Dick Cheney spoke again today at the American Enterprise Institute. He toned down his virulent jabs at those who dare not support the war in Iraq, but he did lash out against those who suggest that the Administration wasn’t straight with Congress or the American people about why we had to invade Iraq.
What is not legitimate, and what I will again say is dishonest and reprehensible, is the suggestion by some U.S. senators that the president of the United States or any member of his administration purposely misled the American people on prewar intelligence.
Who is reprehensibly dishonest? The facts show that the Bush Administration did mislead the American people. Members of the Administration did pick and choose reports that best supported their position that we had to go to war to protect our country. The facts show that members of the Administration did not provide Congress with all the information they had. The facts show that they did leave out statements and caveats made by the intelligence community that cast doubts on the evidence used to support their urgent call for war.
For a lengthy list of all the misstatements and half-truths told by Cheney, Bush and others high up in the Administration, visit Henry Waxman’s website Iraq on the Record. The site includes 237 specific misleading statements and explanations for why they were misleading. Here’s on example of a statement made by Cheney:
“[T]he reporting that we had prior to the war this time around was all consistent with that — basically said that he had a chemical, biological and nuclear program, and estimated that if he could acquire fissile material, he could have a nuclear weapon within a year or two.”
Source: Transcript of interview with Vice President Dick Cheney, Rocky Mountain News (1/9/2004).This statement was misleading because it failed to acknowledge the intelligence community’s deep division on the issue of whether Iraq was actively pursuing its nuclear program. The statement also failed to mention weeks of intensive inspections conducted directly before the war in which United Nations inspectors found no sign whatsoever of any effort by Iraq to resume its nuclear program. In addition, it failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: “There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has — or will — establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities.”
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