“After months of denials, President Bush has finally admitted that he misled the American public during his State of the Union address when he claimed that Iraq attempted to purchase uranium in Africa.  That is why we need an independent commission to determine the veracity of the other so-called evidence used to convince the American people that war with Iraq was unavoidable.

“It is not enough for the White House to issue a statement saying that President Bush should not have used that piece of intelligence in his State of the Union address at a time when he was trying to convince the American people that invading Iraq was in our national security interests.  Did the president know then what he says he only knows now? If not, why not, since that information was available at the highest level.

“What else did the Bush Administration lie about?  What other faulty information did Administration officials, including President Bush, tell the American people and the world?  Did the Bush Administration knowingly deceive us and manufacture intelligence in order to build public support for the invasion of Iraq?  Did Iraq really pose an imminent threat to our nation? 

“These questions must be answered.  The American people deserve to know the full truth.”

Schakowsky is an original cosponsor of H.R. 2625, legislation authored by U.S. Representative Henry Waxman to create an independent commission - modeled after the September 11 Commission - to examine the intelligence about Iraq and the representations made by executive branch officials about this intelligence.