Downing Street Memo - Smoking Gun Memo
Also called the Smoking Gun Memo by the critics of Iraq war, the DSM (Downing Street Memo) was first published on May 1, 2005 in The Sunday Times. The memo overviews a secret meeting that took place between the defense and intelligence personnel’s of UK and the labor government of UK. The meeting took place on the 23rd of July 2002. According to the memo, the meeting was held to discuss the build-up to the war in Iraq. It also contains references made to the classified policies of U.S at the time. The meeting was held to fix the intelligence and the facts around the policy which was directed towards removal of Saddam. The invasion was to be justified by the linking terrorism and WMD`s to the Iraqi regime.
The memo was initially largely ignored by the press in U.S. However its coverage in the blogs was heavy. The memo was progressively picked up by the press in U.S especially after the remarks of the head of MI6 (British foreign Intelligence service) Richard Dearlove. Dearlove said that the facts and the intelligence were being falsified by the U.S in order to suit their policy of removing Saddam from Power.
Though the issue became popular in the American media, some elements in the U.S media claimed the documents to be fraudulent. However despite the interest generated in these allegations by the media, both UK and US officials have failed to affirm or deny the authenticity of the content in the memo.
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