Steve Watson
Infowars.net
Friday, November 24, 2006

Newly released documents show that the Australian government knew a US led military invasion was on the cards 13 months before it went ahead, and gave unequivocal support with a promise to participate in the occupation.

Once again proving a participating government has lied to its people over the Iraq invasion, the documents contradict John Howard's government's statements that it did not decide to join the war before the invasion was debated in the United Nations in late 2002 and early 2003.

In February 2002 the Australian Ambassador to the UN stated to the Australian Wheat Board, which was previously investigated for Iraq kickbacks, that he "believed that US military action to depose Saddam Hussein was inevitable and that at this time the Australian Government would support and participate in such action,".

This is the latest in a long line of leaked evidence that proves the final plan of attack was formulated between December 2001 and February 2002. Further leaked documents have shown that Tony Blair personally agreed to back the US led invasion at this time. In the run up to the war, the British government doctored intelligence on Iraq's weapons programs, and Blair assured Bush that, like the Australians, he would back him with or without a second UN resolution.

In December 2001 the London Observer reported that the US was secretly planning to invade Iraq and intended to depose Saddam Hussein by giving armed support to Iraqi opposition forces across the country. Key players cited in the military planning at that time were General Tommy Franks, former CIA director James Woolsey, Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and chairman of the joint chiefs General Richard Myers.

The Washington Post later verified this, reporting that beginning in late December 2001, President Bush met repeatedly with Army Gen. Tommy R. Franks and his war cabinet to plan the U.S. attack on Iraq even as he and administration spokesmen insisted they were pursuing a diplomatic solution.

The Post reported that Vice President Cheney led the group and had developed what some of his colleagues felt was a "fever" about removing Hussein by force.

In February 2002 it was reported, again by the Observer, that Bush and Blair were to hold summits to "finalise Phase Two of the war against terrorism" and finalise the plot for military action against Iraq. This came after a series of long telephone conversations in December and January during which Bush kept Blair aware of his plans for military action.

These summits would be where the "evidence of Iraq's nuclear capabilities." would be cooked up. The British government began finalization of a document to reveal that Saddam was attempting to amass rudimentary nuclear capabilities and a way to launch 'dirty' nuclear bombs.

A Downing Street official stated at the time that it was an issue of public persuasion: "As with Osama bin Laden and the war in Afghanistan, it is necessary to maintain public and international support for military action against Saddam.

Earlier this month the London Observer reported that they had received new information that corroborates this timeline:

The 'Iraq Options' paper, a document produced by the Overseas and Defence Secretariat at the cabinet office on 8 March 2002 which was not mentioned anywhere in the Butler inquiry into the war, stated:

"In the judgment of the JIC, there is no recent evidence of Iraq complicity with international terrorism. There is, therefore, no justification for action against Iraq based on self-defence to combat imminent threats of terrorism as in Afghanistan."

We later learned of the Downing Street memo, which detailed a meeting held at Downing Street on 23 July 2002. It described a visit to Washington by Sir Richard Dearlove, the head of MI6, and his conclusion that George W Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD and that the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.

According to the Observer Lord Butler saw this memo but refrained from investigating it in his inquiry into the lead up to the war. When the story broke in May/June 2005 there was a huge media hush in the US where it was barely even mentioned.

The intelligence fixing continued throughout the rest of the year and by January 2003 the neocons were itching to invade. At this time Bush sought conclusive backing from Blair, who despite initially suggesting waiting for the UN, "solidly" agreed to back the military option.

This was revealed earlier this year in a leaked secret memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003, nearly two months before the invasion. Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons program.

This was the same memo in which it was revealed that Bush and Blair considered staging a war provocation by painting a US spy plane in UN colors and flying it over Iraq, in the hope that Saddam would order it shot down.

In February 2003 Bush ordered Colin Powell in front of the UN to tell them some portable toilets were weapons factories, and the rest is history.

Once more we are further reminded of the long staging of this illegal, unjust and ongoing war that has brought chaos and dissolution to the entire planet. Last month a call to hold a new UK parliamentary inquiry into the Iraq war was defeated.

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