Pacific Views

A question for Scott McClellan

If, as Dubya's press secretary Scott McClellan says, the 'Downing Street memo's assertion that the decision to invade Iraq had already been made in the summer of 2002 is 'flat out wrong,' how does McClellan explain this?

Former Sen. Bob Graham of Florida, who was chairman of the Senate Select Intelligence Committee when Democrats ruled, has written in his book, "Intelligence Matters," about a visit he made to MacDill Air Force Base, home of the U.S. Central Command, on Feb. 19, 2002.

[Note: The date of the Downing Street memo is 23 July 2002 — five months after Graham's visit.]

He was going for a status report on the mission in Afghanistan, Graham wrote, but CENTCOM'S Gen. Tommy Franks called him aside to tell him, "Senator, we are not engaged in a war in Afghanistan."

"Excuse me?"' Graham replied.

"Military and intelligence personnel are being re-deployed to prepare for an action in Iraq," Graham quoted Franks as saying. Graham wrote: "I was stunned. This was the first time I had been informed that the decision to go to war with Iraq had not only been made but was being implemented, to the substantial disadvantage of the war in Afghanistan."

Just wondering.

Posted by Magpie at May 17, 2005 02:07 PM | Iraq | Technorati links |