A couple of readers of this site have sent me links to sites that suggest the Downing Street Memos are forgeries or fakes. The "evidence" of this appears to be from reports in news items like this one that the copies circulating are not originals…
The eight memos all labeled "secret" or "confidential" were first obtained by British reporter Michael Smith, who has written about them in The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Times. 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. The AP obtained copies of six of the memos (the other two have circulated widely). A senior British official who reviewed the copies said their content appeared authentic. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secret nature of the material.
Okay, since that "senior British official" is anonymous, I wouldn't trust that endorsement, in and of itself. But as I understand it, these alleged memos are not, like the infamous Dan Rather letter, the work of one dead person who sent it to another dead person. In this case, the memos were written by and circulated among many folks who are very much alive and able to deny their authenticity. If the documents are fakes, one of the named recipients ought to get up and say so. My guess is that the "senior British official" is one of them responding when the AP reporter called up and said, "Hey, did you get copies of these?" It's hard to believe that they weren't asked before any newsperson risked embarrassment by reporting on them.