Downing Street Memo

The Downing Street memo (sometimes abbreviated to DSM ) is the protocol of a secret meeting of the Labour government with defense and intelligence officials on 23 July 2002 at Downing Street ( London). At the meeting, Prime Minister Tony Blair, Defense Minister Geoffrey Hoon, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Justice Minister Peter Goldsmith, the head of the Joint Intelligence Committee John Scarlett, the director of the Secret Intelligence Service Sir Richard Dearlove involved ( in the memo "C "), and the chief of the Defence Council, Admiral Sir Michael Boyce, Blair's foreign policy adviser David Manning, his spokesman Jonathan Powell, his strategy consultant Alastair Campbell and the government consultant Sally Morgan. They discussed the looming war in Iraq with a direct reference and analysis of U.S. policy at this time. The memo was written by the British diplomat Matthew Rycroft and first published in The Sunday Times on 1 May 2005. In German, it was released in June 2005 at the summer issue of LI 69 Lettre International.

The memo attracted great attention in the UK and later the U.S. and weblogs. Particularly in light of the statement of MI6 Director Sir Richard Dearlove, who reported after previous talks in Washington, "Bush wanted to remove Saddam through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But facts and findings would be treated in accordance with the policy. "This statement made ​​it clear that George W. Bush was already planning eight months before the start of the Iraq war in March 2003, einzumaschieren in Iraq and occupy it.