Congressional Hearings Scheduled

This was the goal of the After Downing Street campaign when it formed only two weeks ago. The hearings, called by Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other Democrats on that committee, will hear testimony concerning the Bush administration's plans, reported in the July, 2002, Downing Street Minutes, to invade Iraq and make the supporting intelligence fit that decision -- over six months before getting congressional or U.N. authorization, and at a time when the administration was telling the public that no decision to invade had been made.

The hearings will be held on Thursday, June 16, at a place to be determined. All the particulars of when and where will be posted when available at AfterDowningStreet.org.

The committee will listen to testimony given by:

• Joe Wilson, Former Ambassador and WMD Expert
• Ray McGovern, 27-year CIA analyst who prepared regular Presidential briefings during the Reagan administration
• Cindy Sheehan, the mother of Casey Sheehan, who was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004.
• John Bonifaz, renowned constitutional lawyer and co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org.

John Conyers has been working since shortly after the DSM was published in the London Times on May 1 to get these hearings scheduled; and also to get at least 100,000 signatures on a letter to Pres. Bush demanding answers to the questions raised by the DSM. To date, over 500,000 Americans, and close to 100 members of Congress, have signed the letter. Conyers will hand-deliver the letter to Pres. Bush directly after the hearings.

This is what all of us at AfterDowningStreet and the Big Brass Alliance have been working for since late May. Millions of Americans have joined the movement begun by hundreds of bloggers and a large and growing network of veterans and peace activism groups.

Folks, THIS is what democracy looks like. I think we should allow ourselves to feel exhilarated, because in spite of all the wounds inflicted on the freedoms guaranteed us in the Constitution in the past three-plus years, our democracy is not fatally injured. All of us, and all of YOU, have proved that today.