Blue's News

Another installment of news you should be aware of. Just a note that often I might include a story that requires registration to read; if you don't wish to register at a particular site just to read a particular story, you can use logons at BugMeNot. If you use the Firefox browser, there's a BugMeNot plug-in that makes the process extremely easy.

If you only read one news story this week, you really should read more. But if you do only read one, this is probably it. This story discusses the Downing Street Memo and the subsequent memos that have come out and puts them into perspective. The story also includes links to all of the memos so you can see them for yourself...

Associated Press: "Memos Show British Concern Over Iraq Plans"

LONDON - When Prime Minister Tony Blair' chief foreign policy adviser dined with Condoleezza Rice six months after Sept. 11, the then-U.S. national security adviser didn't want to discuss Osama bin Laden or al-Qaida. She wanted to talk about "regime change" in Iraq, setting the stage for the U.S.-led invasion more than a year later.

President Bush wanted Blair's support, but British officials worried the White House was rushing to war, according to a series of leaked secret Downing Street memos that have renewed questions and debate about Washington's motives for ousting
Saddam Hussein...

The eight memos - all labeled "secret" or "confidential" - were first obtained by British reporter Michael Smith, who has written about them in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times.

Smith told AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.

The AP obtained copies of six of the memos (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material.

The eight documents total 36 pages and range from 10-page and eight-page studies on military and legal options in Iraq, to brief memorandums from British officials and the minutes of a private meeting held by Blair and his top advisers.

Toby Dodge, an Iraq expert who teaches at Queen Mary College, University of London, said the documents confirmed what post-invasion investigations have found.

"The documents show what official inquiries in Britain already have, that the case of weapons of mass destruction was based on thin intelligence and was used to inflate the evidence to the level of mendacity," Dodge said. "In going to war with Bush, Blair defended the special relationship between the two countries, like other British leaders have. But he knew he was taking a huge political risk at home. He knew the war's legality was questionable and its unpopularity was never in doubt."

Dodge said the memos also show Blair was aware of the postwar instability that was likely among Iraq's complex mix of Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds once Saddam was defeated.

The British documents confirm, as well, that "soon after 9/11 happened, the starting gun was fired for the invasion of Iraq," Dodge said.

Washington Post: "U.S. Pressure Weakens G-8 Climate Plan"

Bush administration officials working behind the scenes have succeeded in weakening key sections of a proposal for joint action by the eight major industrialized nations to curb climate change.

Under U.S. pressure, negotiators in the past month have agreed to delete language that would detail how rising temperatures are affecting the globe, set ambitious targets to cut carbon dioxide emissions and set stricter environmental standards for World Bank-funded power projects, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post. Negotiators met this week in London to work out details of the document, which is slated to be adopted next month at the Group of Eight's annual meeting in Scotland.

The administration's push to alter the G-8's plan on global warming marks its latest effort to edit scientific or policy documents to accord with its position that mandatory carbon dioxide cuts are unnecessary. Under mounting international pressure to adopt stricter controls on heat-trapping gas emissions, Bush officials have consistently sought to modify U.S. government and international reports that would endorse a more aggressive approach to mitigating global warming...

The wording of the international document, titled "Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development," will help determine what, if any, action the G-8 countries will take as a group to combat global warming. Every member nation except the United States has pledged to bring its greenhouse gas emissions down to 1990 levels by 2012 as part of the Kyoto Protocol, an international treaty, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair -- who currently heads the G-8 -- is trying to coax the United States into adopting stricter climate controls.

In preparation for the summit, negotiators are trying to work out the wording of statements on climate change and other issues that leaders of all eight nations are willing to endorse. The language is not final, but the documents show that a number of deletions have been made at U.S. insistence.

Although the new statement by G-8 leaders may not dramatically alter the other nations' policies on global warming, what it says could mark a shift for the United States. (The other G-8 members are Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia.) U.S. officials pressed negotiators to drop sections of the report that highlight some problems tied to global warming, warn of more frequent droughts and floods, and commit a specific dollar amount to promoting carbon sequestration in developing countries.

One deleted section, for example, initially cited "increasingly compelling evidence of climate change, including rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures, retreating ice sheets and glaciers, rising sea levels, and changes to ecosystems." It added: "Inertia in the climate system means that further warming is inevitable. Unless urgent action is taken, there will be a growing risk of adverse effects on economic development, human health and the natural environment, and of irreversible long-term changes to our climate and oceans."

Instead, U.S. negotiators substituted a sentence that reads, "Climate change is a serious long term challenge that has the potential to affect every part of the globe."

NY Times: "Senate Makes Environment the Focus of Energy Bill"

WASHINGTON, June 16 - Heading toward a collision with the House and White House, the Senate sought Thursday to put an environmentally friendly stamp on its energy legislation as lawmakers and President Bush struggle to agree on an elusive national power policy.

In an effort to strengthen their hand in looming negotiations with the House, senators voted 52 to 48 to require power companies to use more renewable fuels like wind and solar power to generate electricity. At the same time, the Finance Committee approved a $14 billion tax incentive package that rewards alternative fuels and energy efficiency.

"Renewable energy will power our homes and businesses without polluting the air we breathe or the water we drink," said Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic leader.

But the Senate did not go as far as he and other Democrats had urged, rejecting by a vote of 53 to 47 a Democratic proposal to establish a goal of a 40 percent reduction in oil imports within 20 years. Critics had called the target unattainable and pointed to a provision that calls on the president to try to reduce oil consumption by one million barrels a day.

Yet the direction the Senate is taking on energy policy is putting it at odds with the House, where longtime oil industry allies have already produced a measure favoring traditional fossil fuels. The Bush administration also opposes the utility requirements approved by the Senate as well as the provision encouraging the drop in oil use.

Lawmakers acknowledged that the contents of the tax package, which provides an array of tax breaks for alternative power, hybrid vehicles and energy-efficient appliances and home construction, was purposefully written to provide a sharp contrast with the House, where the weight was on tax breaks for the traditional power industry...

But lawmakers are already preparing for the negotiations with the House. Senator Jeff Bingaman of New Mexico, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said resolving the wide gap between the House and Senate might require the deep involvement of the White House, which has been clamoring for an energy measure.

"The White House can either be a big help in that process or they can be a hindrance," Mr. Bingaman said. "I hope they will be a help."

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