Administration Officials’ Lies about Iraq’s Supposed Weapons of Mass

and they tried to impeach clinton for lying about a blow job...it's pretty intense to see these quotes/lies compiled chronologically... Bush Administration Officials’ Lies about Iraq’s Supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction in Their Own Words

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." - Dick Cheney, speech to VFW National Convention, Aug. 26, 2002

" Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." - George W. Bush, speech to UN General Assembly, Sept. 12, 2002

" No terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." - Donald Rumsfeld, testimony to Congress, Sept. 19, 2002

"The world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq." - George W. Bush, Nov. 23, 2002

" If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world." - White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, press briefing, Dec. 2, 2002

" We know for a fact that there are weapons there." - White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, press briefing, Jan. 9, 2003

" What we know from UN inspectors over the course of the last decade is that Saddam Hussein possesses thousands of chemical warheads, that he possesses hundreds of liters of very dangerous toxins that can kill millions of people." - White House spokesman Dan Bartlett, CNN interview, Jan. 26, 2003

" Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard, and VX nerve agent…. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." - George W. Bush, State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003

" We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more." - Colin Powell, remarks to UN Security Council, Feb. 5, 2003

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons - the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have." - George W. Bush, radio address, Feb. 8, 2003

" If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since [UN Resolution] 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us." - Colin Powell, interview with Radio France International, Feb. 28, 2003

" So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad?….I think our judgment has to be clearly not." - Colin Powell, remarks to UN Security Council, March 7, 2003

" Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised." - George W. Bush, address to the U.S., March 17, 2003

"The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. - George W. Bush, address to U.S., March 19, 2003

"Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly…..All this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes. - White House spokesman Ari Fleisher, press briefing, March 21, 2003

"There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And….as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them. - Gen. Tommy Franks, press conference, March 22, 2003

"I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction. - Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman, The Washington Post, March 23, 2003

"One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites. - Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clark, press briefing, March 22, 2003

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat. - Donald Rumsfeld, ABC interview, March 30, 2003

"Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find - and there will be plenty. - Robert Kagan, The Washington Post, April 9, 2003

"But make no mistake - as I said earlier - we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found. - White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, press briefing, April 10, 2003

"We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them. - George W. Bush, NBC interview, April 24, 2003

"There are people who in large measure have information that we need….so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country. - Donald Rumsfeld, press briefing, April 25, 2003

"We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so. - George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, May 3, 2003

"I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now. - Colin Powell, remarks to reporters, May 4, 2003

"I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein – because he had a weapons program. - George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, May 6, 2003

"We said what we said because we meant it…..We continue to have confidence that WMD will be found. - White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, press briefing, May 7, 2003

"Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found. - Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps, interview with reporters, May 21, 2003

"Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction. - Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff, NBC Today Show interview, May 26, 2003

"Do I think we're going to find something? Yeah, I kind of do, because I think there's a lot of information out there." - Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, Defense Intelligence Agency, press conference, May 30, 2003

"You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons....They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two [the labs were later judged to not contain any such weapons, that they most likely were used for weather balloons]. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on, But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them. - George W. Bush, remarks to reporters, May 31, 2003

The backpedaling begins:

"We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country. - Donald Rumsfeld, Fox News interview, May 4, 2003

"U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction. - Condoleeza Rice, Reuters interview, May 12, 2003

"I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago - I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago - whether they were destroyed right before the war [or] whether they're still hidden. - Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne, press briefing, May 13, 2003

"I don't believe anyone that I know in the administration ever said that Iraq had nuclear weapons. [SEE NEXT QUOTE] - Donald Rumsfeld, Senate appropriations subcommittee on defense hearing, May 14, 2003

"We believe [Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. - Dick Cheney, NBC's Meet the Press, March 16, 2003

"They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer. - Donald Rumsfeld, remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations, May 27, 2003

"It was a surprise to me then - it remains a surprise to me now - that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it's not for lack of trying. We've been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they're simply not there. - Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, press interview, May 30, 2003

"I think some in the media have chosen to use the word 'imminent.’ Those were not words we used. We used 'grave and gathering' threat. [SEE NEXT QUOTE] - White House spokesman Scott McClellan, press briefing, Jan. 31, 2004

"This is about an imminent threat. - White House spokesman Scott McClellan, press briefing, Feb. 10, 2003

After being asked whether Hussein was an “imminent” threat: "Well, of course he is - White House spokesman Dan Bartlett, CNN interview, Jan. 26, 2003

After being asked whether the U.S. went to war because officials said Hussein’s alleged weapons were a direct, imminent threat to the U.S.: "Absolutely. - White House spokesman Ari Fleischer, press briefing, May 7, 2003

And finally, some truth:
"We urge you to... enunciate a new strategy that would secure the interests of the U.S. and our friends and allies around the world. That strategy should aim, above all, at the removal of Saddam Hussein's regime from power". - Letter to President Clinton, signed by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, and others, Jan. 26, 1998, http://www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm
The U.S. should assert its military dominance over the world to shape “the international security order in line with American principles and interests,” push for “regime change” in Iraq and China, among other countries, and “fight and decisively win multiple, simultaneous major theater wars….While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for a substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein.” - “Rebuilding America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century,” The Project for the New American Century [members include Cheney and Rumsfeld], Sept. 2000

Judge whether good enough [to] hit S.H. [Saddam Hussein] at the same time. Not only UBL [Osama bin Laden]….Go massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not. - Donald Rumsfeld notes, Philadelphia Daily News, Sept. 11, 2001

"For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction, [as justification for invading Iraq] because it was the one reason everyone could agree on. - Paul Wolfowitz, Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003

"From the very beginning, there was a conviction, that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go. Going after Saddam was topic "A" ten days after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11. - former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, CBS’ 60 Minutes, Jan. 11, 2004

"I don't think they [WMD] existed. What everyone was talking about is stockpiles produced after the end of the last [1991] Gulf War, and I don't think there was a large-scale production program in the '90s. - David Kay, former chief weapons inspector of the UN Special Commission on Iraq, Reuters, Jan. 24, 2004

Intelligence "analysts never said there was an imminent threat" from Iraq before the war. - CIA Director George Tenet, speech, Feb. 5, 2004

NOTE: Republicans impeached Clinton over a lie involving a private extramarital affair that he told in public, in which no one died. The Bush administration’s lies about Iraq’s supposed weapons of mass destruction have contributed to the deaths of more than 1800 U.S. soldiers and thousands of Iraqi soldiers and civilians. -

Compiled by Jackson Thoreau, with help from these sources: Whiskey Bar: Free Thinking in a Dirty Glass, by Billmon, http://billmon.org.v.sabren.com/archives/000172.html Bush Watch, by Jerry Politex, http://www.bushwatch.com/bushlies.htm The Daily Mislead, by MoveOn.Org, http://www.misleader.org/daily_mislead/Read.asp?fn=df02052004.html Invading Iraq not a new idea for Bush clique: Four years before 9/11, plan was set, Philadelphia Daily News, http://www.philly.com/mld/dailynews/2003/01/27/news/local/5025024.htm Jackson can be emailed at jacksonthor [at] yahoo.com or jacksonthor [at] justice.com