Bush's Lies About Iraq   

 


The Republicans ... have discovered that it is not necessary to hide your actions. Just lie! It's OK! You can't fool all of the people all of the time, but you don't have to! That's what democracy is all about.

It worked for the war on Iraq. Have you noticed that, these days, the most vocal opponents of the war are retired military officers (and a few not yet retired), retired intelligence operatives and former national security advisers? Have they become traitors overnight? Have they abandoned the cause of freedom? Or are they finally just fed up? We welcome them, while noting that we really could have used their help two years ago.

The Bush response to detailed critiques? "Support the troops." Yes, the administration is supporting the troops by getting them killed in a needless war. Surely people would have put that together. And they have! But it doesn't matter! Now, you want to talk about your crafty conspiracies? Why skulk around with coverups when you can carry out vile plots in the glow of sunlight?

Jon Carroll, San Francisco Chronicle, January 12, 2005

 


Click picture to enlarge
 (From The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War)

The Way of the World By Ron Suskind, August 2008
Senior Bush Administration officials ordered the CIA to forge a back-dated, handwritten letter from the head of Iraqi intelligence to Saddam Hussein. Issues raised in this book include:

  • The origin of the allegedly forged document that formed the basis for Bush's 2003 State of the Union assertion that Iraq sought yellowcake uranium from Niger

  • The role of this document in creating the false impression that 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta had a working relationship with Iraq

  • The relationship between this document and other reported examples of the Bush Administration considering other deceptive schemes to justify or provoke war with Iraq, such as the reported consideration of painting a U.S. aircraft with UN colors in order to provoke Iraq into military confrontation

  • Allegations that the Bush Administration deliberately ignored information from Iraq's chief intelligence officer that Iraq possessed no WMDs

  • The payment of $5 million to Iraq's chief intelligence officer and his secret settlement in Jordan, beyond the reach of investigators

  • The September 2007 detainment and interrogation of Mr. Suskind's research assistant, Greg Jackson, by federal agents in Manhattan. Jackson's notes were also confiscated

Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush 35 charges of high crimes and misdemeanors. Introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich, June 10, 2008

Senate Intelligence Committee Unveils Final Phase II Reports on Prewar Iraq Intelligence One report details Administration prewar statements that misrepresented the intelligence and the threat from Iraq. June 5, 2008

McClellan whacks Bush, White House Former White House Press Secretary writes: Bush relied on "propaganda" to sell the Iraq war. He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.” The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them - and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts. Politico.com, May 27, 2008

Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to Al Qaida, says Pentagon study
A US military study officially acknowledged for the first time yesterday that Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, undercutting the Bush administration's central case for war with Iraq. Wary of embarrassing press coverage noting that the new study debunks those claims, the US defence department attempted to bury the release of the report yesterday. The Pentagon's independent auditor released a report last year that chastised an internal military office created by Bush allies for promoting a link between Hussein and al-Qaida despite intelligence showing that none existed. The Guardian (UK), March 13, 2008

US Assessments Made in 2003 Foretold Situation in Iraq
Two intelligence assessments from January 2003 predicted that the overthrow of Saddam Hussein and subsequent U.S. occupation of Iraq could lead to internal violence and provide a boost to Islamic extremists and terrorists in the region, according to congressional sources and former intelligence officials familiar with the prewar studies. By Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, May 20, 2007 

The Daily Mislead A daily chronicle of Bush Administration distortion. (Through 2004)

Record of Iraq War Lies Bill Moyers has put together an amazing 90-minute video documenting the lies that the Bush administration told to sell the Iraq war to the American public, with a special focus on how the media led the charge. By David Swanson, April 12, 2007

'Boogeyman terrorism' a real threat to America by Joe Gedan, January 9, 2007.
When Fox News reports on the Iraq war, it does so under the misleading banner "War on Terror." The banner is not the result of a careless control room graphic. It is designed to disguise the hoax that Bush's Iraq war has something to do with 9/11. It clouds the fact that the Iraq war is not an extension of radical Islamic terrorism or part of our "war on terror."

Prewar intelligence doubted al-Qaida link to Iraq, report says A declassified report released by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence revealed that U.S. intelligence analysts were strongly disputing the alleged links between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida while senior Bush administration officials were publicly asserting those links to justify invading Iraq. The heart of the report - a detailed comparison of administration statements with the intelligence then available - is still far from release. September 9, 2006

The Conyers Report, a 370-page report, describing in full numerous instances of lawlessness and misconduct by the Bush Administration. August 2006

Bush Iraq Evidence Lies (Bush Watch)

Claim vs. Fact Database of government & media statements compared to actual facts

They Knew Despite the whitewash, we now know that the Bush administration was warned before the war that its Iraq claims were weak. In These Times, August 3, 2004

A Chart of Bush Lies about Iraq (BuzzFlash Reader Commentary), July 22, 2003

State-Sponsored Lies, by Ignacio Ramonet, Le Monde diplomatique, July 2003

The Revision Thing: A history of the Iraq War told entirely in lies, by Sam Smith, Harpers, October 2003

The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq (excerpt), by Christopher Scheer, Robert Scheer, and Lakshmi Chaudhry, November 18, 2003
Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told about Iraq, by Christopher Scheer, AlterNet, June 27, 2003
Twenty Lies about the War, by Glen Rangwala and Raymond Whitaker, The Independent , July 13, 2003
The Bush administration's Top Forty Lies about war and terrorism, by Steve Perry, Minneapolis City Pages, July 30, 2003
237 Bush Administration Lies About Iraq "Iraq on the Record," U.S. House Committee on Government Reform, minority staff, March 16, 2004
935 Lies about the War: The War Card: False pretenses. Key false statements. By the Center for Public Integrity, January 2008

More Iraq information and commentary
When the tyrant has disposed of foreign enemies by conquest or treaty, and there is nothing more to fear from them, then he is always stirring up some war or other, in order that the people may require a leader. --Plato

 


GOP leaders told Bush that his hardcore push to renew the more onerous provisions of the [Patriot] act could further alienate conservatives ...

“I don’t give a goddamn,” Bush retorted. “I’m the President and the Commander-in-Chief. Do it my way.”

“Mr. President,” one aide in the meeting said. “There is a valid case that the provisions in this law undermine the Constitution.”

“Stop throwing the Constitution in my face,” Bush screamed back. “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”

  From Capitol Hill Blue, by Doug Thompson, December 5, 2005


When President Bush visited Canada, protesters made a statue of him to topple, evoking Saddam Hussein.
 New York Times, December 5, 2004

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