IRAQ Lies of Bush and Co Revealed by Bob Woodward, the only guy who had the Cojones to go after Bushs predecessor as Liar-In-Chief, Tricky Dick Nixon. Exposing previous White House denials as lies, journalist Bob Woodward this weekend revealed parts of his new book which provide evidence the Bush Administration began plans for an Iraq invasion immediately after 9/11; overhyped intelligence; and appeared to circumvent the Constitution to pursue its goals. In Woodward's account, which includes a three-and-a-half hour interview with President Bush, it is revealed that the President personally ordered plans for the Iraq war to be drawn up in November of 2001 (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/17/iraq/main612400.shtml) . While the White House has called such statements " revisionist history (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/03/20040323-4.html) ," Woodward's account is consistent with accounts given by Richard Clarke (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml) , former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/wnt/US/oneill_charges_040113.html) , former Bush State Department official Richard Haass (http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030331fa_fact) , former British Ambassador Christopher Meyer (http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=508178) , and an earlier CBS News report (http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/september11/main520830.shtml) . Woodward's book explores the depth of White House cover-up efforts, showing how the Administration persuaded even top military officials to lie. For instance, at the same time General Tommy Franks was secretly developing the President's Iraq war plan, he was "simultaneously publicly denying that he was ever asked to do any plan." For instance, at the same time General Tommy Franks was secretly developing the President's Iraq war plan, he was "publicly denying that he was ever been asked to do any plan." Just as troubling, Woodward points out that the decision to go to war with Iraq was shared with Saudi Prince Bandar (who has milked his ties to the Bush Administration despite being under the microscope for money laundering (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20942-2004Apr17.html) ) and RNC consultant Karen Hughes before it was shared with Secretary of State Colin Powell. UNANSWERED -- MANIPULATING OIL PRICES FOR BUSH CAMPAIGN?: Woodward also reveals that the Saudi Arabian government -- the same government with potential ties to terror (http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/080303A.shtml) - "promised Bush that his country would lower oil prices before the November 2 presidential election." Woodward said Bandar specifically wanted Bush to know that the Saudis hope to "fine-tune oil prices" for the 2004 election (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...u=/afp/20040419/ts_alt_afp/us_vote_saudi_bush) . Recently, the Saudis led the charge to cut OPEC oil production (http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-02-oil-prices_x.htm) , which has raised gas prices (http://www.indystar.com/articles/0/136344-2960-031.html) in America. Was that move meant to artificially raise the price, so that it could be lowered closer to the election? PROOF - BUSH/CHENEY DELIBERATELY OVERHYPED INTELLIGENCE: According to Woodward's book, the President told aides in December of 2002, "Make sure no one stretches to make our case" about WMD. But a look at the record shows it was Bush and Vice President Cheney who, well before this cautionary statement, were aggressively hyping intelligence. For instance, Bush claimed in October 2002 that Iraq had "a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html) that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons" -- a claim that was rejected at the time (http://www.theolympian.com/home/specialsections/War/20030927/110326.shtml) by the Air Force intelligence unit most knowledgeable about the issue. He also claimed definitively that Iraq "possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons," despite warnings from U.S. intelligence agencies that there was no solid proof (http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24889) . Similarly, Vice President Cheney was even more assertive, claiming without proof in August 2002 "there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has WMD (http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020826.html) . There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." Even after Bush made his cautionary statement, the overhyping continued, with Cheney saying, " Iraq has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons (http://www.unwire.org/UNWire/20040317/449_14108.asp) ," Bush claiming " We found the WMD (http://www.whitehouse.gov/g8/interview5.html) ," and Defense Secretary Don Rumsfeld saying "We know where the WMDs are." See other examples of how the White House ignored warnings (http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24889) that its WMD case for war was weak.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/t...f=sr_1_1/103-0453538-9538232?v=glance&s=books Appearing on the CBS News program "60 minutes," Richard Clarke, the former top anti-terrorism advisor to Reagan, Bush senior, Clinton, and now Bush Junior, said that on September 11, 2001, "The president dragged me into a room with a couple of other people, shut the door, and said, 'I want you to find whether Iraq did this.'" After Clarke explained that the government had already looked into it and found no conection to Iraq, Dubya responded (as only Dubya could), "Iraq! Saddam! Find out if there's a connection." Clarke got the very clear impression that Bush was trying to intimdiate Clarke into giving the answer which Bush wanted to hear. So, the FBI and the CIA got together and wrote a report which basically stated that Iraq was not involved in the 9/11 attacks. When it was sent to the National Security Advisor, Clarke says that the report "got bounced and sent back saying, 'Wrong answer. ... Do it again.'" Of course, this revelation should come as no surprise to any non-biased observer with an ounce of sense. Anyone can see that Bush would have given his left testicle for an excuse to attack Iraq. 3,000 Americans were killed in cold blood on 9-11, and this coward of a total nutter who never even grazed a knee in defense of his country uses it as an opportunity to settle a private score for his daddy, and go rob a country for his oil buddies, using totally fabricated evidence. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml Consequences of Bush's spin, lies and deceit: A lot of very pretty tough pics: http://home.wi.rr.com/davef/iraq.htm
But of course, Bush wasn't the only person responsible for this disaster. The "60 minutes" interview with Richard Clarke showed that Donald Rumsfeld was probably even more jazzed about attacking Iraq than his boss was. According to Clarke, on the day after 9/11 Rumsfeld was arguing that the U.S. needed to attack Iraq. The intelligence community, of course, explained that al Qaeda was in Afghanistan, not Iraq. To which Rumsfeld responded with perhaps the single most idiotic justification ever for attacking another country: He said that there weren't any good targets in Afghanistan, but there are lots of good targets in Iraq. What the hell? So now the United States of America invades other countries because they've got lots of good targets? Cowrad Bush, who never even grazed a knee in defense of his country, and his gang of Neo-Cons are crazier and more dangerous than just about any recent threat that comes to mind ! http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/19/60minutes/main607356.shtml