Misleading or Lying?

This was written a few weeks ago, as a letter to the editor, but I think it is still relevant so I will post here.

Once again, Vice President Dick Cheney has accused critics of "corrupt and shameless" revisionism in suggesting the White House misled the nation in a rush to war in Iraq. Let me provide just one of many examples of the Bush administration’s deception leading up to the invasion of Iraq documented in the excellent book All the President’s Spin.

On Sept. 7, 2002, President Bush stated “…when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied - finally denied access, a report came out of the Atomic – the IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency], that they were six months away from developing a [nuclear] weapon.” I don’t know what more evidence we need.” The U.N. inspectors were “finally” denied access in 1998 and the president’s clear implication was that Iraq’s capabilities were current. Yet, the IAEA’s report, issued in 1998, referred to Iraq’s capability in 1991! It further concluded Iraq’s nuclear program had been eliminated by the Gulf War and the ensuing inspection program and that Iraq did not possess “any physical capability for the production of weapon-usable material of any practical significance.”

When challenged on this point, White House spokesman Scott McClellan first suggested that the President had referred to a 1991 IAEA report, overlooking the fact that no IAEA report on Iraq was released that year. Later, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer averred that the claim was from a report by the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Unfortunately for Bush and Fleischer’s credibility, the referenced report was not released until two days after Bush’s original claim.

In referring to Iraqi weapons capabilities from a decade earlier than he knew were no longer viable, was Bush attempting to mislead the American people? Maybe not. Maybe he was just flat out lying!