Truth: Vice President Cheney initiated the CIA's original inquiry into reports that Iraq had tried to purchase uranium in Niger in 2002. Cheney's chief of staff Lewis Libby admitted "the Vice President asked a question about the implication of the report" during one of his regular intelligence briefings. [Time, 7/13/03]. After Cheney's question, the CIA sent retired Ambassador Joseph Wilson to Niger to investigate. Wilson reported in March 2002 to both the CIA and State Department that the reports were false. The CIA sent a memo on Wilson's findings to the White House on March 9, 2002. [Time, 7/13/03]
Lie: "If the CIA, the director of central intelligence, had said 'Take this out of the speech,' it would have been gone." -- Condoleezza Rice, 7/11/03
Truth: In March 2002, the CIA discovered and then advised the White House that reports connecting Iraq and Niger were probably false. [Time, 7/13/03]. In October 2002, CIA Director George Tenet personally warned Deputy National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley that Niger intelligence should be excluded from Bush's Oct. 7 speech. The White House cut all Niger references from that speech. [New York Times, 7/13/03] In September 2002, the CIA warned British intelligence to discontinue use of Niger information, saying its accuracy had been questioned. [Washington Post, 7/11/03; Bush State of the Union Address, 1/28/03] In December 2002, the CIA warned the State Department to eliminate references to Niger in briefings. [USA Today, 6/13/03; AP, 6/12/03] Days before Bush's State of the Union address CIA analyst Alan Foley warned NSC staffer Robert Joseph that the intelligence was not certain. [New York Times, 7/13/03]
Other lies Bush and his people told us...
Lie: �Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.� -- President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002
Truth: Leading scientists and former weapons inspectors said that the tubes, which would be difficult to use for uranium production, were more plausibly intended for artillery rockets. [Washington Post, Sept. 12, 2002] On Jan. 27, 2003 the day before Bush�s State of the Union address -- the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported to the U.N. Security Council that two months of inspections in Iraq had found that no prohibited nuclear activities had taken place at former Iraqi nuclear sites. As for Iraqi nuclear scientists, Mohamed ElBaradei told the Security Council, U.N. inspectors had "useful" interviews with some of them, though not in private. And preliminary analysis, he said, suggested that the aluminum tubes, "unless modified, would not be suitable for manufacturing centrifuges." [Washington Post, July 16, 2003]
Lie: �We have � discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We are concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these (vehicles) for missions targeting the United States. -- President Bush, Oct. 7, 2002
Truth: Iraq�s �growing fleet� of drones turned out to be one glorified model airplane with a range of about 300 miles, 5,700 miles short of its target.
Lie: �We know where [Iraq�s weapons of mass destruction] are. They�re in an area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.� -- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003.
Truth: No such weapons have been found to date, not to the east, west, south or north, or even somewhat.
And the hits from the revisioner-in-chief just keep on coming �
Lie: "We gave him [Saddam] a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." -- President Bush, July 14, 2003.
Truth: After a Security Council resolution was passed last fall demanding that Iraq allow inspectors in, they were given complete access to the country. Does Bush really think the rest of us are as amnesiac as he is?