Below our gracious host posted a BBC story about a new leaked memo from the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. The memo supposedly records a Bush-Blair White House summit on January 31, 2003, at which they (among other things) agreed on war whether or not they got a second UN resolution.
Is the memo real, and an accurate depiction of events? Well, Bush and Blair definitely did meet on January 31. And something else the memo says is that Bush told Blair “that the US would put its full weight behind efforts to get another resolution and would twist arms and threaten.”
Now, perhaps you remember the leaked email from the NSA about its plans to bug the members of the UN Security Council:
…the Agency is mounting a surge particularly directed at the UN Security Council (UNSC) members (minus US and GBR of course) for insights as to how to membership is reacting to the on-going debate RE: Iraq, plans to vote on any related resolutions, what related policies/ negotiating positions they may be considering, alliances/ dependencies, etc – the whole gamut of information that could give US policymakers an edge in obtaining results favorable to US goals…
Again, the date of the Bush-Blair meeting was January 31, 2003.
The date of the leaked NSA email? January 31, 2003.
Huh.