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Bush-Blair memoThe Bush-Blair memo was a secret memo of a meeting between American President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that took place on 31 January 2003.It has become controversial for its content, which shows Bush and Blair discussing plans to paint a U-2 spyplane in UN colours and let it fly low over Iraq to provoke the then-leader Saddam Hussein to shoot it down, providing a pretext for America and Britain's subsequent invasion. It also shows the two making a secret deal to carry out said invasion regardless of whether or not weapons of mass destruction where discovered by UN weapons inspectors, in direct contradiction with statements Blair made to Parliment afterwards that Saddam would be given a final chance to disarm. Five pages long and classified as extremely sensetive, the existance of the memo was first alledged by Philippe Sands in his book Lawless World. It was then obtained by American newspaper The New York Times, who confirmed its authenticity. UK Liberal Democrat leader Sir Menzies Campbell said, on the memo,:“If these allegations are accurate, the Prime Minister and President Bush were determined to go to war with or without a second UN resolution, and Britain was signed up to do so by the end of January 2003.” It was also discussed on BBC World programme Dateline London by a panel of commentators in the early morning of 6 February 2006, the commentators seemed to agree that the memo just confirmed what they already believed to be the case. See also David Kelly Hutton Inquiry Operation Rockingham Butler Review Downing Street Memo September Dossier Yellowcake forgery Iraq document leak 18 June 2005 Dodgy Dossier Aluminium tubes |
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