URGENT: SECRET MEMO II

In our May 13, 2005 Bulletin, we asked you to write your
congressperson and encourage them to cosign Congressman
John Conyers  letter to president Bush about the Secret Downing
Street Memo. http://www.8thdaycenter.org/resources/bulletins.html
President Bush has ignored this letter, cosigned by nearly 100
congresspersons, apparently believing that the problem will go away.

Now Congressman Conyers want to get 100,000 citizens to sign
another letter to President Bush which he will personally deliver the
letter to the White House. Conyers  appeal for signers to this new
letter follows.

ACTION
1. Sign Conyers  letter immediately. Go to http://www.johnconyers.org/
and click the link at the bottom of the page: Letter to President Bush
Concerning the Downing Street Memo.

2. Immediately, share this email with as many persons as possible.

CONYERS  LETTER
Friday 27 May 2005, Rep. Conyers writes:

I  have written to you . . . about my profound concern about the
implications of the "Downing Street Memo,"
[ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1593607,00.html ]
which actually  consists of the minutes of a July 2002 meeting
between British Prime Minister  Tony Blair and his top advisers.
During this meeting, Blair and his advisers reveal details about
conversations with their American counterparts. These details cast
substantial doubt on the honesty of contemporaneous claims made
by the Administration to Congress and to the American people
about the Iraq war.

First, the memo appears to directly contradict the Administration's
assertions to  Congress and the American people that it would
exhaust all options before going  to war. According to the minutes,
in July 2002, the Administration had already decided to go to war
against Iraq.

Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year
and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that
falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was
a mere "failure" or the result of  intentional manipulation to reach
foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo
appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the
United States the intelligence and facts were being "fixed" around
the decision to go to war.

These are not routine questions within a partisan give and take.
Under the United States Constitution (Article I, Section 8), the
Congress has the sole power to declare war. If the Executive Branch
deceives the Congress in this duty, it represents an attack of our
democracy of the most serious nature. These Constitutional
questions are not going away and must be answered forthrightly
and completely by this Administration.

I and 88 of my colleagues (that number is growing - more on that
soon) asked the Administration to come clean about these troubling
allegations. Our inquiries have been met with silence.

The press has also been negligent in giving this matter the attention
it deserves.

I am committed to seeing this through until we get the answers we
deserve. But I need your help.  

The conventional wisdom, which unfortunately governs
Washington's political discourse, hold that the American people
have long ago made peace with the mistakes or deceptions which
led us into war. Help me prove them all wrong. I want to show
the White House, the Press and my congressional colleagues that
nothing could be further from the truth.

That is why today I am giving you the opportunity to sign on to a
letter asking the same questions of the President that now nearly
100 Members of Congress have asked. If I get at least 100,000
signatures on this, I will personally deliver the letter to the White
House.

I also want you to know that I am exploring many, many avenues to
get to the truth about this matter.

Thank you in advance for your help and assistance.