Report on the Bush Administration's Statements on Iraq

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The US House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform released a 36 page (pdf) report on 3/16/04 - Iraq on the Record: The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq. THe report was requested by Representative Herny Waxman by the Minority Staff Special Investigations Division, and provides:

a comprehensive examination of the statements made by the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq: President George Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. It finds that the five officials made misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq in 125 public appearances. The report and an accompanying database identify 237 specific misleading statements by the five officials.

The study finds that these five people made 237 misleading statements about the Iraqi threat between 3/17/02 and 1/22/04. The primary misleading category was the ctatement of certainties about threat that was not at all certain. "Ten of the statements were simply false." The statemenst fall in four categories: Iraq as an "urgent threat," "nuclear activities," "chemical and biological weapons activities," and "ties to al Qaeda."

During the time period investigated the 237 misleading statements are attributed: Bush 55, Cheney 51, Rumsfeld 52, Powell 50, Rice 29. The report notes that while Rice had the smallest number of public appearances and total misleading statements, that she had the highest number of lies - 8.

The graph below portrays the timing of the misleading statements (from the report)

The 30-day period with the greatest number of misleading statements was the period before the congressional vote on the Iraq war resolution. Congress voted on the measure on October 10 and October 11, 2002. From September 8 through October 8, 2002, the five officials made 64 misleading statements in 16 public appearances. A large number of misleading statements were also made during the two months before the war began. Between January 19 and March 19, 2003, the five officials made 48 misleading statements in 26 public appearances.

Sampling of Misleading Statements

BUSH

• “On its present course, the Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency. . . . It has developed weapons of mass death.”110
• “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought
significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”111
• “The liberation of Iraq . . . removed an ally of al Qaeda.”112
• “We found the weapons of mass destruction. . . . [F]or those who say we
haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons,
they’re wrong, we found them. (page 32)

CHENEY

• “[W]e do know, with absolute certainty, that he is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon.”114
• Saddam Hussein “had an established relationship with al Qaeda.”115
• “[W]e believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. (pg 33)

RUMSFELD

• “Now transport yourself forward a year, two years, or a week, or a month, and if Saddam Hussein were to take his weapons of mass destruction and transfer them, either use himself, or transfer them to the Al-Qaeda, and somehow the Al-Qaeda were to engage in an attack on the United States . . . with a weapon of mass destruction you’re not talking about 300, or 3,000 people potentially being killed, but 30,000, or 100,000 . . . human beings.”120
• “[Saddam Hussein’s] regime . . . recently was discovered seeking
significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”121
• “We said they had a nuclear program. That was never any debate.”123 (pg 34

POWELL

• “Iraq is now concentrating . . . on developing and testing smaller
UAVs. . . . UAVs are well suited for dispensing chemical and biological weapons.”125
• “The more we wait, the more chance there is for this dictator with clear ties to terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, more time for him to pass a weapon, share a technology, or use these weapons again.”126
• “So far, we have found the biological weapons vans that I spoke about when I presented the case to the United Nations on the 5th of February, and there is no doubt in our minds that those vans were designed for only one purpose, and that was to make biological weapons.”127 (pg 34-35)

RICE

• “We do know that [Saddam Hussein] is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon.”128
• “We do know that there have been shipments going into . . . Iraq, for instance, of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to — high quality aluminum tools that are only really suited for nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs.”130
• “[T]he declaration fails to account for or explain Iraq’s efforts to get uranium from abroad.”131 (pg 35)

While the number of distortions are impressive in themselves, these public statements were magnified by the endless repetition by the press. These repetitions were enhanced on many of the "news" programs, by including supporting commentary and analysis from "pundits."

It has been clear from the beginning that the administration was "building a case for war." The fact that they had to "misrepresent" the intelligence analysis, and even outright lie, in that process should raise questions about the touted "morality" of this administration.

The report is a good reference piece, and thanks should go to Representative Waxman for requesting and releasing it.

Copy of Report at US Congressional Site
Iraq on the Record: The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq

Posted by rowan at March 20, 2004 08:19 AM | TrackBack | Printable Version | [eMail this article!] |