Memos? What Memos?

The Downing Street Memos bruhaha can be settled very quickly and very simply. The Democrats want hearings on the memos with Bush administration officials testifying. That, too, can be settled just as quickly and just as simply.

Produce the memos.

At this time, there are no memos. Here is what the reporter said who first published his hand typed transcription of the memos:

"I was given them last September while still on the [Daily] Telegraph," Smith, who now works for the London Sunday Times, told Raw Story. "I was given very strict orders from the lawyers as to how to handle them."

"I first photocopied them to ensure they were on our paper and returned the originals, which were on government paper and therefore government property, to the source," he added.

However,

Smith told AP he protected the identity of the source he had obtained the documents from by typing copies of them on plain paper and destroying the originals.

No one in their right mind can believe that hand typed transcriptions of purported secret memos which are then either destroyed or not destroyed and returned or not returned to their source are reliable evidence of anything, other than hearsay. Especially in view of the fact that a British newspaper reporter did the typing and the destroying or not destroying and the returning or not returning. British journalists are held in even lower esteem than American journalists, if you can imagine that.

Put up or shut up. PRODUCE THE MEMOS.

See how easy this is?

Linked to other smoking guns loaded with blanks: Michelle Malkin, The Pete, Liberal Forum, Think Progress, Stoptheinternet, Suburban Guerrilla, SoCal Pundit, The Captain, Flopping Aces, Martini Republic, Red Harvest, Say Anything, RatherGate, Wizbang, All Things Conservative, Daly Thoughts, Phidoux, Open Source, MBLOG, Pajamahadeen, After Party, PSOTD, Winds of Change, Les Enfants Terrible, Information Upload, Progressive Justice, Ace of Spades, Joust the Facts, Another Day in the Empire, Loonatic Left, Pandagon, UNCoRRELATED, Strata-Sphere, The Anchoress, Point Five, Mudville Gazette, Basil's Blog
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