New study documents "935 false statements" by Bush et al. to justify war

Hey, two groups known for outstanding credibility and journalism have just made major news with a report on the deception that led to the Iraq war..

You've probably read this already. All I'm adding is that I know some of the people behind this, and they have my complete confidence, and have superb records for honesty.

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. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), 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. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration's case for war.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose "Duelfer Report" established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq's nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.

Comments

[Allen Laudenslager]

Hey Craig:

The investigator who interviewed Saddam Hussein just talked to 60 Minutes about weapons of mass destruction. He is claiming that Saddam was more afraid of the Iranians finding out that he didn’t really have the weapons than the UN knowing that he didn’t.

He also claims that Saddam didn’t really think the US would invade.

Seems like he was running a disinformation campaign the worked too well!

Bush may be lying about a lot of stuff but it seems that on this one he just believed what the other guy said.

[Eric Raymond]

What I like about this effort, and similar ideas to end corruption by Lawrence Lessig, is the idea that the internet and network culture technology gives power to people without prejudice. While we fret that the Age of Big Brother is upon us, we should also realize that it comes with the Age of Little Brother. We have the power to gather and mine data, just like government agencies do. We have the power to track the behavior of companies and create our own behavioral profiles of those institutions which weigh in so heavily on economic, political, and social issues.

We should be concerned about privacy. We do teach the machine every time we perform a search and click a link. But let’s not forget that just as we use Google, so do those institutions who we most fear will abuse us with the information we give them. We are in an information arms race, and we’re a little behind. Rather than trying to keep our data in the dark, or pretend we can protect ourselves from an ever more sophisticated network of information, I say it's time we start using the machine to shine the light right back in their eyes.

It's up to us to make sure Big Brother isn’t so big.

[Phil]

A fuller perspective on the run up to the Iraq war can be obtained by reading speeches by Bill Clinton, Tom Daschle and other leading Democrats in 1998.

It was Clinton after all that promoted and signed legislation that made regime change in Iraq official US policy.

But, all of this is 10 year old news.

Let's look forward, and work together, and try to let go of historic issues that can only serve to keep us divided.

For reference, please see recent Doonesbury cartoon where an Iraqi says he must have justice on someone who attacked his family, in 1319.

Let's not let American political culture take on this unfortunate grudge holding mindset.

Thanks for Craigslist!