What happened to the "Downing Street Memos"? Were they valid and authentic? Congress asleep?

Question

If the memos are valid, high treason is obvious.

Answer 1

No, and no.

They offered nothing that wasn't already known, other than a new rallying cry for the perpetually malcontented left.

Answer 2

The memos was shown to be valid, and the subsequent invasion of Iraq has only reinforced the memo's claims. There are folks who still insist upon criticizing it, like former Senator Santorum. Most of these folks also falsely claim that WMDs have been found in Iraq.

The folks who insist the Downing Street Memo is invalid and the folks who insist 9/11 was an inside job have something in common. They're placing their what they want to believe ahead of reality.

As for high treason charges...

Charging, trying and convicting Bush and Co. of High Treason would probably do more to help America's image abroad than anything else. Taking all the rotten things the US has done and hanging them on a handful of traitors might gains us some of the credibility and respect we've lost over the last few years.

On the flip side, the financial and business ties of the Bush administration would mean many very wealthy and powerful men and women would be caught up in this as well. In the end, actually convicting the people responsible would be more on the scale of a revolution than legal proceedings. Many of the largest military contractors would see their executives in prison. This would cripple our military and possibly our economy.

Answer 3

I don't know that you could imply legal high treason from them necessarily. Certainly, there's evidence to show the war was willingly based upon false representations of faulty evidence. The other problem is that it's an internal memo in British government hands. This is really only speculation and has no legal bearing here or there.

Answer 4

No one ever produced an original, merely a "copy" which a reporter said he transcribed from an original. Maybe he's lying, or maybe he was genuinely fooled - without the original, no one can tell.

There was also nothing in it that would support any allegation of misconduct.

So there's essentially nothing to report.