Congressmember John Conyers of Michigan has announced that as the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, he has scheduled hearings on the so-called Downing Street Memo and what Conyers calls the administration’s “efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.” The hearing is scheduled for June 16. Conyers also says that he plans to introduce new documents that back up the accuracy of the Downing Streets memo, which is actually the classified minutes of a July 2002 meeting of Tony Blair and his senior advisers. The minutes paint a picture of an administration that had already committed to attacking Iraq, was manipulating intelligence and had already begun bombing Iraq to prepare for the ground invasion. This was almost a year before the actual invasion officially began. In a statement released yesterday, Conyers said next Thursday’s hearing will attempt to answer what he calls “serious constitutional questions raised by these revelations.” Among those scheduled to testify are former US ambassador to Iraq Joe Wilson, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Cindy Sheehan, who lost her son in Iraq and attorney John Bonifaz, who has been calling for Bush’s impeachment. Conyers says that immediately following the hearings, he will deliver a petition to the White House signed by over half a million people. The petition demands that President Bush answer questions about his secret plan for the Iraq invasion.