Revisionist History???!!......

Status
Not open for further replies.
Go to the Department of State site!

you'll find! .........

On June 16, Bush branded as "revisionist historians" those who now criticize his decision to use military force to oust Saddam Hussein from power. "This nation acted to a threat from the dictator of Iraq. Now there are some who would like to rewrite history; revisionist historians is what I like to call them," the president said in a speech in New Jersey.

Don
 
Sex, lies and weapons of mass deception

History is always being revised as more evidence is gathered, and more previously confidential documents are declassified.

To marshall support for the war, President Bush claimed that Iraq had tried to purchase weapons-grade uranium from Niger. Eventually the documents which supposedly proved this claim were released to the International Atomic Energy Agency. The research branch of the IAEA examined the documents and within one day determined that they were forgeries. They were such bad forgeries that anyone capable of rubbing two braincells together could have uncovered the fraud using Google.

Today, no one seriously claims that the documents were legitimate, or that Iraq ever tried to buy weapons-grade uranium from Niger.

The president lied in order to lead the country into a war, and finally his lies are catching up with him. We're expected to be in Iraq for at least five more years, so get ready for a daily US soldier body count and still more lies.

A few years ago I remember many people getting upset that a president lied about getting a few hummers from a young woman who flashed her thong underwear at him and brought him a pizza. Funny how so many of the people who got upset then can muster only a yawn now, and vice versa.
 
Sorry to spoil your fun, folks

But it has not been shown in any convincing way that the president lied. I know you have already decided he lied, based on the sole reason of the many he gave which (so far) has not been vindicated. But I also believe, based on what you've all been saying since before the war, that you had already concluded he was a liar before there was any evidence either way.

If we applied the 'Bush lies' rules of evidence to the 'Bush lies' crowd, they too are liars, since a number of their claims (tens of thousands of casualties, slaughter of civilians, eco-disaster, etc) have been shown wrong.

It would be nice to wait for good data, or at least better data. Some serious investigations are under way now. And the only one so far, the 'Blair lied: BBC' case, has found that BBC lied. 'Course, they, like our own 'Bush lies' folks, had already decided Blair was a liar. THEN they set out to gather data. Not good technique.
 
Oh.... it's been found that BBC lied.

And the only one so far, the 'Blair lied: BBC' case, has found that BBC lied.

So what did the BBC lie about K-Hornet? You mean when they reported that Tony Blair claimed that Saddam "could launch an attack using WMDs in 45 minutes"? You mean Blair really didn't say that?

Did BBC also lie when they said that Blair's dossier was based on 12 year old information they plagiarized from an American/Iranian graduate student's paper?

What exactly was BBC's "big lie"?

Don
 
But I also believe, based on what you've all been saying since before the war, that you had already concluded he was a liar before there was any evidence either way.

If you are including me in that category, then you clearly did not read my posts. My opinion of GWB's character is in any event irrelevant to the specific claim that President Bush made as part of his case against Iraq in his State of the Union speech last Jan. 28. His exact words: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.â€

I did not conclude that Bush lied about Nigerian uranium until I read an article by Seymour Hersh in The New Yorker (26 March 2003). A copy of his article is here.

It took the IAEA "only a few hours to determine that the documents were fake. The agency had been given about a half-dozen letters and other communications between officials in Niger and Iraq, many of them written on letterheads of the Niger government. The problems were glaring. One letter, dated October 10, 2000, was signed with the name of Allele Habibou, a Niger Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, who had been out of office since 1989. Another letter, allegedly from Tandja Mamadou, the President of Niger, had a signature that had obviously been
faked and a text with inaccuracies so egregious, the senior I.A.E.A. official said, that they could be spotted by someone using Google on the Internet."

White House backs off claim uranium buy

What else do you need?

If they lied about the claim of Nigerian uranium to Iraq, then what else did they lie about in order to persuade the country to go to war against Iraq? The truth is that the foreign policy players in the adminsitration around Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rummy, et al., had decided back in the mid-90s that they wanted to go to war against Baghdad. It just took 9-11 to mobilize the country behind them.
 
I stand by my previous posts on this subject...DonQ is becoming quite the troll with his 'liar, liar, pants on fire' routine. Why not give it a rest
before you give the enemy any more aid
and comfort??!!:uhoh:
 
We were evaluating the truthfulness of the president's statements regarding weapons of mass destruction. Are you saying that attempting to determine the truth gives aid and comfort to the enemy?


Search for truth = treason?
 
khornet,

Actually the Commons committee investigating found that HMG had "accidentally" mislead people by including the 45-minute claim when it was based on the thinnest of evidence (one unsubstantiated claim) - but noone was really to blame for that (Alistair Campbell was found not to be responsible on a tied vote where the chairman had to cast).

"We conclude that the 45 minutes claim did not warrant the prominence given to it in the dossier, because it was based on intelligence from a single, uncorroborated source. We recommend that the government explain why the claim was given such prominence," the report states.

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,12123,993744,00.html

The BBC claim - that the 45 minutes claim was inserted to "sex up" the dossier - has been backed up in part by the MoD (who admitted one of their men met with the reporter Gilligan) and the Intelligence Services (who have by all accounts been briefing against the Government), who apparently are in uproar because the whole episode comes down to either them being incompetent fools, or HMG misleading the people.

According to the MoD, Dr Kelly admitted to having met Gilligan. Asked why the 45-minute claim was put in, Dr Kelly said "probably for impact".

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,12123,995047,00.html


Don,

Thats the second, "dodgy", dossier, you traitorous vermin (copyright gburner)
 
If the noose fits....

Searching for the truth is all well and good. That's not what's going on here.
This is a case of using any pretext to weaken the effectiveness of this president as he leads the country in it's fight against those who would see us all dead.

In the interest of full disclosure, the
President chose to cite reports of purchases of uraniun by Iraq from Niger.
These reports ultimately proved bogus and the administration has admitted so.
It was not the single issue that propelled us to war, but part of a highly detailed indictment of the Hussein regime which cited chapter and verse multiple violations of international law as well as volations of the cease fire which paused the hostilities during the first gulf war.
There are voices in this country that do not have this country's best interests at heart, that desperately disagree with our strong international aims and will stop at nothing to see that we fail in this endeavor. The owner's of those voices sow the seeds of treason by attempting to tear us apart from within. To call this a search for truth is an attempt to put chrome plating on manure.
 
I regret to have to say

that I stand by my characterization of the attitude of the 'Bush lies' crowd. I've seen nothing to dissuade me so far. All are of course entitled to their opinions, but the 'Bush lies' chant reeks of animus rather than reasoned opposition. Now to specifics:

Agricola Don, bfason, thanks. But is the glass half-full or half empty? What we appear to know now is that Bush and Blair gave credit to reports which have since proved wrong. To me that proves.....that they gave credit to reports which have subsequently proved wrong. To you, and the BBC, it proves that they lied.

Now, it's possible (though not likely in my opinion) that they were lying. But none of you knows that, nor do I. I start from the impression that Bush is honest, but, knowing that governments do lie, I reserve judgement. And knowing that news media do lie, I reserve judgement.

Let's turn this around. Didn't we all recently have a dustup about Paul Wolfowitz declaring that the Iraq war was all about oil? The 'Bush lies' crowd jumped on that uncritically, and ended with egg on their faces when it was shown to be a, shall we say, loose interpretation of Wolfowitz' remarks. Did the member who posted that Wolfowitz story lie? Is he a LIAR? No, he saw something that fit with a pattern he thinks exists, and forgot his critical faculties for a moment. And was gracious enough to acknowledge the error of the story.

GWB and Blair may well have swallowed a story which fit with a pattern they though they were seeing, in fact a pattern which was known to exist already given Saddam's history, a pattern with far more history to support it than the 'Bush lies' conceit. And, if I'm not mistaken, they graciously acknowledged it.

We of The High Road would do well to study their example.
 
khornet,

GWB and Blair may well have swallowed a story which fit with a pattern they though they were seeing, in fact a pattern which was known to exist already given Saddam's history, a pattern with far more history to support it than the 'Bush lies' conceit. And, if I'm not mistaken, they graciously acknowledged it.

we already know that Saddam was a tyrant, that he abused his people and that he had possessed and used chemical weapons both against Iran and against his own people.

However, the questions that people are asking now are:

i) was the case for war made using "facts" which have turned out to be false, or at the least inaccurate?

The answer clearly is yes. For a start, we have the Niger Yellowcake faked documents. We then have the 45 minute claim. We also have the discredited Atta meeting in Prague with members of Iraqi intelligence (to say nothing of the Saddam- al-Qaeda links)- repeated even after it has been disproved (even this week). Subsequent events have shown that Iraq was not awash with WMD and the language, in the UK at least, this week changed from WMD to WMD programme, which is an important distinction.

You've accepted the Niger yellowcake story as an honest mistake - fair enough. However I would suggest that the US President would be expected to have a more efficient intelligence service than the IAEA and so it strikes me as strange that the IAEA would be able to disprove (presumably quite sensitive) intelligence while the CIA wouldnt.

From the UK perspective at the very least IMHO the facts were "spun" in order to present the evidence in the best possible light. The yellowcake story was faked, probably by Iraqi opposition elements, as was the 45 minute claim. The fact that, compared to 1991, the Iraqi armed forces were somewhere like 30% of their effectiveness and that the defences of Israel, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were far stronger than 1991 seems to have been forgotten.

Didnt the CIA assess that the only real chance that Saddam would use WMD is if he thought his back was to the wall?


ii) was war necessary at that time to achieve those aims?

it comes down to whether or not the breaches of international law were sufficient to justify invasion, "regime change" and the occupation. Legally, I would say that they werent. Blix and Baradei were back in, and given the searches underway now the timescale allowed to them seems pathetically small. The expulsion of the UNSCOM inspectors did present a breach, as did the existance of the al-Samound missile. Is that enough to justify the war? Or the occupation?

I'd argue that when a leader like Bush or Blair is entrusted with the lives of the men under their command the evidence would have to be as overwhelming as possible; the evidence as shown in both dossiers, the SOTU address and Colin Powell's briefing cannot be said to be "overwhelming", but tenuous at best.

I must also declare that this was the first campaign that a loved one has been involved in. Having seen what the strain did, not only to his mother and family, but also his fiance and to myself, one cannot simply glibly accept the explanation of HMG and the shameful aspect in which it has attempted to shift blame to the BBC.
 
Correction, please

Blix and Baradei were not sent to Iraq this past year to continue the search for WMD...the UN gave a mandate that those teams were to have unfettered access to ALL programs, personnel and materials and that the Baathists were to actively cooperate with the accumulation of materials and information. They were to be collection and documentation agents, not detectives. The onus was on the Iraqis to come clean, not for the inspectors to play a never ending game of 'whose got the button'. Six months of obfuscation, opposition, threats, deception and behind he scenes machinations was enough to convince this administration that the Baathists were not cooperating. If they wanted to avoid war, they could have come clean within a week. Instead, they had 6 months to hide, transfer and/or sell all
proscribed items. And we're the bad guys????????:rolleyes:
 
Didn't we all recently have a dustup about Paul Wolfowitz declaring that the Iraq war was all about oil?

Khornet, I don't think the stink was created because Wolfowitz declared the Iraq war was about oil.

The stink was caused when Wolfowitz said the administration used WMDs argument as their MAIN reason for war ......"because that was a reason "we" (those surrounding Bush) could all agree on."

Don
 
Agricola,

Thanks. The point--the only point of the thread-- is "Bush lied". The answer--the only answer-- is "Not so fast." I think you acknowledge that.

You are indeed correct that we should expect a higher standard of intelligence from a President and PM than we do from, e.g., the BBC or the Guardian.

But of course, for the 'Bush lies' crowd, BBC and Guardian seem to suffice. Not for me, thanks.

That war causes stress, and the stress is worse when one of your own is involved, is true but nothing to the point about whether Bush lied.

Don, the story is as follows: Wolfowitz was misquoted in a German paper as saying that we went to war with Iraq FOR OIL. A British paper picked it up and ran with it. Guardian, I think. Headlines: Wolfowitz: "War Was For Oil' etc. Turns out, Wolfowitz was being asked why we didn't try economic sanctions against Saddam, like we would for N. Korea. His answer: they wouldn't work against Iraq, because Iraq "swims on a sea of oil", that is, she has economic resources which make her relatively indifferent to sanctions. So military option was chosen.

You are thinking of a different 'Bush lies' club gaffe: The alleged We-Told-Them-It-Was-All-About-WMD-But-It -Really-Wasn't story. What Wolfowitz actually said was, we really had a bunch of good reasons, but each of the parties involved in the decision had some of them he couldn't support; meanwhile WMD (which was one of the reasons all along) was the one ALL could support, so we went with it. Seems perfectly reasonable, unless you think politicians don't do politics.
 
Don,

I'll believe the US has said intelligence officer, and that he met with Mr. Atta, when I get good data and the story hold up. Wonderful, if true. IF true.

As for Perle wanting the guy interrogated "by inerrogators that share his poiny of view"...what the heck does that mean? Should we have Arafat do it? That's the kind of remark I'm referring to in my post above. It makes it look as if you are waiting to seize on the slightest crumb which will cast the Bushies in a bad light. It bespeaks a bad faith approach, and thereby diminishes one's credibility. We can do better than that.
 
( Khornet beats dead horse)

Also, Agricola, while one should expect Gov't to insist on the best data possible before making a decision, it's unrealistic to demand that it be perfect, and no particle of it be found wrong after the fact. Sometimes you just have to decide. It sure seems to me that Bush spent more time on figuring out what had to be done, and on getting the nation to go along (called 'leadership') than he spent on buffing his position so no one could criticize him afterward.

Screwups? Overheated responses to shadows? Entirely possible, though not desirable. But outright lies? Sorry, hard for me to swallow. Screwups are bad enough. But apparently not 'criminal' enough for the 'Bush lies' camp.
 
With all due respect Don...

When you start losing a debate on issues such as this you simply go start another thread with a slightly different angle to the same subject matter? :rolleyes:

Everything you've posted in your other threads or in threads you've participated in on these subjects have been discredited in some form or another with documentation and links. I think the saying says ""Third time's a charm." So one would figure that after three if you fail give it up.

I'll help you out a little here if I may:

(I'm being Don here) Bush lied! The Bush administration lied! Everybody lies and has lied to me! Unless they are on line with the my beliefs they lied! Everything about this war was a lie! Lying liars, all of them!

Am I at least on the right track with this because it has been your mantra throughout all of your other posts?

For any that may be reading that are not familiar with DonQatU look for any thread started by him, look for any thread talking favorably about Bush or his administration or anything favorable to the war and there you will find Don. My impersonation of him pretty much sums up what you will find Don writing about in every case. No it's not a form letter, it's just Don doing what he does best, repeating himself without fact.

Now since I've become fairly familiar with Don I know that he is thinking similarly about myself and I envite anyone to read any of the threads and draw their own conclusions, but the difference between you and I Don is that I read all the information good and bad, see who's writing it and why, and determine whether or not it's someone's opinion or a basis in fact.

KHornet said it best and I've spoken similar revelations as well (but then I get sucked into Don's world and...well, it goes downhill from there ;)

"It would be nice to wait for good data, or at least better data. Some serious investigations are under way now. And the only one so far, the 'Blair lied: BBC' case, has found that BBC lied. 'Course, they, like our own 'Bush lies' folks, had already decided Blair was a liar. THEN they set out to gather data. Not good technique."

Oh well, Don never stop being you. It's what we like about you :D

Take care folks, it's all yours. I'm going to see if there are some real threads to read and respond to. ;)

DRC
 
Bush & Blair had their own reasons for going into Iraq, and the war against terror was not it. Oil? I don't think its that simple.

I wish that George Bush had asked Congress to declare war on Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Reagon should have declared war again Syria and Iran and their terrorist proxies after the Marine barracks were bombed in Beirut.

Unfortunately, we don't fight when we need to and we get into fights for the wrong reasons when we do fight.
 
Searching for the truth is all well and good. That's not what's going on here.

Did you even read the article by Hersh?

This is a case of using any pretext to weaken the effectiveness of this president as he leads the country in it's fight against those who would see us all dead.

Can you name a specific person who is "using any pretext to weaken the effectiveness of this president"? Seymour Hersh? Bfason? Anyone here at The High Road? Who specifically are you accusing?

But it has not been shown in any convincing way that the president lied.

Admit that you did not even read the Hersh article. Now the Bush Administration admits that it's claim regarding Nigerian uranium was false. It was so patently false that the IAEA disproved it in a single afternoon. And you mean to tell me that all the President's men with all of the intelligence resources at their disposal were duped by this bad forgery? That Wolfowitz, Cheney and Rumsfeld are that incompetent? Come on....

The owner's of those voices sow the seeds of treason by attempting to tear us apart from within. To call this a search for truth is an attempt to put chrome plating on manure.

Was Hersh's exposition of the Bush Administration's uranium fraud an act of treason?

What we appear to know now is that Bush and Blair gave credit to reports which have since proved wrong. To me that proves.....that they gave credit to reports which have subsequently proved wrong. To you, and the BBC, it proves that they lied.

"The British panel said it was unclear why the British government asserted as a 'bald claim' that there was intelligence that Iraq had sought to buy significant amounts of uranium in Africa. It noted that the CIA had already debunked this intelligence, and questioned why an official British government intelligence dossier published four months before Bush’s speech included the claim as part of an effort to make the case for going to war against Iraq."

http://www.msnbc.com/news/935946.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1

You see that? The CIA knew is was bull????, but Bush Administration hawks made sure to include it in Bush's speech *despite* it's being obvious bunk.

Let's turn this around. Didn't we all recently have a dustup about Paul Wolfowitz declaring that the Iraq war was all about oil? The 'Bush lies' crowd jumped on that uncritically...

I sure didn't. Someone emailed me a link to that story, and it just didn't sound like something Wolfowitz would say.

>I start from the impression that Bush is honest,

OK, there's the problem, folks. It's called naiveté, and it's curable. Get thee to a library.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top