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May 13, 2013

Bush and His Aides Made 935 False Statements about Iraq In the 2 Years After 9/11


Given the Republican obsession with Benghazi talking points, it’s time for a very specific flashback. In 2008, two non partisan groups released a study that determined that President Bush and his top aides made 935 false statements about the security risk posed by Iraq in the two years following September 11, 2001.
These statements were part of a deliberate campaign, according to the study conducted by the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism. They concluded, “The false statements dramatically increased in August 2002, with congressional consideration of a war resolution, then escalated through the mid-term elections and spiked even higher from January 2003 to the eve of the invasion… In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003.”
The study’s conclusions were further reinforced when former Bush White House press secretary Scott McClellan wrote, “top Bush aides had outlined a strategy for carefully orchestrating the coming campaign to aggressively sell the war… In the permanent campaign era, it was all about manipulating sources of public opinion to the president’s advantage.” (What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception)
According to the study, then President George W Bush made 232 false statements about Iraq and former leader Saddam Hussein’s possessing weapons of mass destruction, and 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to al Qaeda.
“President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq…
On at least 532 separate occasions, Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both.”
On July 2004, the Republican majority led Senate Select Committee released the Intelligence Senate Report on Iraqi WMD Intelligence, which identified numerous failures in intelligence gathering and “analysis” (i.e., interpretation). However, Republicans defended the Bush administration’s statements on Iraq.
An investigation into the administration’s use of the intelligence was delayed for three years due to Republicans claiming it wasn’t as important (Senator Roberts, R-KS) as other pending items. Phase two of the investigation was released in 2007, but not all of the report was released. It determined, “our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence.”
Read the examples of the egregious lies told in the lead up to the Iraq War.

7 comments:

  1. Secret U.S. mission hauls uranium from Iraq

    Last major stockpile from Saddam's nuclear efforts arrives in Canada

    Below:



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    updated 7/5/2008 6:57:12 PM ET
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    The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program — a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium — reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

    The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" — the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment — was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

    http://www.nbcnews.com/id/25546334/ns/world_news-mideast_n_africa/t/secret-us-mission-hauls-uranium-iraq/


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  2. When it is the RINOs it is OK to LIE, but if you are a DINO, you must tell the truth all the time.

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  3. The existance of the yellowcake Uranium in Iraq was public information as far back as 1981 when Israel bombed Saddam's Osirak nuclear reactor. The yellowcake was to be fuel for Osirak. Subsequently, Saddam's intent was to enrich it to weapons grade uranium using Calutron for an Iraqi bomb. However, the distruction of Osirak made that impossible.

    The existance of yellowcake in Iraq in 2003 was absolutely not an indication that Saddam had made any attempt post 1991 to start up his nuclear program again. It was just material left over from the 70's and 80's.

    In fact, given the existence of UN weapons inspectors, CIA, satellite photography, etc it would have been impossible for Saddam to restart his nuclear program post 1991 without this being detected. Nuclear programs are very large, very expensive, and impossible to completely hide (as the Iranians have shown).

    Saddam made no attempt to restart his nuclear program after the 1991 Gulf War. He made limited attempts to restart his missile, chemical, and bio programs. However, this work was very small scale and was primarily designed to fool the Iranians into thinking he was strong enough to resist them if they were to invade.

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  4. Obama has been a disappointment in many areas, but the failure to hold those criminals accountable virtually guarantees more of the same in the future... no difference with "too big to fail"... "to big to prosecute"...

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  5. obama and his people have screwed themselves by failing to hold bush/cheney accountable, and then failing to use the same tactics they used to cover their own butts when they needed to. why let bush refuse to provide information about operations because of national secutiruty concerns, yet apologize and spend years explaining ewvery little email about benghazi? obama is weak, a failure.

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  6. Obama has made 100 times that many false statements, about his opponents, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, Libya, Egypt, the Muslim brotherhood, Israel, the circumstances by which he obtained his house in Chicago, the BP spill, most of his crooked and/or incompetent administration, his vacations, visitors to the White House, his past association with domestic, anti-American terrorists, his birth place, his high school grades, his college records and grades, his past use (and probable dealing) of illegal drugs, his involvement with the Fast and Furious gun-running operation, the real reasons behind Fast and Furious, his dealings with Labor Unions, the cost and benefits of ObamaCare, how ObamaCare was pushed through Congress, ObamaCare exemptions, etc. etc. etc. In fact, based on watching Obama over the last 4+ years, I can pretty much state that 99% of the time that his lips are moving, he's making false statements.

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