Memogate Defence Is No Defence At All

Imagine if a bank robber, on being faced with evidence of his crime, said "Ah, but you alleged I had done it all along, there's no new information here." The immediate reaction would be "But this proves it!

A pattern is beginning to emerge. The official spin, from both Blair and Bush's camps, is that the 'Downing Street Memo' contains "nothing new". That's the defence we are hearing from Downing Street, White House and pro-war pundits alike - it's all old allegations that are identical to those made before even the US Presidential elections, nothing new to see, move along.

But here's the rub. The memo itself is new and real. It provides documentary proof of those very allegations that were pooh-poohed when ex members of both Bush and Blair's administrations made them months ago. It is an official internal "eyes-only" document of America's second biggest ally in the war in Iraq. (I say second biggest because American corporations now comprise the biggest ally of US military forces, even in terms of fingers on triggers - there are more armed corporate mercenaries working for the Yankee dollar than there are soldiers who took the Queen's shilling in Iraq by a factor of two to one.)

The British and American governments, faced with an official document in the hands of one of the world's premier newspapers, the London Times, cannot even dispute the documents authenticity for they know if they cry forgery their claims will be debunked forthwith. They must settle for weasel words, saying nothing but "no comment" when asked whether the memo is authentic and "nothing new" when questioned on it's content. They have no real defence and must fall back on pure spin.

It's the same pure spin as the "we went to war for freedom, not WMD's" tosh that apologist pundits print by the bucketload - even though, as Editor and Publisher pointed out in no uncertain terms yesterday, in that case too the spin certainly isn't true.

Unfortunately, this Real Memogate isn't a controlled release. It cannot be decried to the point of absurdity as the documents given to Dan Rather were. Doubtless Karl Rove wishes he had thought of releasing forged documents with true information in this case, before some British civil servant leaked the real deal. This Memo has true information in an authentic government memo - and it proves that Bush and Blair rushed to war, misleading their nations and even their closest colleagues who were not "in the loop".

There is no plausible deniability here.

We, the people, are being done a disservice by those who would sweep this matter away as "old news". The allegations are old but the proof of them is new - which makes the allegations suddenly worthy of investigation and, yes, impeachment or even charges of war crimes. Remember that and remember that we, the people, must demand accountability from our elected leaders.