"The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush"Why Impeach? | Lies | Uranium/Niger | Torture | Aluminum Tubes | Wiretaps | Subpoenas | Treaties | HJR114 | Talking Points |
Bush lied when he said Congress had the same information that he did.
Bush has stated that Congress had access to all the same information that the White House had. Thus he should not be blamed for making the mistake of going to war. But Bush was briefed many times about the falsehood of the various stories he used to persuade Congress to authorize war.
- 9/17/04 - In North Carolina, Bush said "And the intelligence I looked at and the intelligence Congress looked at said he actually had them there. So I saw a threat. And I went to the United States Congress and said, we got an issue here that we're going to have to deal with. Members of the Congress of both political parties looked at the very same intelligence I looked at -- the very same intelligence -- and they remembered the same history I remembered, and they concluded that Saddam Hussein was a threat, and authorized the use of force." Ted Kennedy has documented over 100 similar statements by Bush.
- 10/2/04 - In Ohio, Bush said "So I saw a threat. And I went to the Congress. And they looked at the same intelligence I looked at and concluded Saddam was a threat, and they authorized the use of force." [WhiteHouse]
- 12/15/05 - Bush has access to much broader ranger of intelligence reports than members of Congress do, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Agency report. The Bush team also has access to intelligence sources and also "have the authority to ask U.S. intelligence agencies more extensively for follow-up information". [KRN]
- Bush was informed on 9/21/01 in a secret President's Daily Brief (PDB) that there was no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda. Congress did not even learn of the existence of this PDB until summer 2004, after the start of the war. Ted Kennedy has been trying to get copies of the PDB's released but Bush will not reveal their contents. [NJ]
- 3/9/02 - Joseph Wilson informs White House that Saddam did not try to buy uranium from Niger. But on 1/28/03, Bush told Congress that he did, despite urging from the CIA not to lie.
- 9/5/02 - Senator Bob Graham, chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, requested a National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) from the CIA describing the rationale for a preemptive war in Iraq. The 90 page document, while slanted toward the conclusion that Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction stored or produced at 550 sites, contained vigorous dissents on key parts of the information, especially by the departments of State and Energy. Particular skepticism was raised about aluminum tubes that were offered as evidence Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program. As to Hussein's will to use whatever weapons he might have, the estimate indicated he would not do so unless he was first attacked. Most of the alleged intelligence came from Iraqi exiles or third countries, all of which had an interest in the United States' removing Hussein, by force if necessary.
Troubled by this report, Graham then requested an unclassified document to share with Congress and the public. This new 25 page document omitted the dissenting opinions contained in the classified version. Its conclusions, such as "If Baghdad acquired sufficient weapons-grade fissile material from abroad, it could make a nuclear weapon within a year," underscored the White House's claim that exactly such material was being provided from Africa to Iraq.
Graham, with access to more information than the average Congressperson, voted against the authorization for war. - 9/25/02 - Despite secretly knowing there was no connection between Iraq and Al Qaeda, days before a congressional vote authorizing the war, Bush said "Al Qaeda hides, Saddam doesn't, but the danger is, is that they work in concert." And he added "you can't distinguish between al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." [WhiteHouse]
- Bush exaggerated claims of Iraq's biological weapons after being told they were false. According to the LA Times "The German intelligence officials responsible for one of the most important informants on Saddam Hussein's suspected weapons of mass destruction say that the Bush administration and the CIA repeatedly exaggerated his claims during the run-up to the war in Iraq. Five senior officials from Germany's Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, said in interviews with The Times that they warned U.S. intelligence authorities that the source, an Iraqi defector code-named Curveball, never claimed to produce germ weapons and never saw anyone else do so. According to the Germans, President Bush mischaracterized Curveball's information when he warned before the war that Iraq had at least seven mobile factories brewing biological poisons. Then-Secretary of State Colin L. Powell also misstated Curveball's accounts in his prewar presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003, the Germans said. Curveball's German handlers for the last six years said his information was often vague, mostly secondhand and impossible to confirm." [LAT]
Resources
- "Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept From Hill Panel" by Murray Waas, National Journal, 11/22/05
- "What I Knew Before the Invasion" by Senator Bob Graham, Washington Post, 11/20/05
- "Report On The U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments On Iraq" by Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 7/7/04
- "How U.S. Fell Under the Spell of 'Curveball', The Iraqi informant's German handlers say they had told U.S. officials that his information was 'not proven,' and were shocked when President Bush and Colin L. Powell used it in key prewar speeches." By Bob Drogin and John Goetz, LA Times, 11/20/05
- "Congress doesn't see same intelligence as president, report finds", by Jonathan S. Landay, Knight Ridder Newspapers, 12/15/05
