We’ve been focused on Bush’s SOTU address and the now infamous 16 words. There’s more, so much more. An entire history of lies. Scooter’s lies are indeed Bush league.
In a Sept. 8, 2002, “Meet the Press” appearance, just weeks before the congressional vote on authorizing President Bush to go to war, Dick Cheney said: “We’ve seen in connection with the hijackers, of course, Mohammed Atta, who was the lead hijacker, did apparently travel to Prague on a number of occasions. And on at least one occasion, we have reporting that places him in Prague with a senior Iraqi intelligence official a few months before the attack on the World Trade Center.”
Except it wasn’t true, and Big Dick new it wasn’t true.
On March 8, 2003, President Bush spoke to the American people in a radio address, saying, “Saddam Hussein has a long history of reckless aggression and terrible crimes. He possesses weapons of terror. He provides funding and training and safe haven to terrorists who would willingly deliver weapons of mass destruction against America and other peace-loving countries.
The attacks of September the 11, 2001 showed what the enemies of America did with four airplanes. We will not wait to see what terrorists or terror states could do with weapons of mass destruction. We are determined to confront threats wherever they arise. And, as a last resort, we must be willing to use military force. We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq. But if Saddam Hussein does not disarm peacefully, he will be disarmed by force.”
On Monday, March 17, President Bush spoke in a televised address to the nation. He told us, “The danger is clear: Using chemical, biological or, one day, nuclear weapons obtained with the help of Iraq, the terrorists could fulfill their stated ambitions and kill thousands or hundreds of thousands of innocent people in our country or any other.”
On Tuesday, March 18th, President Bush sent a letter to Congress saying, “Consistent with section 3(b) of the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 (Public Law 107-243), and based on information available to me, including that in the enclosed document, I determine that:
(1) reliance by the United States on further diplomatic and other peaceful means alone will neither (A) adequately protect the national security of the United States against the continuing threat posed by Iraq nor (B) likely lead to enforcement of all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq; and
(2) acting pursuant to the Constitution and Public Law 107-243 is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.”
Whew! What a load of shit that was. Even after CIA and FBI officials had already concluded the claims of the meeting were almost certainly false, Cheney was still referring to it in a Sept. 14, 2003 “Meet the Press” appearance. “The Czechs alleged that Mohammed Atta, the lead attacker, met in Prague with a senior Iraq intelligence official five months before the attack, but we’ve never been able to develop anymore of that yet either in terms of confirming it or discrediting it. We just don’t know.”
Then in 2004, Cheney returned to insisting that evidence of a link was “overwhelming.” He went so far as to push it on the campaign trail. When confronted during his debate with John Edwards, Cheney insisted, “I have not suggested there’s a connection between Iraq and 9/11.” Really Dick? Which is it?
On July 9, 2004 The Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Pat Roberts told reporters that intelligence used to support the invasion of Iraq was based on assessments that were “unreasonable and largely unsupported by the available intelligence.”
And just what intelligence would that be? The CIA? The FBI? Hardly.
Senate Intelligence Committee member Jay Rockefeller reported, “We in Congress would not have authorized that war with 75 votes if we knew what we know now. Leading up to September 11, our government didn’t connect the dots. In Iraq, we are even more culpable because the dots themselves never existed.” Senator Rockefeller said that “no evidence existed of Iraq’s complicity or assistance in al Qaeda’s terrorist attacks, including 9/11.”
At the time of the report’s release, “phase two” of the investigation – how the Bush administration used the information from the intelligence community — was postponed. When asked, Senator Roberts responded, “It is a priority. I made my commitment and it will get done.”
On March 10, 2005, after a speech he had given at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Senator Roberts said of the failure to complete phase two, how the Bush administration used the information from the intelligence community, “[T]hat is basically on the back burner.”
On April 10, 2005, Senators Roberts appearing on NBC’s Meet The Press, responded to a question about the completion of phase two of the investigation. Senator Roberts said, “I’m perfectly willing to do it, and that’s what we agreed to do, and that door is still open. And I don’t want to quarrel with Jay, (Senator Rockefeller) because we both agreed that we would get it done. But we do have–we have Ambassador Negroponte next week, we have General Mike Hayden next week. We have other hot-spot hearings or other things going on that are very important.”
Guess Senator Roberts is still too busy to listen to the American people. He’s still too busy to reconcile the now glaringly obvious lies this administration fed to the American people. Next time you hear some pundit defending this war based on “what everyone thought”, or quoting the Senate Intelligence Committee report or the Robb-Silberman report or the Butler report, tell them they’re dead wrong. Again.
Our history has been built on their lies. No more, enough is enough.
