Author Topic: The President shrub and his lies  (Read 2909 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Anonymous

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 164653
  • Karma: +3/-4
    • View Profile
The President shrub and his lies
« on: March 03, 2004, 10:37:00 AM »
:flame:
Weapons of Mass Destruction

LIE: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: The documents implied were known at the time by Bush to be forged and not credible.

LIE: "Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent."
State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: Zero Chemical Weapons Found. Not a drop of any chemical weapons has been found anywhere in Iraq

LIE: "The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program ... 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, in Cincinnati.

TRUTH: This story, leaked to and breathlessly reported by Judith Miller in the New York Times, has turned out to be complete baloney. Department of Energy officials, who monitor nuclear plants, say the tubes could not be used for enriching uranium. One intelligence analyst, who was part of the tubes investigation, angrily told The New Republic: "You had senior American officials like Condoleezza Rice saying the only use of this aluminum really is uranium centrifuges. She said that on television. And that's just a lie." (http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." - President Bush, Jan.28, 2003, in the State of the Union address.

TRUTH: This whopper was based on a document that the White House already knew to be a forgery thanks to the CIA. Sold to Italian intelligence by some hustler, the document carried the signature of an official who had been out of office for 10 years and referenced a constitution that was no longer in effect. The ex-ambassador who the CIA sent to check out the story is pissed: "They knew the Niger story was a flat-out lie," he told the New Republic, anonymously. "They [the White House] were unpersuasive about aluminum tubes and added this to make their case more strongly."
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

top

LIE: "We believe [Saddam] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." - Vice President Cheney on March 16, 2003 on "Meet the Press."

TRUTH: There was and is absolutely zero basis for this statement. CIA reports up through 2002 showed no evidence of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program.
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "[The CIA possesses] solid reporting of senior-level contacts between Iraq and al-Qaeda going back a decade." - CIA Director George Tenet in a written statement released Oct. 7, 2002 and echoed in that evening's speech by President Bush.

TRUTH: Intelligence agencies knew of tentative contacts between Saddam and al-Qaeda in the early '90s, but found no proof of a continuing relationship. In other words, by tweaking language, Tenet and Bush spun the intelligence180 degrees to say exactly the opposite of what it suggested.
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "We've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases ... Alliance with terrorists could allow the Iraqi regime to attack America without leaving any fingerprints." - President Bush, Oct. 7.

TRUTH: No evidence of this has ever been leaked or produced. Colin Powell told the U.N. this alleged training took place in a camp in northern Iraq. To his great embarrassment, the area he indicated was later revealed to be outside Iraq's control and patrolled by Allied war planes.
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "We have also 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 UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] for missions targeting the United States." - President Bush, Oct. 7.

TRUTH: Said drones can't fly more than 300 miles, and Iraq is 6,000 miles from the U.S. coastline. Furthermore, Iraq's drone-building program wasn't much more advanced than your average model plane enthusiast. And isn't a "manned aerial vehicle" just a scary way to say "plane"?
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established." - President Bush, Feb. 8, 2003, in a national radio address.

TRUTH: Despite a massive nationwide search by U.S. and British forces, there are no signs, traces or examples of chemical weapons being deployed in the field, or anywhere else during the war.
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets." - Secretary of State Colin Powell, Feb. 5 2003, in remarks to the UN Security Council.

TRUTH: Putting aside the glaring fact that not one drop of this massive stockpile has been found, as previously reported on AlterNet the United States' own intelligence reports show that these stocks - if they existed - were well past their use-by date and therefore useless as weapon fodder.
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

top

LIE: "We know where [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat." - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003, in statements to the press.

TRUTH: Needless to say, no such weapons were found, not to the east, west, south or north, somewhat or otherwise.
(http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "Yes, we found a biological laboratory in Iraq which the UN prohibited." - President Bush in remarks in Poland, published internationally June 1, 2003.

TRUTH: This was reference to the discovery of two modified truck trailers that the CIA claimed were potential mobile biological weapons lab. But British and American experts - including the State Department's intelligence wing in a report released this week - have since declared this to be untrue. According to the British, and much to Prime Minister Tony Blair's embarrassment, the trailers are actually exactly what Iraq said they were; facilities to fill weather balloons, sold to them by the British themselves. (http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=16274)

LIE: "I don't know what more evidence we need." President Bush, at a Camp David press conference, September 7, 2002, citing a report that stated Iraq was six months away from developing a nuclear weapon

TRUTH: Joseph Curl, Washington Times, September 27, 2002: "The International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] says that a report cited by President Bush as evidence that Iraq ? was 'six months away' from developing a nuclear weapon does not exist. ? 'There are no indications that there remains in Iraq any physical capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material of any practical significance,' IAEA Director-General Mohammed Elbaradei wrote in a report to U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan."
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: Bush, Cincinnati address, October 7, 2002: "Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles-far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey and other nations-in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work."

TRUTH: Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank, Washington Post, March 18: "Inspectors have found that the Al Samoud-2 missiles can travel less than 200 miles-not far enough to hit the targets Bush named. Iraq has not accounted for 14 medium-range Scud missiles from the 1991 Persian Gulf War, but the administration has not presented any evidence that they still exist."
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: Colin Powell, at the U.N. Security Council, February 5: "Saddam Hussein has never accounted for vast amounts of chemical weaponry."

TRUTH: Richard Wolffe and Daniel Klaidman, Newsweek, February 17: "U.N. inspectors said they verified the destruction of almost all Iraqi chemical weapons and ingredients after [1991's] Operation Desert Storm. By now, any leftover supplies would have degraded beyond use. This time out, U.N. inspectors have found no evidence of toxic munitions at the alleged chemical-warfare facilities pinpointed by U.S. and British Intelligence."
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: Bush, Cincinnati address, October 7, 2002: "Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq his rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of his nuclear program in the past."

TRUTH: Mark Phillips, CBSNews.com, February 20: "When the U.N. went into the new buildings they found 'nothing.'"
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: Powell, at the U.N. Secruity Council, February 5: "We have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and rails. The trucks and train cars are easily moved and are designed to avoid detection by inspectors."

TRUTH: Richard Wolffe and Daniel Klaidman, Newsweek, February 17, 2003: "Biowar experts ? say truck-mounted labs would be all but unworkable. The required ventilation systems would make them instantly recognizable from above. ? And U.S. intelligence, after years of looking for them, has never found even one."
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: Powell, at the U.N. Security Council, February 5: "Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb ? so determined that he has made repeated attempts to acquire high specification aluminum tubes from 11 different countries."

TRUTH: Mark Phillips, CBSNews.com, February 20: "U.N. sources have told CBS News that American tips have led to one dead end after another. ? Example: Interviews with scientists about the aluminum tubes the U.S. says Iraq has imported for enriching uranium, but which the Iraqis say are for making rockets. Given the size and specification of the tubes, the U.N. calls the 'Iraqi alibi air tight.'" http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

top

LIE: Bush, at a press conference, November 7, 2002: "[Saddam] is a threat. ? He's a threat because he is dealing with al-Qaeda."
Powell, at the UN Security Council, February 5: "Iraq is harboring [Abu Mousab] Zarqawi and his subordinates. ? We also know that Zarqawi's colleagues have been active in ? Chechnya, Russia."

TRUTH: James Risen and David Johnston, New York Times, February 2, 2003: "At the Federal Bureau of Investigation, some investigators said they were baffled by the Bush administration's insistence on a solid link between Iraq and Osama bin Laden's network. 'We've been looking at this hard for more than a year and you know what, we just don't think it's there,' a government official said."

Bruce Crumley, Time, March 3, 2003: "'When we heard Powell citing our Chechen network suspects as the terror link directly to Zarqawi, everyone's mouth dropped open,' says a French investigator-who calls Powell's Iraq-al-Qaeda link 'unconvincing at best.'"
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: Bush, State of the Union Address, January 28: "The British government has learned that Iraq has recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

TRUTH: David Ensor, CNN.com, March 14: "[The uranium] intelligence documents ? have been dismissed as forgeries by U.N. weapons inspectors."

Walter Pincus and Dana Milbank, Washington Post, March 18: "[T]op CIA officials had significant doubts about the veracity of the evidence, linking Iraq to efforts to purchase uranium for nuclear weapons from Niger, but the information ended up as fact in Bush's State of the Union address."
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: Powell, at the UN Security Council, February 5: "Saddam Hussein forced out the last inspectors in 1998."

TRUTH: James Foley, State Department spokesman, January 7, 1999: "The United States did not work with anyone at UNSCOM to collect information specifically for the purpose of undermining the Iraqi regime."

After President Clinton dismissed Hussein's claims that UNSCOM inspectors had been infiltrated by CIA spies, UNSCOM withdrew all personnel in anticipation of the U.S. and Britain's December 1998 bombing of Iraq for its "defiance." Yet, in early January 1999, after the bombing was over, Colum Lynch of the Boston Globe, Barton Gellman of the Washington Post, and Tim Weiner of the New York Times confirmed that the UNSCOM teams had been infiltrated by U.S. spies. As Gellman reported on January 6, "Annan is convinced that Washington used the operation to penetrate the security apparatus protecting Iraqi President Saddam Hussein."
http://inthesetimes.com/comments.php?id=318_0_1_0_M

LIE: "We gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in." Bush Press Conference 7/14/2003

TRUTH: UN inspectors went into Iraq to search for possible weapons violations from December 2002 into March 2003 http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html

LIE: We know he's been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons, and we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." VP Dick Cheney - "Meet the Press" 3/16/2003

TRUTH: "The IAEA had found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq." IAEA report to UN Security Council - 3/7/2003 http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html


LIE: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: The documents implied were known at the time by Bush to be forged and not credible.
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html

LIE: "Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at [past nuclear] sites."
Bush speech to the nation - 10/7/2002

TRUTH: Two months of inspections at these former Iraqi nuclear sites found zero evidence of prohibited nuclear activities there. IAEA report to UN Security Council - 1/27/2003. http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html

LIE: "Our intelligence sources tell us that he (Saddam) has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) as well as dozens of leading scientists declared said tubes unsuitable for nuclear weapons production -- months before the war.
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html

LIE: "Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaida." State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: To date, not a shred of evidence connecting Hussein with Al Qaida or any other known terrorist organizations have been revealed. (besides certain Palestinian groups who represent no direct threat to the US)http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/07/22_lies.html

top

LIE: "We have also 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." State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: Not a single aerial vehicle capable of dispersing chemical or biological weapons, has been found anywhere in Iraq. http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html

LIE: "U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents." State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: Not a single chemical weapon's munition has been found anywhere in Iraq. http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html

LIE: "Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: Not a drop of any chemical weapons has been found anywhere in Iraq
http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/0 ... _lies.html

top

Sadaam/Al Qaeda

LIE: "Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications and statements by people now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaida." State of the Union Address - 1/28/2003

TRUTH: Zero Al Qaeda Connection
To date, not a shred of evidence connecting Hussein with Al Qaida or any other known terrorist organizations have been revealed. (besides certain Palestinian groups who represent no direct threat to the US)

LIE: Vice Pres. CHENEY: (From "Meet the Press") The read we get on the people of Iraq is there's no question but what they want to get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that.

TRUTH: It's been a given of White House policy: the Iraqi people want to be free and they want the US to free them. But crowds in Bagdhad have shouted, 'Down! Down Bush!' The administration's hope is that once the fear of Saddam is gone, the jeers will change to cheers.

top

Medicare

LIE: "Within that budget I proposed last night is a substantial increase in Medicare funding of $400 billion on top of what we already spend, over the next 10 years. This is a commitment that America must make to our seniors. A reformed and strengthened Medicare system, plus a healthy dosage of Medicare spending in the budget, will make us say firmly, we fulfilled our promise to the seniors of America." - Bush, 1/29/03

TRUTH: Under Bush's proposal, there should be a roughly $40 billion increase in Medicare each year for a decade. However, Bush's 2004 budget proposes just $6 billion - 85% less than what would be needed to meet his goal. Additionally, his budget would leave 67% of the total $400 billion pledge to be spent after 2008. [Bush Budget, pg. 318]

LIE: "Our goal is a system in which all Americans have got a good insurance policy, in which all Americans can choose their own doctor, in which seniors and low-income citizens receive the help they need. ... Our Medicare system is a binding commitment of a caring society. We must renew that commitment by providing the seniors of today and tomorrow with preventive care and the new medicines that are transforming health care in our country." -- George W. Bush, Medicare address, March 4, 2003

TRUTH: his program makes dramatic cuts in the benefits for both the poor and the elderly

top

No Child Left Behind

LIE: "This administration is committed to your effort. And with the support of Congress, we will continue to work to provide the resources school need to fund the era of reform." - Bush, 1/8/03

TRUTH: The President's 2003 budget - the first education budget after he signed and touted the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) - proposed to cut NCLB programs by $90 million overall, leaving these programs more than $7 billion short of what was authorized under the bill. Bush's 2004 budget for NCLB is just 1.9% above what he proposed in 2003 - $619 less than needed to offset inflation.

LIE: "Every single child in America must be educated, I mean every child. ... There's nothing more prejudiced than not educating a child." -- George W. Bush, presidential debate versus Vice President Al Gore, Oct. 11, 2000

TRUTH: In his 2003 budget, Bush proposed funding levels far below what the legislation called for, requesting only $22.1 billion of the $29.2 billion that Congress authorized. For the largest program, Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which provides support to students in impoverished school districts, Bush asked for $11.35 billion out of the $18.5 billion authorized. His 2004 budget was more than $6 billion short of what Congress authorized.

top

Deficit

LIE: "One of the ways we've got to make sure that we keep our economy strong is to be wise about how we spend our money. If you overspend, it creates a fundamental weakness in the foundation of economic growth. And so I'm working with Congress to make sure they hear the message -- the message of fiscal responsibility." Bush, 9/16/02

TRUTH: Less than 6 months after this pronouncement, Bush proposed a budget that would put the government more than $300 billion into deficit. As National Journal noted on 2/12/02, Bush's own 2004 budget tables show that without Bush's tax and budgetary proposals, the deficit would decline after 2006, but with Bush's proposals the deficit would grow indefinitely.

top

Tax Cuts

LIE: My jobs and growth plan would reduce tax rates for everyone who pays income tax, provide relief for families and small businesses, and help millions of seniors in retirement by eliminating the double taxation of dividends.

TRUTH: The Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center found 8.1 million taxpayers who would receive no tax cuts.

According to the nonprofit Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, an unspecified number of low- and middle-income families received no tax cut at all because they'd been excluded from an expansion of the child-care tax credit.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2083852/

LIE: The White House that insisted that the tax cuts haven't contributed to the deficit ("The budget returned to deficit because of war, recession and emergencies associated with the terrorist attacks of September 11th"). (fact sheet)

TRUTH: "The deterioration in the performance of the economy together with income tax relief ? produced a drop in the surplus to $127.1 billion (1.3% of GDP) and a return to deficits"? (Incidentally, the budget deficit is now projected to be $455 billion.) (buried inside the White House budget documents,)

LIE: "People in the 10 percent bracket, they benefit the most from" the Bush tax cut.

TRUTH: Crunching the Tax Policy Center numbers, CBPP found that 89 percent of all single taxpayers (as opposed to "head of household" taxpayers) in the 10 percent bracket would receive no tax relief. It said some "head of household" taxpayers in the 10 percent bracket were left out, too. http://slate.msn.com/id/2083852/

top

Environment

LIE: "Clear Skies legislation, when passed by Congress, will significantly reduce smog and mercury emissions, as well as stop acid rain. It will put more money directly into programs to reduce pollution, so as to meet firm national air-quality goals. ..." -- George W. Bush, Earth Day speech, April 22, 2002

TRUTH: The act, in fact, delays required emission cuts by as much as 10 years, usurps the states' power to address interstate pollution problems and allows outdated industrial facilities to skirt costly pollution-control upgrades.
« Last Edit: December 31, 1969, 07:00:00 PM by Guest »