British Journalist Michael Smith, 'Downing Street Memo'
Read the Full Memo
The memo is dated July 23, 2002, and was sent by Matthew Rycroft, then a British foreign policy adviser, to David Manning, Britain's ambassador to the U.S.
British journalist Michael Smith writes about defense issues for the Sunday Times of London. He's the journalist to whom the so-called Downing Street memo was leaked.
The memo -- the minutes of a July 23, 2002, meeting of Britain's War Cabinet -- reveals that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair began the war on the Iraq before Bush received congressional approval and before a U.N. vote.
Smith also was leaked a memo from March 2002 to Blair from Foreign Secretary Jack Straw stating there was no evidence that Saddam Hussein had any weapons of mass destruction.
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