...and indignant lies

After angrily telling Helen Thomas "No President wants war," the Judy Miller, Wiretap hiding, Sudan advertising Times reported yesterday on a SECOND British Government memo (the first Downing Street memo, reported by the UK's Sunday Times in May 2005, that in late July of '02, the course for war was set and "the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy"). The new memo, dated roughly six weeks before bombing starts, includes presumptions of war (even if no WMDs are found) and new and exciting ways to provoke war:

"During a private two-hour meeting in the Oval Office on Jan. 31, 2003, he made clear to Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain that he was determined to invade Iraq without the second resolution, or even if international arms inspectors failed to find unconventional weapons,"
snip
"Our diplomatic strategy had to be arranged around the military planning," David Manning, Mr. Blair's chief foreign policy adviser at the time, wrote in the memo that summarized the discussion between Mr. Bush, Mr. Blair and six of their top aides. The start date for the military campaign was now penciled in for 10 March," Mr. Manning wrote, paraphrasing the president. "This was when the bombing would begin."
snip
Without much elaboration, the memo also says the president raised three possible ways of provoking a confrontation. Since they were first reported last month, neither the White House nor the British government has discussed them.

"The U.S. was thinking of flying U2 reconnaissance aircraft with fighter cover over Iraq, painted in U.N. colours," the memo says, attributing the idea to Mr. Bush. "If Saddam fired on them, he would be in breach."

My guess is that Helen Thomas should start wearing a disguise to the White House Press Room, because she will never be called on again. And that's a shame, because the Grand Dame' of the White House press corps has been the only one in there with the courage to consistantly stand up to Chucklenutz and Scotty. These hucksters were yelling and screaming for Clinton's blood. Listen, i can't stand Clinton. But which is the high crime? Lying about an affair? Or misleading us into war, sending thousands of our kids to die and be injured for life while wiretapping us and trying to search our homes illegally? Five years later, the press starts to vaguely wake up from its coma, and now all Chucklenutz does is complain about the media being out to get him. You got a four plus year free pass, buddy. Give it a rest.

And he's still getting a free pass. This story is buried on the Times's site. It took me 10 minutes to find it, and I KNEW it was there. It's really amazing to me that this story of GLOBAL importance disappeared from the Times webpages so quickly. Why report this story and bury it?