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2004 Iraq Document Leak
On 18 September 2004 the British ''Daily Telegraph'' ran two articles titledSecret papers show Blair was warned of Iraq chaos an'Failure is not an option, but it doesn't mean they will avoid it'by reporter Michael Smith, revealing the contents of six leaked British government documents – labelled "secret" or "confidential" – concerning the lead-up to the war in Iraq. The documents achieved recognition in the US press nine months later, on 18 June 2005, when the Associated Press (AP) published full typed copies of all six papers on its website. The copies were provided by the British reporter, who said he had destroyed the original documents to protect his sources. An anonymous senior British official said the documents appeared authentic. Contents AP reported that the memos show: "When Prime Minister Tony Blair's chief foreign policy adviser dined with Condoleezza Rice six months after the 11 September attacks, the then-US national security adviser didn't want ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was founded by Arthur B. Sleigh in 1855 as ''The Daily Telegraph & Courier''. Considered a newspaper of record over ''The Times'' in the UK in the years up to 1997, ''The Telegraph'' generally has a reputation for high-quality journalism, and has been described as being "one of the world's great titles". The paper's motto, "Was, is, and will be", appears in the editorial pages and has featured in every edition of the newspaper since 19 April 1858. The paper had a circulation of 363,183 in December 2018, descending further until it withdrew from newspaper circulation audits in 2019, having declined almost 80%, from 1.4 million in 1980.United Newspapers PLC and Fleet Holdings PLC', Monopolies and Mergers Commission (1985), pp. 5–16. Its si ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of His Majesty's Government responsible for supporting the prime minister and Cabinet. It is composed of various units that support Cabinet committees and which co-ordinate the delivery of government objectives via other departments. As of December 2021, it has over 10,200 staff, most of whom are civil servants, some of whom work in Whitehall. Staff working in the Prime Minister's Office are part of the Cabinet Office. Responsibilities The Cabinet Office's core functions are: * Supporting collective government, helping to ensure the effective development, coordination and implementation of policy; * Supporting the National Security Council and the Joint Intelligence Organisation, coordinating the government's response to crises and managing the UK's cyber security; * Promoting efficiency and reform across government through innovation, transparency, better procurement and project management, by transforming the delivery of services, and impr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Executive Order 13303
Executive Order 13303 was issued on May 22, 2003, by United States President George W. Bush to protect the Development Fund for Iraq for the rebuilding of Iraq from any legal attachments or liens. Further, it protects Iraqi oil products and interests and ownership by US persons (defined to include US corporations) from attachment as well. Executive Order 13303 also terminates sanctions specified in EO 12722, EO 12724, EO 13290, as it applies to the development fund. In effect, EO 13303 provides an extraordinarily broad legal shield for any and all contractors and mercenaries working in Iraq on behalf of US corporations in any oil related enterprise. The Executive Order also declares a national emergency to deal with the threat to a peaceful reconstruction of Iraq, which US Presidents have renewed every year since, most recently in May 2023. The order's full title is Executive Order Protecting the Development Fund for Iraq and Certain Other Property in Which Iraq Has An Inter ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Executive Order 13233
Executive Order 13233 limited access to the records of former United States Presidents to a higher degree than the previous Order 12667, which it superseded. It was drafted by then White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and issued by George W. Bush on November 1, 2001. Section 13 of Order 13233 revoked which was issued by Ronald Reagan on January 18, 1989. was partially struck down in October 2007. The order was revoked on January 21, 2009 by Barack Obama's , which essentially restored most of the wording of Order 12667 with some modifications. Background In 1974, Congress passed the Presidential Recordings and Materials Preservation Act of 1974, placing the presidential records of Richard Nixon in federal custody to prevent their destruction. The legislative action was intended to reduce secrecy, while allowing historians to perform their responsibilities. In 1972, decades worth of official and unofficial Federal Bureau of Investigation records had been destroyed, upon th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Declaration Of War By The United States
A declaration of war is a formal declaration issued by a national government indicating that a state of war exists between that nation and another. A document by the Federation of American Scientists gives an extensive listing and summary of statutes which are automatically engaged upon the United States declaring war. For the United States, Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution says "Congress shall have power to ... declare War." However, that passage provides no specific format for what form legislation must have in order to be considered a " declaration of war" nor does the Constitution itself use this term. In the courts, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, in '' Doe v. Bush'', said: " e text of the October Resolution itself spells out justifications for a war and frames itself as an 'authorization' of such a war." in effect saying an authorization suffices for declaration and what some may view as a formal congressional "Declaration of War" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dodgy Dossier
''Iraq – Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and Intimidation'' (more commonly known as the ''Iraq Dossier'', the ''February Dossier'' From pages 35–42 o"The Decision to go to War in Iraq: Ninth Report of Session 2002-03" (PDF). or the ''Dodgy Dossier'') was a 2003 briefing document for the British prime minister Tony Blair's Labour Party government. It was issued to journalists on 3 February 2003 by Alastair Campbell, Blair's 10 Downing Street#Office of the Prime Minister, Director of Communications and Strategy, and concerned Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. Along with the earlier ''September Dossier'', these documents were ultimately used by the British government to justify its involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq, invasion of Iraq in 2003. Dossier The term ''Dodgy Dossier'' was first coined by online polemical magazine ''Spiked (magazine), Spiked'' in relation to the ''September Dossier''. The term was later employed by ''Channel 4 News'' when its repor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
September Dossier
''Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government'', also known as the ''September Dossier'', was a document published by the British government on 24 September 2002 on the same day of a recall of Parliament to discuss the contents of the document. The paper was part of an ongoing investigation by the government into weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, which ultimately led to the invasion of Iraq six months later. It contained a number of allegations according to which Iraq also possessed WMD, including chemical weapons and biological weapons. The dossier even alleged that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons programme. Without exception, all of the allegations included within the September Dossier have been since proven to be false, as shown by the Iraq Survey Group. The much-anticipated document was based on reports made by the Joint Intelligence Committee, part of the British Intelligence 'machinery'. Most of the evidence was uncr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Kelly (weapons Expert)
David Christopher Kelly (14 May 1944 – 17 July 2003) was a Welsh scientist and authority on biological warfare (BW). A former head of the Defence Microbiology Division working at Porton Down, Kelly was part of a joint US-UK team that inspected civilian biotechnology facilities in Russia in the early 1990s and concluded they were running a covert and illegal BW programme. He was appointed to the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) in 1991 as one of its chief weapons inspectors in Iraq and led ten of the organisation's missions between May 1991 and December 1998. He also worked with UNSCOM's successor, the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and led several of their missions into Iraq. During his time with UNMOVIC he was key in uncovering the anthrax production programme at the Salman Pak facility, and a BW programme run at Al Hakum. A year after the publication of the 2002 dossier on Iraqi weapons of mass destruction—which state ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Operation Southern Focus
Operation Southern Focus was a period in the months leading up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq (called "Operation Iraqi Freedom" in the United States) in which the military responses to violations of the southern Iraqi no-fly zones were increased, with more intensive bombing of air defense artillery installations and other military complexes. It also marked a period of increased intelligence gathering. The operation lasted from June 2002 until the beginning of the invasion in March 2003. It was intended to be a "softening up" period prior to invasion, degrading Iraq's air defense and communication abilities. Lieutenant General T. Michael Moseley revealed the operation's existence in mid-2003. Operation The operation was not publicly declared at the time, and was just said to be an intensification of the already-existing Operation Southern Watch. When it began, the United States Defense Department and CENTCOM stated that increasing numbers of bombings of Iraqi installations in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Office Of Special Plans
An office is a space where an organization's employees perform administrative work in order to support and realize objects and goals of the organization. The word "office" may also denote a position within an organization with specific duties attached to it (see officer, office-holder, official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the location of one's duty. When used as an adjective, the term "office" may refer to business-related tasks. In law, a company or organization has offices in any place where it has an official presence, even if that presence consists of (for example) a storage silo rather than an establishment with desk-and-chair. An office is also an architectural and design phenomenon: ranging from a small office such as a bench in the corner of a small business of extremely small size (see small office/home office), through entire floors of buildings, up to and including massive buildings dedicated entirely to one c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Goldsmith Memo
A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Nowadays they mainly specialize in jewelry-making but historically, goldsmiths have also made silverware, platters, goblets, decorative and serviceable utensils, and ceremonial or religious items. Goldsmiths must be skilled in forming metal through filing, soldering, sawing, forging, casting, and polishing. The trade has very often included jewelry-making skills, as well as the very similar skills of the silversmith. Traditionally, these skills had been passed along through apprenticeships; more recently jewelry arts schools, specializing in teaching goldsmithing and a multitude of skills falling under the jewelry arts umbrella, are available. Many universities and junior colleges also offer goldsmithing, silversmithing, and metal arts fabrication as a part of their fine arts curriculum. Gold Compared to other metals, gold is malleable, ductile, rare, and it is the only soli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Downing Street Memo
The Downing Street memo (or the Downing Street Minutes), sometimes described by critics of the Iraq War as the smoking gun memo, is the note of a 23 July 2002 secret meeting of senior British government, defence and intelligence figures discussing the build-up to the war, which included direct reference to classified United States policy of the time. The name refers to 10 Downing Street, the residence of the British prime minister. The memo, written by Downing Street foreign policy aide Matthew Rycroft, recorded the head of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) as expressing the view following his recent visit to Washington that " eorge W.Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." It quoted Foreign Secretary Jack Straw as saying it was clear that Bush had "made up his mind" to take military action but that "the case was thin." Straw als ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
