Bush's enemies lying about him lying

[daveleau]

http://www.nationalreview.com/may/may071103.asp

For the record, here's what President Bush actually said in his SOTU: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Precisely which part of that statement isn't true? The British government did say that it believed Saddam had sought African uranium. Is it possible that the British government was mistaken? Sure. Is it possible that Her Majesty's government came by that belief based on an erroneous American intelligence report about a transaction between Iraq and Niger? Yes — but British Prime Minister Tony Blair and members of his Cabinet say that's not what happened.

Is it possible George Bush lied?

Sure.

[Mike]

Aren't we telling everyone NOT to believe the British Intelligence reports anyway?

[Theophylact]

Okay, he's not lying; he's just taking great care not to know the truth.

That better?

[cyphen]

Why would it be so hard to believe that Hussein was still seeking nuclear capabilities? That perfectly fits his MO, and the guy is far from clean. If, perhaps, the british government told us that Mexico was seeking nuclear capabilities, i'm certain we would be more ardent in verifying that information. But regardless, it is not the president's job to verify that information - it's the CIA's - and they OK'd the speech. And what was said in his speech was entirely true. British intel DID announce findings that Iraq tried to purchase uranium. The statement is true even if the intel is false. However, the responsibility lies with the CIA in approving the President's address, which they did.

There's a hole in the very small proverbial democratic bucket. Seems none of their recent assertions hold water.

It could be possible that Bush either lied or isn't being entirely honest about what he did or didn't know, but there is absolutely no proof as of yet that Bush lied about anything. NOTHING!

Perhaps the previous President has done some serious damage to the trust that Americans have in their highest leaders, but all the conspiracy theories and speculation that are floating around are just that.... conspiracy theories and speculation

[Theophylact]

However:

U.S. officials told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell that Tenet himself advised Rice’s top deputy, Steven Hadley, to remove a reference to the uranium report from a speech Bush delivered Oct. 7 in Cincinnati, establishing that the nation’s top intelligence officials suspected that the allegation was false more than three months before they approved Bush’s repeating it in his nationally televised address on Jan. 28.

So Tenet let Rice's office know that the report was too bogus to use in October. And Rice is complaining that the CIA didn't catch it when the same bogus report was cited in January.

Sounds to me as though they were desperate to cite it no matter how bogus they knew it was.

How many times did he have to say, "Bad report! No use!"?

[cyphen]

or it could "establish" that the CIA just received the intel, and wanted time to verify it, thus the advisement for removal. If indeed these "US officials are themselves being honest. And who are these "US officials"?

[pickel]

Well, in the midst of all this controversy, there's one person who hadn't been lied to.......Haliburton. They were in the game all along.

[cyphen]

And on the flip side of the coin, Hussein needed to be dealt with, and if the world organization responsible for doing that is going to be hijacked by France for financial reasons, then by all means, get an international posse together. Hussein was guilty as sin.