BUSH-BLAIR SECRET PACT

A secret agreement between Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair made war in Iraq a foregone conclusion just nine days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C.

The new information comes from Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British ambassador to the United states.

The Observer, citing a forthcoming 25,000-word Vanity Fair article, writes:

According to Sir Christopher Meyer, the former British Ambassador to Washington, who was at the dinner when Blair became the first foreign leader to visit America after 11 September, Blair told Bush he should not get distracted from the war on terror's initial goal - dealing with the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Bush, claims Meyer, replied by saying: 'I agree with you, Tony. We must deal with this first. But when we have dealt with Afghanistan, we must come back to Iraq.' Regime change was already US policy.

Of course, none of this is really surprising in spirit, since the current administration comprises those neoconservative folks from Project for a New American Century, which advocated the overthrow of Saddam Hussein during the Clinton administration.