Anti-Israel material at Democrat headquarters in Washington draws condemnation

The distribution of Israel-critical material during a public forum questioning the Iraq policy of US president George Bush at a forum of the US Democratic Party have drawn an angry response and charges of anti-Semitism from party chairman Howard Dean. "We disavow the anti-Semitic literature, and the Democratic National Committee stands in absolute disagreement with and condemns the allegations," Dean said in a statement posted the Democrats' website on Friday. A Democratic Congressman organized the forum in Washington to publicize and discuss the so-called Downing Street memo of British prime minister Tony Blair. The event occurred in a small meeting room on Capitol Hill, and an overflow crowd watched witnesses on television in a conference room at Democratic Party's National Headquarters. According to Dean, some material distributed within this room implied that Israel was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. One witness, former intelligence analyst Ray McGovern, told Conyers and other House Democrats that the war was part of an effort to allow the United States and Israel to "dominate that part of the world," a statement Dean also condemned.