On Saturday, July 23, over 300 events organized by the AfterDowningStreet.org coalition and Rep. John Conyers will mark the three-year anniversary of the meeting at No. 10 Downing Street in London that was recorded in the now infamous minutes known as the “Downing Street memo.” Members of Congress will be hosting some of the events, including ones in Detroit, Inglewood, Calif., Seattle, Oakland, Calif., and New York City.

BOB FERTIK
Fertik is co-founder of the group After Downing Street. He said today: “The invasion of Iraq was a war crime based on lies. A recent Zogby poll found that 42 percent of Americans believe George Bush should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, and the Downing Street minutes prove that Bush lied.” [This Saturday from 2-4 p.m. Bob Fertik will moderate an event at the New York Society for Ethical Culture that includes Rep. Maurice Hinchey and former Rep. Liz Holtzman.] More Information

TIM GOODRICH
Goodrich is co-founder of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a member of the After Downing Street coalition. He will be speaking at an event on July 23 in Inglewood, Calif., hosted by Rep. Maxine Waters. From a family with a tradition of military service, Goodrich grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and enlisted in the Air Force at the age of 18. He deployed overseas twice in support of Operation Southern Watch (patrolling the southern “no-fly zone” over Iraq) and once in support of Operation Enduring Freedom (operations against Afghanistan), where he earned combat veteran status. His last deployment was spent supporting the bombing of Iraq before the formal commencement of hostilities. Goodrich said today: “Downing Street memos show without a doubt that Bush and Blair were intent on invading Iraq despite the diplomatic outcome. This is a betrayal of trust to the people of the world and there must now be accountability, combined with immediate withdrawal of all occupying forces in Iraq.” Last month, Goodrich testified in the World Tribunal on Iraq where he said: “I was there in Iraq in fall of 2002 when the war was already happening even though it was not officially announced. We were dropping bombs then, and I saw bombing intensify as a part of the ‘softening up’ of Iraq’s defenses. All the documents coming out now, the Downing Street memo and others, confirm what I had witnessed in Iraq. The war had already begun while our leaders were telling us that they were going to try all diplomatic options first.”
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DAVID SWANSON
Swanson is co-founder of the group After Downing Street. Swanson said today: “Working together, using the Internet and other forms of new media, hundreds of thousands of regular citizens have come together to force the issue of Bush’s pre-war deception onto the national agenda.”

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy:
Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020; or David Zupan, (541) 484-9167