Kennedy holds Bush, Cheney, accountable for truth on Iraq
Iraq-USA, Politics, 11/18/2005

US President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney have begun a new campaign of distortion and manipulation, US Senator Edward Kennedy said yesterday, under a US political intense atmospherics on this issue as "phase 2" investigation on how intelligence was misused is set to start, and amid accusation the White House acted in illegal ways to smear opponents of the Iraq war.

Kennedy said yesterday "Because of the polls showing that Americans have lost trust in the president and believe he manipulated intelligence before the war, the President and Vice President have abandoned any pretense of leading this country and have gone back on the campaign trail."

Kennedy reacted to the White House assertions that the intelligence was available for both the White House and the Congress. Kennedy said "Not only can the President and Vice President not find weapons of mass destruction, they can't find the truth either. The Congress did not have access to the same intelligence as the President and Vice President. It's plain wrong. And, despite what the Vice President says, it's abundantly clear that the Administration repeatedly distorted, misrepresented, and misled the American people about the intelligence in the rush to war."

He added "The American people were told that Iraq was coordinating with Al Qaeda, despite the President's own national security team knowing that it wasn't true. The American people were told Iraq was acquiring WMD material from Africa, despite the President's own national security team knowing that it wasn't true. The American people were told Iraq was building drones to carry chemical and biological weapons, despite the President's own national security team knowing that it wasn't true."

Here are the full remarks of Senator Kennedy:
Mr. President, I want to correct the record about a very important issue.

Yesterday, Vice President Cheney said elected officials had access to the intelligence, and were free to draw their own conclusions. He said, "They arrived at the same judgment about Iraq's capabilities and intentions that was made by this Administration and by the previous Administration."

What world is Dick Cheney living in? No one seriously believes what the Vice President is saying. Once again, he's deliberately deceiving the American people. It's a calculated, partisan, political, prevarication.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney have begun a new campaign of distortion and manipulation. Because the polls show that Americans have lost trust in the president and believe he manipulated intelligence before the war, the President and Vice President have abandoned any pretense of leading this country and have gone back on the campaign trail.

But this time, the country won't buy it.

Not only can the President and Vice President not find weapons of mass destruction, they can't find the truth either.

The Administration broke the essential bond of trust that has to exist between the White House and the American people. They have to be able to trust that we will be told the truth, especially on the all-important issues of war and peace.

The Congress did not have access to the intelligence that the President and Vice President had. It's plain wrong.

The Administration's drumbeat for war began in the summer of 2002, but it did not provide an Intelligence Estimate --- the collective wisdom of the intelligence community -- to back up its claims about Al Qaeda and nuclear weapons and immediate threats until Democrats on the Intelligence Committee demanded it.

Even then, the Administration did not provide the intelligence estimate until October 1, 2002 -- just two days before the debate on the resolution authorizing war began. The vote on the resolution occurred just one week later, on October 11.

Beyond the NIE, the suggestion that the Congress has access to the same classified material as the President is preposterous. The President receives a Presidential Daily Brief and a briefing every morning with top intelligence officials. The White House has access to memos with intelligence information that the Congress never sees. It is abundantly clear that the Administration is engaged in nothing more than a devious attempt to obscure the facts and take the focus off the real reason we went to war in Iraq. No matter what the Vice President says, 150,000 American troops are bogged down in a quagmire in Iraq because the Bush Administration misrepresented and distorted the intelligence to justify a war that America never should have fought.

In his march to war, President Bush exaggerated the threat to the American people. It was not subtle. It was not nuanced. It was pure, unadulterated fear mongering, based on a devious strategy to convince the American people that Saddam's ability to provide nuclear weapons to Al Qaeda justified immediate war.

In a speech on August 26, 2002, to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Vice President asserted: "ÉWe now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weaponsÉMany of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon." As we now know, the intelligence community was far from certain. Yet the Vice President had been convinced.

On September 8, 2002, the Vice President was even more emphatic about Saddam. He said, "We 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." The intelligence community was deeply divided about the aluminum tubes, but Vice President Cheney was absolutely certain.

The Intelligence Estimate did not find a cooperative relationship between Saddam and Al Qaeda. On the contrary, it stated only that such a relationship might develop in the future if Saddam was "sufficiently desperate" -- in other words, if America went to war. But the estimate placed "low confidence" that, even in desperation, Saddam would give weapons of mass destruction to Al Qaeda.

But President Bush was not deterred. He was relentless in playing to America's fears after the devastating tragedy of 9/11. He drew a clear link -- and drew it repeatedly -- between Al Qaeda and Saddam.

On September 25, 2002, at the White House, President Bush flatly declared: "You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror."

In his State of the Union Address in January 2003, President Bush said, "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 Qaeda," and that he could provide "lethal viruses" to a "shadowy terrorist network."

Two weeks later, in his Saturday radio address to the nation, a month before the war began, President Bush described the ties in detail, saying, "Saddam Hussein has longstanding, direct and continuing ties to terrorist networks É"

He said: "Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and Al Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document-forgery experts to work with Al Qaeda. Iraq has also provided Al Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training. An Al Qaeda operative was sent to Iraq several times in the late 1990s for help in acquiring poisons and gases. We also know that Iraq is harboring a terrorist network headed by a senior Al Qaeda terrorist planner. This network runs a poison and explosive training camp in northeast Iraq, and many of its leaders are known to be in Baghdad."

In fact, the 9/11 Commission Report stated clearly that there was no "operational" connection between Saddam and Al Qaeda. That fact should have been abundantly clear to the President. Iraq and Al Qaeda had diametrically opposing views of the world.

The Pentagon?s favorite Iraqi dissident, Ahmed Chalabi, is actually proud of what happened. "We are heroes in error," Chalabi said in February 2004. "As far as we're concerned, we've been entirely successful. That tyrant Saddam is gone and the Americans are in Baghdad. What was said before is not important. The Bush Administration is looking for a scapegoat. We're ready to fall on our swords, if he wants."

What was said before by Administration officials does matter. The President's words matter. The Vice President's words matter. So do those of the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense and other high officials in the Administration. And they did not square with the facts.

The Intelligence Committee agreed to investigate the clear discrepancies, and it's important that they get to the bottom of this, and find out how and why President Bush took America to war in Iraq. Americans are dying. Already more than 2000 have been killed, and more than 15,000 have been wounded.

The American people deserve the truth. It's time for the President to stop passing the buck and for him to be held accountable.

It's time for a change in this country. Something's got to give.

A tarnished White House and a damaged presidency is pulling America backwards. (end of remarks).

Previous Stories:
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  Different attacks in Iraq, 9 dead   (11/16/2005)
  Three marines killed in Iraq   (11/16/2005)
  Two contractors killed in Iraq   (11/15/2005)
  Talibani fears Iraqi civil war after US withdrawal   (11/14/2005)
  Iraq progressing toward democracy, Rice affirms in baghdad   (11/12/2005)
  Senator Rockefeller's seeks how officials misled US citizens into Iraq war   (11/2/2005)
  The Sunday Times: US and UK manipulated intelligence in order to attack Iraq, causes inquiry   (6/7/2005)

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