JOHN CONYERS has sent a letter to Donald Rumsfeld requesting that the Secretary of Defense explain why British and U.S. aircraft sharply increased their bombing raids on Iraq at a time when neither the U.S. Congress nor the United Nations had authorized any war or invasion, and in the absence of any real or immediate threat from Iraq. Conyers' letter comes in response to an article in the May 29 edition of the London Times, which revealed that, beginning in May of 2002, the rate at which the U.S. and UK bombed Iraq actually doubled. The stepped-up air attacks were a provocative strategy to goad Iraq into giving the U.S. and the UK an excuse to start a war. In September of 2002, the U.S. and UK launched the air war with a 100-plane raid anyway, even though Iraq had not reacted to the months of increased bombing before that.

The full text of the letter is at BradBlog. BradBlog is a member of the Big Brass Alliance, as is Liberty Street. The BBA formed in May, 2005, as an alliance of progressive bloggers coming together to support the efforts of After Downing Street -- a coalition of veterans groups, peace groups, and political activist groups created to keep the spotlight of public and media attention on the contents of the Downing Street memo, until the U.S. Congress agrees to a formal investigation of whether Pres. Bush has committed impeachable offenses in his conduct of the Iraq war.

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