Bush–Blair 2003 Iraq memo

Tony BlairandGeorge W. Bushaddressing the media after privately discussing the Iraq War

TheBush–Blair 2003 Iraq memoorManning memois a secretmemoof a two-hour meeting betweenAmerican PresidentGeorge W. BushandBritish Prime MinisterTony Blairthat took place on 31 January 2003 at theWhite House.The memo purportedly shows at that point, the administrations of Bush and Blair had already decided that theinvasion of Iraqwould take place two months later. The memo was written by Blair's chief foreign policy adviser,David Manning,who participated in the meeting.

The memo has become controversial for its content, which includes discussing ways to provokeSaddam Husseininto a confrontation, with Bush floating the idea of painting aU-2 spyplaneinUnited Nations(UN) colors and letting it fly low overIraqto provoke Iraq into shooting it down, thus providing a pretext for the subsequent invasion.

It also shows Bush and Blair were making a secret deal to carry out the invasion regardless of whetherweapons of mass destructionwere discovered by UN weapons inspectors, in direct contradiction to statements made by Blair toBritish Parliamentafterwards that Saddam would be given a final chance to disarm.

According to the memo, Bush is paraphrased as saying:

The start date for the military campaign was now pencilled in for 10 March. This was when the bombing would begin.

Bush also said to Blair that he "thought it unlikely that there would be internecine warfare between the different religious and ethnic groups" in Iraq after the war. Five pages long, and classified asextremely sensitive,the existence of the memo was first alleged byPhilippe Sandsin his bookLawless World(2005). It was then obtained by AmericannewspaperThe New York Times,which confirmed its authenticity.

UKLiberal Democrat partyleaderMenzies Campbellsaid, with regard to the memo: "If these allegations are accurate, the Prime Minister and President Bush were determined to go to war with or without a second UN resolution, and Britain was signed up to do so by the end of January 2003."

See also

• Bush-Aznar memo
• Casus belli
• Downing Street memo
• 2004 Iraq document leak
• September Dossier
• Iraq Dossier
• Butler Review
• Iraq Inquiry
• Yellowcake forgery
• Plame affair
• Propaganda
• Dr. David Kelly
• Operation Rockingham
• Hussein Kamel al-Majidand his Testimony forUNSCOM8-22-1995.
• Iraqi aluminum tubes
• Project for the New American Century
• Wolfowitz Doctrine
• Bush Doctrine
• Scott Ritter

External links

• The White House meeting that took us to warBy Oliver King,Guardian Unlimited,February 2, 2006
• Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memoby Richard Norton-Taylor,The Guardian,February 3, 2006
• Bush 'tried to lure Saddam into war using UN aircraft'by Rosemary Bennett and Michael Evans,The Times,February 3, 2006
• Fresh claims about the build-up to Iraq warbyBBC World Service,February 3, 2006
• Bush Was Set on Path to War, Memo by British Adviser Saysby Don Van Natta Jr.,New York Times,March 27, 2006