The documents help prove the leaders made a secret decision to oust 
Saddam Hussein nearly a year before launching their attack, shaped 
intelligence to that aim, and never seriously intended to avert the war 
through diplomacy.

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Bush critics' ire builds over British reports on runup to Iraq war
By John Daniszewski, Los Angeles Times  |  May 13, 2005

      LONDON -- Reports in the British media this month based on 
documents indicating that President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair 
had conditionally agreed by July 2002 to invade Iraq appear to have 
blown over quickly in Britain.

      But in the United States, where the reports at first received 
scant attention, there has been a growing groundswell of indignation 
among critics of the Bush White House, who say the documents help prove 
the leaders made a secret decision to oust Saddam Hussein nearly a year 
before launching their attack, shaped intelligence to that aim, and 
never seriously intended to avert the war through diplomacy.

      The documents, obtained by Michael Smith, a defense specialist 
writing for the Sunday Times of London, include minutes of a July 23, 
2002, meeting of Blair and his intelligence and military chiefs, a 
briefing paper for that meeting, and a Foreign Office legal opinion 
prepared before the summit of Blair and Bush in Crawford, Texas, on 
April 6-7, 2002.

      The picture that emerges from the documents is of a British 
government convinced of the United States wanting to go to war against 
Saddam Hussein, and Blair agreeing, subject to several specific 
conditions.

      The leaked minutes summed up a July 23 meeting held at Downing 
Street, where Blair, his top security advisers, and his attorney general 
discussed Britain's role in Washington's plan to oust Hussein. The 
minutes written by a foreign policy aide, Matthew Rycroft, indicate 
general thoughts among participants about how to create a political and 
a legal basis for a war. The case for military action at the time was 
''thin," Foreign Minister Jack Straw was characterized as saying.

      Labeled ''secret and strictly personal -- UK eyes only," the 
minutes begin with the head of British intelligence, MI6, telling 
meeting participants that he had returned from Washington, where there 
was a ''perceptible shift in attitude. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, 
through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and 
WMD. But the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the 
policy."

      Straw then proposed to ''work up a plan for an ultimatum to 
Saddam" to permit weapons inspectors back into the country.

      In addition to the minutes, the Sunday Times account referred to a 
Cabinet briefing paper that was given participants prior to the actual 
July 2002 meeting, which stated that Blair had already promised Bush 
cooperation earlier, at the April summit in Texas.

      In a letter to Bush last week, 89 House Democrats expressed shock 
at the documents. They asked if the documents were true and if so, did 
they not prove that the White House had already agreed on an invasion 
months before seeking authorization from Congress.

      ''If the disclosure is accurate, it raises troubling new questions 
regarding the legal justifications for the war as well as the integrity 
of our own administration," the letter said.
 
Copyright 2005 The New York Times Company