7-17-05, 8:46 am

To highlight several leaked British government documents that indicate the Bush administration was 'fixing' intelligence to support the drive to war with Iraq, activists around the country are planning over 150 events on July 23, 2005. July 23 will mark the three-year anniversary of the meeting at #10 Downing Street in London, England, the official residence of the British Prime Minister, which was recorded in the now infamous minutes known as the 'Downing Street Memo.'

Several of the events will be hosted by or participated in by Members of Congress, including John Conyers in Detroit, Jim McDermott in Seattle, Barbara Lee in Oakland, Maxine Waters in Los Angeles, and Maurice Hinchey in New York. Congressman Charles Rangel will host an electronic town-hall meeting, answering questions from his New York constituents on the Internet, from noon to 1 p.m., July 22. Congressman Xavier Becerra will host an event in Los Angeles on July 30, and Congressman Barney Frank in Boston on July 31.

Co-founder of the After Downing Street Coalition, a growing coalition of veterans’, peace, and political activist groups that are calling for an investigation to determine whether the President committed impeachable offenses related to the drive for war with Iraq launched the anniversary events. Constitutional attorney and author of 'Warrior-king: the Case for Impeaching George W. Bush,' John Bonifaz will speak at a town hall meeting on July 23rd in Northampton, Massachusetts. In addition to these high profile events, on July 23rd, in over 150 towns and cities, prominent speakers and ordinary citizens will hold public forums, perform dramatic recreations of the Downing Street meeting, and host house parties and study circles. Sixty-six events and counting are listed online at . Additional events are scheduled for surrounding days.

The agenda at various of these events will include speeches, panel discussions, viewing of DVDs, dramatic recreations of the Downing Street Minutes, debates, writing postcards and letters to congress members and senators not present, writing letters to the editor, training participants in effective lobbying, honoring local fallen soldiers, and planning local marches and flyering campaigns – with such actions in some cases immediately following the event. Resources for these events have been made available by the After Downing Street Coalition at .

Participants around the country will be encouraged to: promote coverage of the Downing Street Minutes by their local media, gather signatures on Congressman Conyers’ letter to the President asking for explanations of the Downing Street Minutes (there are now 131 signatures by congress members and over 576,984 by U.S. citizens), promote support for a Resolution of Inquiry expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives, promote support for a Resolution expected to be introduced in the House of Representatives, which would create a select committee to investigate reports of a pre-war deal between the United Kingdom and the United States and evidence that pre-war intelligence was intentionally manipulated. lobby the Senate Intelligence Committee to conduct the investigation of pre-war intelligence that it has failed to follow through on. In addition, Congressman Conyers’ office has organized 105 house parties through its website. Conyers initiated an electronic petition to be sent to President bush calling for an honest explanation. The letter was co-signed by 90 other members of Congress and almost 600,000 people. So many people flooded Conyers’ website with support that he had to close it down for several days in order to upgrade it to handle the volume.

Conyers is also scheduled to hold a national conference call with Ambassador Joe Wilson, a target of the White House after Wilson published information that discredited the Bush administration’s claim that Iraq tried to buy nuclear material from Niger.

The 'blog-o-sphere' will be alive with the thoughts and reports of attendees of the events and conference calls throughout the day.

In London, a group of actors and activists will perform a dramatic recreation of the Downing Street Memo as a Mad Hatter’s Tea Party just outside the gates to Downing Street in London, England. The event is being organized by members of Bedford Stop the War, a member of UK’s Stop the War Coalition and of the After Downing Street coalition.

Find more specific information about local events at .