Time to Focus on Iraq

"In the closest version so far to a congressional hearing on the Downing Street memo, Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., will head a forum examining the document. That will be followed by an Internet-organized rally in front of the White House. Conyers plans to deliver the signatures of 105 congressional Democrats and more than 500,000 citizens on petitions demanding a detailed response from the Bush administration to the memo's allegations."

The memo has been supplemented by several leaked briefing papers, which you can read on the Think Progress Web site.

Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball write for Newsweek.com: "Two senior British government officials today acknowledged as authentic a series of 2002 pre-Iraq war memos stating that Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons program was 'effectively frozen' and that there was 'no recent evidence' of Iraqi ties to international terrorism -- private conclusions that contradicted two key pillars of the Bush administration's public case for the invasion in March 2003."

How About a Follow Up Question?

The White House press corps is still failing when it comes to subjecting the White House to the sort of concerted, detailed, insistent questioning the Downing Street memos merit.

For example, here's one exchange from yesterday's press briefing with Scott McClellan:

"Q Scott, more official British documents are seeming to indicate that the Bush administration was trying to justify an invasion of Iraq as early as March, 2002. And tomorrow, Representative John Conyers, as you know, is holding some Democratic hearings to get testimony about this. Is the President concerned that as more documents come out seeming to indicate a decision very early on to invade Iraq and possible manipulating --

"MR. McCLELLAN: I think you've asked these questions, the President has been asked these questions, and I think it's been addressed."

And that was it. It was on to the next question.

Gitmo Watch

Charles Babington writes in The Washington Post: "Key lawmakers, alarmed by international condemnation of U.S. treatment of prisoners at the military prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, said yesterday they will press Congress to intervene in detainee policies despite the Bush administration's claim that running the detention camp is the province of the executive branch and the military."

Tom Raum writes for the Associated Press: "The growing strains among Republicans became evident Wednesday as Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the Judiciary Committee chairman, scolded the GOP-run Congress for not doing more to clarify the rights of detainees.

" 'It may be that it's too hot to handle for Congress, may be that it's too complex to handle for Congress, or it may be that Congress wants to sit back as we customarily do. . . . But at any rate, Congress hasn't acted,' Specter said."

Meanwhile, Cooper notes in the Wall Street Journal: "Although other senior administration officials have held out hope that an alternative to Guantanamo Bay will be found, White House spokesman Scott McClellan yesterday threw cold water on such prospects, when he said Mr. Rumsfeld was 'talking for the administration' when he noted that construction projects are under way in Guantanamo Bay to make the facility more or less permanent. 'There are no plans, as we have said, for closing or shutting down Guantanamo Bay at this time,' Mr. McClellan said."