Bush

False claims by the President for going to war in Iraq

What He Said

What He knew

“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraqi regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.”
President Bush, March 17, 2003 (from official White House transcript)

“We do not have any direct evidence that Iraq used the period since 1998 to reconstitute its Weapons of Mass Destruction programs.”
CIA report, February 2003

On October 7, 2002 — “Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas.” On February 6th, 2003 — “Iraq has developed spray devices that could be used on unmanned aerial vehicles. A UAV launched from a vessel off the American coast could reach hundreds of miles inland.”
President Bush, October 7, 2002 and February 6, 2003

“The government organization most knowledgeable about the United States' UAV program — the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center — had sharply disputed the notion that Iraq's UAVs were being designed as attack weapons” in an October 2002 intelligence report given to the White House.”
Washington Post, September 26, 2003

“I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied — finally denied access — a report came out of the IAEA that they were six months away from developing a nuclear weapon. I don't know how much more evidence we need.”
President Bush, September 6 2002 news conference

“The International Atomic Energy Agency says that a report cited by President Bush as evidence that Iraq in 1998 was 'six months away' from developing a nuclear weapon does not exist. 'There's never been a report like that issued from this agency, Mark Gwozdecky, the IAEA's chief spokesman, said.”
The Washington Times, September 27, 2002

“Our intelligence sources tell us that he (Saddam) has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production.”
President Bush, State of the Union Address, January 2003

“INR (US State Dept Bureau of Intelligence and Research) is not persuaded that the tubes in question are intended for use as centrifuge rotors — the tubes are not intended for use in Iraq's nuclear weapon program.
National Intelligence Estimate, October 2002 (emphasis added)

“The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program — The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”
President Bush, State of the Union Address, January 2003

“The CIA sent two memos to the White House in October voicing strong doubts about a claim President Bush made three months later in the State of the Union address that Iraq was trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa.”
Washington Post, July 23, 2003

“In 1995 — the head of Iraq's military industries [Hussein Kamal] defected. It was then that the regime was forced to admit that it had produced more than 30,000 liters of anthrax and other deadly biological agents.”
President Bush, October 7, 2002

The transcript of Kamel's 1995 debriefing by the inspectors and the IAEA indicates he said the opposite. After the Gulf War, he told the UN, “Iraq destroyed all its chemical and biological weapons stocks and the missiles to deliver them.”


The Truth:

"Administration officials systematically misrepresented the threat from Iraq's WMD and ballistic missile program."

WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, January 2004

from MoveOn.org Democracy in Action

 

Also see:

Iraq on the Record

Bush Lies