Dearlove memo: July 2002 smoking gun

Another smoking gun: US-Iraq Business Alliance was formed to plan post-war transformation in June 2002

It is striking how little news coverage has been given to the secret July 23, 2002 Downing Street Iraq war memo memo published in the Times of London two weeks ago. For those who missed it, the memo, attributed to MI6 head Richard Dearlove (``C'' in the memo), read in part:

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

...It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran. We should work up a plan for an ultimatum to Saddam to allow back in the UN weapons inspectors. This would also help with the legal justification for the use of force.

The Attorney-General said that the desire for regime change was not a legal base for military action. There were three possible legal bases: self-defence, humanitarian intervention, or UNSC authorisation. The first and second could not be the base in this case. Relying on UNSCR 1205 of three years ago would be difficult. The situation might of course change....

Says it all in incontrovertible black ink, doesn't it? Good commentaries have been published by Ray McGovern on TomPaine.com and Rahul Mahajan at Empire Notes. But the major US papers ignored it until Walter Pincus of The Washington Post had a Page A18 story on Friday the 13th!

What happened next was of course the relentless and now-proven-phony weapons hype concerning the actually defenseless Iraq -- delivered in hysterical proportions by Bush, Blair, and their minions to provide consent for their amoral taking of the country. Readers should continue to the McGovern link above for commentary with which I completely concur.

Gold Rush planning was underway in June 2002
What I will add is an observation about reported pre-war ``writing on the wall'' that struck me 1 1/2 years ago when we were protesting the US-Iraq Business Alliance conference that was to have taken place in Maine in November 2003. At that time, an article appeared in the Bangor Daily News entitled ``Gold Rush''. This was a provocative and embarrassing title considering what was going on in Iraq at that time, and since. The article featured Dennis Sokol, a creepy businessman [update 01/30/2006: No one should construe any opinion I hold in general about US business in Iraq to be any reflection whatsoever on the integrity of private individuals involved. The adjective ``creepy'' used here is not meant in the sense of Mr. Sokol's personal integrity, but rather the pursuit of war profits from Iraq in general.] with deep connections to the Pentagon and Vice President Cheney -- residing locally on Mount Desert Island.

Also quoted in the article was James Burrows, at that time Executive Director of the US-Iraq Business Alliance. The buried lead was that post-war economic planning was well under way by June 2002 when Sokol's and Burrow's Alliance was formed:

The alliance, initially named the U.S.-Iraq Business Council, was authorized by the Department of Treasury in June 2002 when the Pentagon was ``trying to figure out how this thing needed to go'' in a post-war rebuilding effort, Burrows, the alliance executive director, said.

We later placed an oped in the Bangor Daily News drawing out the serious questions about the US war, conquest and occupation.

The war was Bush Administration policy that by summer 2002 was fait accompli. The serious questions raised in the Dearlove memo and other recently-leaked memos from the UK underscore how even in the halls of power there existed deep unease about the legality of creating what could seem to be tantamount to a US-UK Fourth Reich in South Asia.