http://www.tompaine.com/feature2.cfm/ID/7943
Letting The Record Speak
The TomPaine.com Staff
We at TomPaine.com have commented exhaustively on the Bush administration's justification for war against Iraq.
But, sometimes, just stating the record is more powerful than commenting on it. Here are two such pieces. The first is from a Web logger named Billton who compiled a list of Bush officials'
claims about Iraqi WMD.
The other is a letter first published by CommonDreams.org that a group named Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity sent to President Bush earlier this month. Combine them and they conjur dozens of weighty questions -- the kinds of questions that can get a president, or at least a few high-level Department of Defense officials, in serious trouble.
Just look at the storm building around Prime Minister Blair as an example. We'll, of course, continue to ask such questions here.
Say the lie 100 times, and people will believe it's true!
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction."
Dick Cheney
Speech to VFW National Convention, Aug. 26, 2002
"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons."
George W. Bush
Speech to U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 12, 2002
"If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world."
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing, Dec. 2, 2002
We know for a fact that there are weapons there.
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing, Jan. 9, 2003
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the
materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.
George W. Bush
State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003
We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.
Colin Powell
Remarks to U.N. Security Council, Feb. 5, 2003
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, Feb. 8, 2003
So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad?... I think our judgment has to be clearly not.
Colin Powell
Remarks to U.N. Security Council, March 7, 2003
Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.
George W. Bush
Address to the Nation, March 17, 2003
Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical
particularly... all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.
Ari Fleisher
Press Briefing, March 21, 2003
There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And... as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.
Gen. Tommy Franks
Press Conference, March 22, 2003
I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass
destruction. Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
The Washington Post, Page A27, March 23, 2003
One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.
Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark
Press Briefing, March 22, 2003
We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview, March 30, 2003
Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.
Neo-con scholar Robert Kagan
The Washington Post op-ed, Apr. 9, 2003
I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found.
Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing, Apr. 10, 2003
We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.
George W. Bush
NBC Interview, Apr. 24, 2003
There are people who in large measure have information that we need ... so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld
Press Briefing, Apr. 25, 2003
We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.
George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters, May 3, 2003
I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it just now.
Colin Powell
Remarks to Reporters, May 4, 2003
We never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass
destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld
Fox News Interview, May 4, 2003
I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein -- because he had a weapons program.
George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters, May 6, 2003
U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and find" weapons of mass destruction.
Condoleeza Rice
Reuters Interview, May 12, 2003
I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean, there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago -- whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're still hidden.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne
Press Briefing, May 13, 2003
Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.
Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Interview with Reporters, May 21, 2003
Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating, I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.
Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NBC Today Show interview, May 26, 2003
They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld
Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations, May 27, 2003
For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass
destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.
Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003
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Quotes about WMD's (Weapons of Mass Destruction) 
