in The

Spectator, and risk a jail sentence. The public needs to judge for

themselves. Sunlight is the best disinfectant. "

 

NO LOVE LOST BETWEEN AL-JAZEERA AND ADMINISTRATION: Asked about the

report in the Daily Mirror, the White House issued a classic

non-denial denial: " We are not going to dignify something so

outlandish with a response. " Yet the administration has been sharply

critical of al-Jazeera. For example, Secretary of Defense Donald

Rumsfeld " called the network's account of civilian casualties during

the American push to retake [Fallujah] 'outrageous nonsense' and

'vicious, inaccurate and inexcusable.' " During the 2001 invasion of

Afghanistan, " American bombs struck the network's Kabul office. "

 

RIGHT-WING PUNDIT SAYS BOMBING AL-JAZEERA IS 'NOT OUTRAGEOUS': Whether

or not Bush suggested bombing al-Jazeera, the concept has gained

support within the conservative punditocracy. Frank Gaffney, a former

Reagan administration official who writes for the Washington Times,

the National Review, and other right-wing news outlets, said if the

allegation that Bush planned on bombing al-Jazeera " has some truth to

it, I'm not sure it is outrageous. " Gaffney said Al-Jazeera was

" enabling the propaganda aspects of this war to be fought by our

enemies, and I think that puts it squarely in the target category.

Whether the best way to do it is with bombs or through other means is

something we could discuss, but I think it's fair game. " Gaffney's

sentiments were echoed by New York Sun columnist Daniel Johnson.

 

SUPREME COURT

Alito's Extremist Affiliations

 

The White House portrays Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's views as

in the " mainstream. " That claim is not supported by his judicial

opinions or his activities prior to being nominated. In his 1985

application for a high-level job the Reagan administration, Alito

touted his membership with " the Concerned Alumni of Princeton

University. " The group was " a far-right organization funded by

conservative alumni committed to turning back the clock on coeducation

at the University. " Alito is now desperate to " distance himself " from

his 1985 application, and it's easy to understand why. When Alito

appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Stephen R. Dujack

writes that he " will have to explain how he permitted himself to

belong to an organization that was overtly racist and sexist for its

entire 14-year existence. "

 

BILL FRIST CONDEMNED ALITO'S GROUP: Alito joined Concerned Alumni at

its founding in 1972. The organization, co-chaired in the beginning by

Asa Bushnell and Shelby Cullom Davis, put forth a magazine called the

" Prospect, " espousing right-wing views against the inclusion of women,

minorities, and other groups into Princeton. The New York Times notes,

" The magazine's content also grew increasingly provocative under the

editorship of conservative rising stars, including Dinesh D'Souza and

later Laura Ingraham. " The magazine was so extreme that a 1975 alumni

panel including Sen. Bill Frist (R-TN) refused to support it,

concluding " that Concerned Alumni had 'presented a distorted, narrow

and hostile view of the university that cannot help but have

misinformed and even alarmed many alumni' and 'undoubtedly generated

adverse national publicity.' "

 

GROUP SOUGHT TO KEEP WOMEN OUT: In 1973, the Concerned Alumni

executive committee published a statement advocating exclusion of

women in higher education: " Concerned Alumni of Princeton opposes

adoption of a sex-blind admission policy. " Also that year, Davis said

he longed for the days when the university was " a body of men,

relatively homogeneous in interests and backgrounds. " The magazine

concluded that the makeup of Princeton, which began admitting women in

1969, " has changed drastically for the worse. " Diane Weeks '75, a

former colleague of Alito's when he was U.S. Attorney General for New

Jersey said, " I once joked to him [Alito] that he must be very

disappointed that women were admitted to Princeton and he just didn't

have a response. "

 

GROUP SOUGHT TO KEEP MINORITIES OUT, ALUMNI CHILDREN IN: Women were

not the only group of people not welcomed by the Concerned Alumni

group. A 1983 Prospect essay, " In Defense of Elitism, " wrote, " People

nowadays just don't seem to know their place. ... Everywhere one turns

blacks and hispanics are demanding jobs simply because they're black

and hispanic, the physically handicapped are trying to gain equal

representation in professional sports, and homosexuals are demanding

that government vouchsafe them the right to bear children. " Another

1984 news item in the magazine, reacting to a gay student group's

protest to being denied permission to hold a dance at a campus club,

concluded, " Here at Princeton homosexuals are on the rampage. " But

Concerned Alumni did advocate quota systems so that student athletes

and children of wealthy alumni continued to attend the university and

that right-wing faculty members would populate the humanities and

social sciences departments.

 

UNDER THE RADAR

 

CIVIL LIBERTIES -- DEFENSE DEPARTMENT STEPS UP DOMESTIC SPYING: " The

Defense Department has expanded its programs aimed at gathering and

analyzing intelligence within the United States, creating new

agencies, adding personnel and seeking additional legal authority for

domestic security activities in the post-9/11 world, " the Washington

Post reported. The Pentagon has increased domestic surveillance

through the expansion of the Counterintelligence Field Activity

(CIFA), an agency created three years ago. The Bush administration is

also pushing to expand CIFA's authority into " crimes within the United

States such as treason, foreign or terrorist sabotage or even economic

espionage. " A 2004 Pentagon document revealed CIFA is " exploiting

commercial data " with the help of private contractors. Senate Select

Intelligence Committee member Ron Wyden (R-OR) said about the moves,

" We are deputizing the military to spy on law-abiding Americans in

America. This is a huge leap without even a [congressional] hearing. "

 

IRAQ -- BRITISH PLAN FOR FULL-SCALE INQUIRY OF IRAQ WAR: British Prime

Minister Tony Blair " now seems to be facing the full-scale

parliamentary inquiry into the Iraq war -- it's justification, conduct

and aftermath -- that Bush has been able to avoid. " Leading figures in

the Conservative, Liberal-Democratic, Scottish National and Plaid

Cymru parties have joined hands to back a motion entitled " Conduct of

Government policy in relation to the war against Iraq. " Such an

investigation will help determine whether Blair was " double-crossed "

by Bush aides, as former Ambassador Joseph Wilson has suggested, or

whether he " planned the Iraq war from the start. " Here in the United

States, despite the fact that U.S. taxpayers have funded the 9-11

Commission, the Silberman-Robb Commission, the Senate Intelligence

Committee, the Duelfer Report, and a host of executive branch reviews

to look into some aspect of the Iraq conflict, not a single one has

comprehensively examined the justification, conduct, and aftermath of

the Iraq war as the British parliamentary inquiry plans to do.

 

IMMIGRATION -- BUSH SHIFTS FOCUS TO IMMIGRATION: President Bush will

begin this week by talking about immigration reform in Arizona and

Texas, where he " is expected to renew his call for a program to allow

Mexicans who have entered the United States illegally to remain for up

to six years. " The move represents a political gamble on the part of

the White House because few issues divide conservatives as much as

immigration. Bush will travel with Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has

sponsored immigration legislation with Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), but

" [l]ike any good politician, Bush will try to play both sides, " and he

will be " calling this week for a series of border-security measures

that will make his guest-worker plan look like an afterthought in his

immigration policy. "

 

CLIMATE CHANGE -- U.N. CONFERENCE BEGINS TODAY WITHOUT U.S.: " About

10,000 delegates - from 189 governments, environmental lobby groups

and businesses - will attend the November 28-December 9 talks " on

climate change in Montreal. " We do have a little time, but not much.

.... If we don't get a serious program in place for the long term in

this second post-Kyoto phase, we will simply not make it and we will

be crossing limits which will basically produce impacts that are

unacceptable, " Princeton University's Michael Oppenheimer said.

Despite the urgency from around the globe, the Bush administration has

shunned the conference. Regardless of the White House's view,

politicians, corporate representatives and others from the U.S. will

be attending the conference. " Most people are ready to take the

dialogue forward, " Claussen, president of the Pew Center on

Global Climate Change said. " The only place where that is not the case

is the administration. "

 

ETHICS -- ABRAMOFF PROBE EXPANDS, INCLUDES MULTIPLE CONGRESSMEN: The

Justice Department's probe into mega-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, which has

already ensnared former chief White House procurement official David

Safavian and Michael Scanlon, former aide to Tom DeLay, is " broader

than previously thought, examining [Abramoff's] dealings with four

lawmakers. " Prosecutors are reportedly looking into former House

Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH), Rep. John

Doolittle (R-CA), and Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) to determine whether

they or their aides received illegal payoffs from Abramoff in the form

of campaign contributions, sports tickets, meals, travel and job

offers, in exchange for helping Abramoff's clients. " Prosecutors also

are investigating at least 17 current and former congressional aides,

about half of whom later took lobbying jobs with Mr. Abramoff, say

lawyers and others involved in the case. Five of the former aides

worked for Mr. DeLay. "

 

 

STATE WATCH

 

NEW YORK: As development and service economy jobs grow in New York

City's boroughs, the income gap substantially widens.

 

MISSOURI: U.S. Justice Department sues Missouri for alleged voting

errors, " claiming that people who have moved or died may still be

eligible to vote. "

 

KENTUCKY: Gov. Ernie Fletcher's ® 2003 campaign promise to cut

politically-appointed state jobs has rung hollow.

 

BLOG WATCH

 

FIREDOGLAKE: A theory about Viveca Novak.

 

THINK PROGRESS: Fox News' Chris Wallace claims Bush " never " linked

Saddam and al-Qaeda.

 

MYDD: White House now claims withdrawal was their idea.

 

DAILY GRILL

 

" A precipitous withdrawal from Iraq would be a victory for the

terrorists, an invitation to further violence against free nations,

and a terrible blow to the future security of the United States of

America. "

-- Cheney, 11/21/05

 

VERSUS

 

" President Bush will give a major speech Wednesday at the U.S. Naval

Academy in Annapolis, Md., in which aides say he is expected to herald

the improved readiness of Iraqi troops, which he has identified as the

key condition for pulling out U.S. forces…The developments seemed to

lay the groundwork for potentially large withdrawals in 2006 and 2007… "

-- Los Angeles Times, 11/26/05

 

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