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Friday, May 06, 2005

Nowhere to hide?
Posted by Jill | 2:41 PM

If every senator were like Frank Lautenberg and every congresscritter like John Conyers, this country would be a better place.

Rep. Conyers reports at Daily Kos that 88 members of Congress have signed his letter to C-Plus Caligula asking for answers to questions arising from the leaked British memo which strongly indicates that the intelligence leading to the Iraq war was tailored to fit a pre-existing policy. Those questions include:


Do you or anyone in your Administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?

Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization to go to war?

Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to create the justification for war as the minutes indicate?

Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?


The full letter, along with the signatures, can be found here.

The Seattle Times and the Kansas City Star have picked up the story from Knight-Ridder. The Pioneer Press is covering the story, as are the Lexington, KY Herald-Leader, and the South Carolina State (brief blurb), and the Salt Lake City Tribune. It'll be interesting if any of the national newspapers follow suit. So far, nothing.

This is a story that SHOULD NOT be allowed to die. If a president lying about a blowjob is grounds for impeachment, shouldn't a president who lied to us in order to get us into a war that has claimed the lives of over 1500 American young people, the limbs of over 10,000 more, and the mental health of tens of thousands of uncounted more -- in addition to the many civilian casualties -- be just as accountable for his actions?

Of course I'm not expecting impeachment from this particular bunch of crooks running things in Washington. But we as Americans ought to be crying out for accountability...and if this Administration won't cooperate, we should make sure that we set in place a House of Representatives in 2006 that WILL demand accountability from this White House. And if it means Bush, Cheney, Rove, and the bunch of them being led out of the White House in handcuffs, well, so be it.

For those who have forgotten, here's what the Administration was saying in public as they were telling the British that the intelligence would be tailored to fit the policy:

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction." -- Dick Cheney, speech to VFW National Convention, 8/26/02

"Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons. 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, 10/5/02

"The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas." -- George W. Bush, Cincinnati, Ohio speech, 10/7/02

"The president of the United States and the secretary of defense would not assert as plainly and bluntly as they have that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction if it was not true, and if they did not have a solid basis for saying it" -- Presidential Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, 12/4/02

"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production." -- George W. Bush, State of the Union address, 1/28/03

"There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more. And he has the ability to dispense these lethal poisons and diseases in ways that can cause massive death and destruction." -- Colin Powell, to U.N. Security Council, 2/5/03

"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, 2/8/03


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