|
MoveOn.org
is launching a series of newspaper ads around
the country that call on Members of Congress who
haven't pledged to support a commission to place
truth over politics. (You
can use the above link to help this cause)
-
On Friday, the White House released declassified
intelligence documents that were intended to
show that there was evidence that Iraq was seeking
to build nuclear weapons. But that effort backfired
when a footnote in the document from the State
Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research
pointed out that "the claims of Iraqi pursuit
of natural uranium in Africa are, in INR's assessment,
highly dubious." (Reuters, July 18; link below)
-
The Bush administration's claim that there's
a link between Saddam and al Qaeda is now falling
apart too (though there wasn't much of a public
case to start with). In an editorial yesterday,
two senior intelligence officials wrote: "As
members of the National Security Council staff
from 1994 to 1999, we closely examined nearly
a decade's worth of intelligence and we became
convinced, like many of our colleagues in the
intelligence community, that the religious radicals
of Al Qaeda and the secularists of Baathist
Iraq simply did not trust one another or share
sufficiently compelling interests to work together.
But Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld promised
that the Bush administration had "bulletproof
evidence" of a Qaeda-Iraq link, and Secretary
of State Colin Powell made a similar case to
the United Nations. Such claims now look as
questionable as the allegation that Iraq was
buying uranium in Niger." (New York Times, July
20)
-
President Bush twice made the claim that Iraq
was ready to deploy WMDs in 45 minutes or less.
That claim has now been discredited by the British
government, and the White House now claims that
it did not seek CIA approval before using the
data. As the Washington Post reported on the
19th, "an adviser to the Bush administration
on arms issues said last week that such weapons
were not ready to be used on short notice."
(Washington Post, July 20)
-
In an amazing departure from reality, President
Bush explained in a press conference on the
14th that "we gave [Saddam Hussein] a chance
to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't
let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable
request, we decided to remove him from power
. . . " Inspectors were, of course, on the ground
in Iraq for over three months, until they were
pulled out because the U.S. was going to war.
(White House, July 14)
The press and the American people are pushing
for answers. Advertising is a great way for us
to turn up the heat. You can contribute
right now:
Together, we can make Congress put security and
credibility ahead of party politics.
Sincerely,
--Eli Pariser
MoveOn.org
July 21st, 2003
P.S. Looking for the original articles referred
to above? Here are the links:
WHITE
HOUSE RELEASES NEW IRAQ NUCLEAR INTELLIGENCE
By Steve Holland
Reuters, July 18
THE NEXT DEBATE: AL QAEDA LINK
By Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon
New York Times, July 20
WHITE
HOUSE DIDN'T GAIN CIA NOD FOR CLAIM ON IRAQI STRIKES
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post, July 20
PRESIDENT REAFFIRMS STRONG POSITION ON LIBERIA
White House, July 14
topplebush.com
Published: July 22, 2003
|
