The administration push to war reportedly energized the frail Pope, aged 84 at the time of his death, who spoke vigorously and publicly against it.

Apr. 19, 2005 – The U.S. Court of Appeals in D.C. turns down a request by Judith Miller to review the previous decision rebuffing her effort to get the grand jury subpoena quashed in the CIA leak case. Miller will appeal to the Supreme Court.

Apr. 25, 2005 – In his final statement, the CIA top inspector in the search for Iraq WMD says that the hunt for weapons of mass destruction “has gone as far as feasible” and is over. The final addendum by Charles Duelfer to the previous report by the Iraq Survey Group also calls for release of detainees being held for putative knowledge of weapons programs.

Apr. 25, 2005 – President Bush meets with Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah at the president’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. They issue a joint statement:

“The United States respects Saudi Arabia as the birthplace of Islam, one of the world's great religions, and as the symbolic center of the Islamic faith as custodian of Islam's two holy places in Makkah and Madina. Saudi Arabia reiterates its call on all those who teach and propagate the Islamic faith to adhere strictly to the Islamic message of peace, moderation, and tolerance and reject that which deviates from those principles. Both countries agree that this message of peace, moderation, and tolerance must extend to those of all faiths and practices. The two nations reaffirm the principles agreed to during the international conference on counterterrorism hosted by the Kingdom in February 2005. These principles were enshrined in the "Riyadh Declaration" which calls for, "fostering values of understanding, tolerance, dialogue, co-existence, and the rapprochement between cultures. . . [and] for fighting any form of thinking that promotes hatred, incites violence, and condones terrorist crimes which can by no means be accepted by any religion or law.”

 
May 1, 2005 – The Sunday Times in London publishes the “Downing Street memo,” making clear once and for all that the administration was determined to go to war with Iraq.
www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/dsmemo.pdf

 
This memo is actually just the first document in a series of leaked memos from 2002, showing communication between the U.S. and the U.K. on war with Iraq, and demonstrating fully that the U.K. government realized that the administration’s plans to attack Iraq were not based on any legal justification. The memos also make clear that both the U.S. and the U.K. administrations recognized that their war ambitions were less than popular, and that they would have to come up with some colorable story to sell war against Iraq to the broader public.
www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/833

May 1, 2005 – Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz leaves the Pentagon. Wolfowitz is slated to join the World Bank.

May 19, 2005 -- A criminal military investigation into the deaths of two prisoners in Afghanistan refutes original Army reports. There appears to have been much more prisoner abuse at the hands of soldiers than was reported.

May 20, 21, 22, 23, 2005 – Emails from the Office of the Vice President for these dates are missing, according to subsequent investigation.

This is the period covering an intensifying cloud over the still GOP-majority Congress. There are calls for the resignation of Rep. Tom Delay (R-Tex.), the target of an investigation into ethical violations—and of a concerted White House effort to dump him overboard by selective interviews with reporters by administration insiders. Meanwhile, investigations into Jack Abramoff widen, eventually taking in congressional aides, other lobbyists, and other members of Congress.