Study: "False Pretenses" Led U.S. To War

Journalism Groups' Research Finds 935 False Statements By Bush Administration

(AP)  A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.

"The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world," Stanzel said.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Mr. Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al Qaeda or both.

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al Qaeda," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."

Named in the study along with Mr. Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Mr. Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al Qaeda, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al Qaeda.

The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.

"The cumulative effect of these false statements - amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts - was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.

"Some journalists - indeed, even some entire news organizations - have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said.

[brianbwb-2009]

And the warmongering suckers continue to refer to those lies as justification for continuing the illegal occupation of Iraq.

Now send the results of the study to Pelosi, and tell her that if she doesn''t back impeachment efforts, she becomes a co-conspirator in the continuation of illegal hostile military occupation of a sovereign state.

[buddhabman]

01/20/2009

[brianbwb-2009]

"Some journalists - indeed, even some entire news organizations - have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, ''independent'' validation of the Bush administration''s false statements about Iraq," it said."

Names are required here, even though we know who the worst offenders are, (Fox news, and CNN, I refer especially to you) but if the study named names, we would have the tools to eliminate any of their remaining credibility.

[david1737]

No kidding?

Thankfully someone just came out and printed it!

Sick thing is I''ve been jumping up and down trying to get my repub friends to catch on, some have.

[brianbwb-2009]

01/20/2009
Posted by buddhabman

To

[david1737]

One of the problems now is that Bush/Repubs have a serious credibility problem. Most of the world and many in America simply don''t believe anything that they say.

[candide777]

The disgrace this monster has brought upon our country makes Bill''s dalliance look like child''s play, or if not that, two consenting adults doing something that certainly was not any business of 99.99999999% of the country.

When Clinton lied, no one died.

[jeff_from_md]

how much you wanna bet someone''s gonna pull up a bunch of Clinton quotes implicating Saddam''s WMDs, yet fail to mention that Clinton spoke of them right before his airstrikes which eliminated the last of the WMDs in 1998? (as verified by Hanz Blix and the UN weapon inspectors)

[brianbwb-2009]

To CBS,

It would be prudent to take a look at your own contribution to the "war effort" and publicly fire any reporter or editorial writer who caused misinformation to be disseminated via CBS, because your long and hard earned credibility, earned over decades by Murrow, Cronkite, and other giants of TV journalism, is also now suspect, and at the bottom line, credibility the core is what you sell to the people, and consequently, advertisers.

[brianbwb-2009]

01/20/2009
Posted by buddhabman

We cannot wait for this idiot to start another fake "war" with Iran, and then run off as the country collapses economically.

Bush must pay for his lies and his crimes, NOW.

[jeff_from_md]

how much you wanna bet someone''s gonna pull up a bunch of Clinton quotes implicating Saddam''s WMDs, yet fail to mention that Clinton spoke of them right before his airstrikes which eliminated the last of the WMDs in 1998? (as verified by Hanz Blix and the UN weapon inspectors)

[micma-2009]

Any one with any objectivity has figured out that the Bush administration lied us into this disastrous war.

[david1737]

Standard neocon response:

But "liberal media"!?!

Meanwhile they listen to Rush and other self-proclaimed neocons, pretending all the while that they''re unbiased.

Please people just admit it once and for all. We''ve been lied to by the Bush Admin.

[mbburch06]

Another botched article by CBS. Way to go guys! Notice that the title is "2 Years of LIES..." Obviously they are more interested in headlines than accurate reporting.

I''m not defending Bush or the war -- it was a HUGE mistake! But using the word LIE implies that he knew at the time that the statements were false. That is not what this report says! You can be foolish or ignorant without being a liar, and it seems to me that this is the case with Bush.

Most of Congress, including many Democrats believed that Saddam had WMDs. Obviously we have better information now, but this article says nothing about their information AT THE TIME.

[Krazcarl]

IMPEACH I SAY his personal grudge againt Hussan{?} has cost 1000''s of american lives he needs to be removed from office in disgrace not allowed to walk away wealthy.

[candide777]

When the president talks to God
Are the conversations brief or long?
Does he ask to rape our women%u2019s rights
And send poor farm kids off to die?
Does God suggest an oil hike
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
Are the consonants all hard or soft?
Is he resolute all down the line?
Is every issue black or white?
Does what God say ever change his mind
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
Does he fake that drawl or merely nod?
Agree which convicts should be killed?
Where prisons should be built and filled?
Which voter fraud must be concealed
When the president talks to God?

When the president talks to God
I wonder which one plays the better cop
We should find some jobs. the ghetto''s broke
No, they''re lazy, George, I say we don''t
Just give ''em more liquor stores and dirty coke
That''s what God recommends

When the president talks to God
Do they drink near beer and go play golf
While they pick which countries to invade
Which Muslim souls still can be saved?
I guess god just calls a spade a spade
When the president talks to God

When the president talks to God
Does he ever think that maybe he''s not?
That that voice is just inside his head
When he kneels next to the presidential bed
Does he ever smell his own ***
When the president talks to God?

I doubt it

I doubt it

--Bright Eyes

[dakotaclark]

Hmmm.

Well, lies in an administration are nothing new.

However, there ought to be some form of severe punishment for lying to the American public.

Mercifully, there are only 362 days remaining in the Bush and Shotgun D-I-C-K Cheney debacle.

[micma-2009]

Posted by mbburch06


The Bush administration knew months before Bush''s state of the union speech that the yellow cake documents were forged. Yet they still used them again and again in making their case. That''s called a lie.

[harrydoghiny]

Funny how CBS only posts these stories in the middle of the night. Anybody want to bet it''s gone by daylight?
Keep up the good work, MSM, they couldn''t fool the people without you.

[brianbwb-2009]

I went to the site for the Center for Public Integrity, and found the headline to which this article refers, but when I tried to see the article in its entirety, I got this;

"The article you''ve requested is either unavailable or does not belong in this project."

Anyone care to explain?

"But using the word LIE implies that he knew at the time that the statements were false." Posted by mbburch06

Three days before Bush gave his speech to the American people, the Pentagon informed the WH that the evidence for their assertions re Iraqi WMDs was bogus. They did indeed know, but continued to lie about it. Powell knew as he pointed to the pictures that it was BS.

As the article states; "The cumulative effect of these false statements - amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts - was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded."

And also made any politicians opposed to the war afraid to speak out, fearing the backlash by a suckered public, afraid of the right wing war mongers calling them traitors, etc.,

[samthetvcat]

"The cumulative effect of these false statements - amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts - was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.

"Some journalists - indeed, even some entire news organizations - have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical."

Well if the goal in revisiting this miscalculation is to develop more accurate judgment then the question that really needs to be asked is whether people actually bought into the lies or whether people bought into the fear-mongering and therefore didn''t adequately investigate the costs of being wrong. It seems to me it was the latter . . .

[occams_taser]

Duh!

If there was any justice Bush would hang for war crimes after a trial at The Hague.

[republic1776]

Does anyone remember ALL Congress holding hands and singing God Bless America on the Capitol lawn?
Come on they ALL knew. Are Democratic leaders really that stupid?
The middle east had to be invaded to stop the Islam extremist''s.
The creation of Pakistan was a offering of peace by Ghandi. That sure worked huh?
America MUST carry a big stick!

[brianbwb-2009]

http://www.publicintegrity.org/search.aspx?
strSearch=Bush%20lies%20on%20Iraq

Try this, I saw the headline, but the rest of the article is unavailable.

I was not in the US during the run up to "war", so not being blinded by the hysteria of the panic, I was able to see through the lies as they came out of the mouths of the liars, and their TV pundit war mongers. I said back then that Bush and his people were lying.

[ontheleft]

I don''t care if Bush really thought there were WMDs in Iraq. The point is, the WMDs and ''links to Al Qaeda'' were not the reasons Bush invaded Iraq. They were merely excuses. That''s why those excuses were trumpeted and exaggerated at every possible juncture by the Bush administration. It''s also why he never allowed the United Nations to fully investigate his allegations. In that sense it was a big bald lie.

The fact is, the United States waged pre-emptive war against Iraq as a power play in the middle east with an eye towards installing a U.S.-friendly government and establishing military bases in Iraq to dominate the middle east. The war was for oil.

Iraq never posed an "imminent threat" to the United States. So the question really is, was this power play in the middle east worth millions of lives and trillions of dollars?

Bush made a bold, irrational move on the part of the U.S. and it has backfired on us.

[republic1776]

Some suggest resolve by the "United Nations"
What a joke, food for oil, half of Africa in revolution.
The UN is EVIL!
We should have booted them out, a long time ago.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by SamTheTVCat

It was both, Sam, the purveyors of the news didn''t follow the standard of independent verification, partly out of fear of reprisal by the Bush WH, and partly out of greed, as they say "blood sells".

The consumers bought into the lies partly because of the sheer unrelenting bombardment of identical misinformation and fear mongering from all media sources, and encouragement of war mongers with access to the media, like Rush, and his ilk.

Even now you will see people posting on these threads about Iraqi WMDs still trying to justify an illegal war.

[brianbwb-2009]

To SamTheTVCat

Didn''t take long to get an example, did it?

"The middle east had to be invaded to stop the Islam extremist''''s." Posted by republic1776

As I said Sam you can see there are those who still believe the lies.

[republic1776]

Brianbwb,

ALL Murder is illegal!
War be should NEVER be legal.
It''s ugly, it''s destruction, blood and guts!
It''s a must someimes, NOT to be viewed like Hollywood liberal party.

[harp1963]

And America will be dumb enough to vote another Republican into office in 2009. We know more about sports than things that really matter in this warped Nation.

[brianbwb-2009]

"I don''''t care if Bush really thought there were WMDs in Iraq. The point is, the WMDs and ''''links to Al Qaeda'''' were not the reasons Bush invaded Iraq. They were merely excuses." Posted by ontheleft

You may not care, but the law should care, this is the central point, WMDs and Al Qaeda were the reasons given. By lying, Bush broke the law, and should be held personally responsible. If the truth would have made it an illegal invasion, a lie only added one more crime on top of it.

Bush made a bold, irrational move on the part of the U.S. and it has backfired on us.
Posted by ontheleft

I''ll give you irrational, but bold? That was the most cowardly move of his term, cowardly because now they try every trick they can think of to avoid personal responsibility for actions they themselves know were illegal at the time.

[feelfree1]

republic1776,

Re: "ALL Murder is illegal! It''s a must some[t]imes..."

Really? Have you murdered anyone yourself, out of necessity, or do you simply screech and whine for others to do your killing and dying for you?

[brianbwb-2009]

It''''s a must someimes, NOT to be viewed like Hollywood liberal party.
Posted by republic1776

If Bush had to lie us into it, then it wasn''t a must, period.

[feelfree1]

We DO know where many of the lies were fabricated, in the fraudulent case for the invasion of Iraq.

They were intentionally cooked up and concocted my men like Paul Wolfowitz and Doug Feith, in the "Office of Special Plans", and yet these men have not faced a gallows or a firing squad, for some unknown reason.

What''s more, we know that every single claim made by the Regime as they were making their case to invade Iraq, was either called into serious question, or outright debunked as completely false, BEFORE the start of the illegal invasion.

[brianbwb-2009]

935 lies weren''''t accidental.
Posted by george2221

True, and now we are bankrupt from it, and have wasted lives to it.

If we are to survive much longer as a nation, we must not accept this as "normal" anymore.

[harp1963]

It hard to believe that the President of our United States could be capable of this. When you think of all the wounded and dead American soldiers, not to mention the Iraqi peoples suffering. This is almost unimaginable for many of us who were raise in the idealistic families of our Dads who served in WW 2. It''s pathetically sad.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/01/09/60minutes/main592330.shtml

[samrensho]

Administration scumbags are like used car salesmen. You can tell when they''re lying because their lips are moving.

[watcher269-2009]

So, here''s proof - Time to Impeach Bush Cheney 08!


Impeach BUSH/CHENEY in 08!

[brianbwb-2009]

To feelfree,

I went to the site for the Center for Public Integrity, and found the headline to which this article refers, but when I tried to see the article in its entirety, I got this;

"The article you''ve requested is either unavailable or does not belong in this project."

You want to try it? The site is;

http://www.publicintegrity.org/search.as
px?strSearch=Bush%20lies%20on%20Iraq

Something strange going on here.

[feelfree1]

CBS Newz is more than 5 years late on this story.

These lies were exposed again and again, ahead of the illegal invasion of Iraq, yet CBS chose to be complicit stenographers of these lies, and to focus instead on demonizing and minimizing dissent.

In this way, CBS Newz is complicit in the fraud-based war of aggression against Iraq, and Afghanistan, for that matter, and they share responsibility for the tens of thousands of U.S. casualties, and the millions of Iraqi casualties, that have resulted from these misadventures.

CBS News has become a mockery to the concept of journalism, and has violated the public trust with their endless appeasement of the fascistic and illegitimate Bush regime.

[andrew_693]

To think that Clinton was impeached over a bj in the oval and this guy whose lies killed thousands of idiots in uniform and even more tragic, the death of thousands of innocent iraquis who payed the price for the stupidity of half the US, it''s so tragic.

[brianbwb-2009]

"This is almost unimaginable for many of us who were raise in the idealistic families of our Dads who served in WW 2. It''''s pathetically sad." Posted by harp1963

I almost agree, but also must ask, didn''t Johnson and Nixon blow it for you? Maybe you haven''t heard that McNamara, the Vietnam "war''s" most virulent hawk, says that they lied about that one too. And Reagan, selling drugs and running guns in the Iran Contra crimes?

[greatdrivew]

Which media outlets were the worst offenders? Does anyone know?

[feelfree1]

Hello "brianbwb",

The URL that you provided brought me to a page of search results that did not contain the article. However, I was able to find it here:

www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/

You will need to be patient, as their site is running very slowly. My guess is that they are currently experiencing a DNS attack from the neo-fascists.

[lawyertom1]

Only 935? Surely they overlooked a few dozen. LOL. Finally, after all these years, the lies are being seen for what they are.

As Samuel Adams noted: How strangely will the Tools of a Tyrant pervert the plain Meaning of Words! The Shrub has been straight out of Aristole: A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious.

Now, at last, wee are re-learning the lessons of Justice Brandeis: Experience should teach us to be most on our guard to protect liberty when the Government''s purposes are beneficent. Men born to freedom are naturally alert to repel invasion of their liberty by evil-minded rulers. The greatest dangers to liberty lurk in insidious encroachment by men of zeal, well-meaning but without understanding.

[brianbwb-2009]

Posted by andrew_693

I wouldn''t call the soldiers idiots, many soldiers who died joined the military long before 9/11, because it was the only legal way out of their poverty, they weren''t expecting to die in Iraq.

But as for anyone joining up after it began, in the face of all the lies that most of us already knew? Now we''re talking mental issues...

[neoconrcrazy]

In the history of this Republic never have so few caused so much harm.

This national disaster was iniciated by men whose narrow minds and philosophy went un-checked by the press, the people, and our representatives.

Few stood up to question these actions - Senator Robert Byrd was one of the few but found little or no support in the Senate.

Moral men like Colin Powell saw duty first, instead of dissention.

With over 4''000 needless American deaths in Iraq and half a million Iraqis, this is, without doubt,

the biggest criminal bloodbath since Rwanda and a stain on American democracy.

[brianbwb-2009]

Which media outlets were the worst offenders? Does anyone know?
Posted by GreatDriveW

I can tell you from outside the US, Fox News was by far the most hysterical, CNN tried to appear calmer, but still trumpeted the lies unchallenged, as did USA Today. The International Herald Tribune was as close to objective as one could find, but there still was a considerable amount of unchallenged BS there also.

[smirk5]

Here''s a Cheney lie. Of course, there was doubt among intelligence officials. This makes what Cheney said an absolute lie.

"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."
*** Cheney
Aug. 29, 2002
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/08/20020829-5.html

[feelfree1]

HarryDoghiny,

Re: "Funny how CBS only posts these stories in the middle of the night."

This does seem to be among their typical tactics.

Another that they seem to favor, is the suppression of comment.

Notice the CBS propaganda piece entitled, "New Sanctions On Iran For Nukes". This article is shown as having 59 comments, yet CBS has kept them hidden from us.

One of those is a comment by myself, where I marked this article as exhibit "W", in the case of CBS complicity, in the fomentation of yet another lie-based war of aggression- this time against Iran.

Notice that CBS Newz has only 3 more letters to go, before they have completed an entire alphabet of inflammatory deceptions about this topic.

It appears that they have not learned, and are willing to risk standing beside the Regime officials, at their war crimes tribunal.