PRE-WAR INTELLIGENCE
(July 12, 2004) Speaking today in Oak
Ridge, Tennessee, President Bush
“defended his decision to invade Iraq even as he conceded on Monday that
investigators had not found the weapons of mass destruction that he had warned
the country possessed.”
President Bush said that he “had a choice to make: either take the word of a
madman or defend America. Given that choice I will defend America.”
However, according to the Center for
Americans Progress, the Bush Administration ignored intelligence information
from U.S. and international sources about the true extent of the Iraqi threat.
According to the Center:
In February of 2003, a
CIA report on proliferation said the intelligence community had "no
'direct evidence' that Iraq
has succeeded in reconstituting its biological, chemical, nuclear or long-range
missile programs in the two years since U.N. weapons inspectors left and U.S.
planes bombed Iraqi facilities." Inspectors repeatedly told the UN Security
Council they
could
not find evidence of weapons
in Iraq and the IAEA warned Bush
it had "found
no evidence
of ongoing prohibited nuclear or
nuclear-related activities in Iraq."
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
SCHAKOWSKY: THERE IS NO ROOM FOR U.S.-HIRED PARAMILITARIES &
MERCENARIES IN AN
INTERROGATION CELL
RENEWS CALL FOR SUSPENSION OF
CONTRACTS WITH PRIVATE FIRMS CONDUCTING INTERROGATION AT IRAQI AND AFGHANI
PRISONS FOLLOWING INDICTMENT OF CIA CONTRACTOR
(June 17, 2004)
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the indictment of a CIA contractor for the death
of prisoner in Afghanistan, U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today
renewed her call for the Bush Administration to immediately suspend all
contracts with private firms conducting interrogations of prisoners in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
(Click
for Full Statment)
SADDAM HUSSEIN – AL QAEDA LINK
(June 16, 2004)
Even though this
claim has been widely refuted,
President Bush stood firm by his assertion that there was, in fact, a
relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda. President Bush said:
“Zarqawi is the best evidence of
connection to al Qaeda affiliates and al Qaeda. He’s the person who’s still
killing. He’s the person -- and remember the email exchange between al Qaeda
leadership and he, himself, about how to disrupt the progress toward freedom?”
[Bush Remarks, 6/15/04]
Vice President Cheney repeated the
same claim. He said: “In Iraq, Saddam Hussein was in power, overseeing one
of the bloodiest regimes of the 20th century… He had long established ties with
al Qaeda.” [VP Cheney, Orlando, FL, 6/14/04]
Today, however, CNN reported: The
panel investigating the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks found that there
was "no credible evidence that Iraq and al Qaeda cooperated on attacks against
the United States…”
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
COST OF IRAQI WAR
(June 8, 2004)
President Bush today said that he was “delighted” with the way things are going
at the United Nations and that he expects “nations to contribute as they see
fit” to the efforts in Iraq. (Fox News, 6/8/04)
However, President
Bush has failed to acknowledge that a
majority of
American taxpayers are not “delighted”
because they are bearing the financial burden for the war in Iraq.
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
THE COST OF WAR IN IRAQ
(May 5, 2004) According
to news reports today, the Bush administration “will ask Congress for an
additional $25 billion for U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, Republican
congressional aides said Wednesday, a change from the White House's earlier
plans to not request such money until after the November elections…” (AP,
5/5/04)
However, “White House
budget director Joshua Bolten said earlier this year that the administration
will eventually need more money beyond the $87 billion Congress authorized for
this budget year, which ends Sept. 30. But Bolten said the administration
would not request it this year, meaning such a multibillion-dollar appeal would
come after the November election.” (AP, 4/21/04)
Prior to the war in Iraq
and during the early months of the conflict, Bush Administration officials
refused to acknowledge that the war and reconstruction efforts would cost
hundreds of billions of dollars.
(Read
Full Misstatement)
►Read
Past Quotes on the Cost of War from Administration Officials
►Article:
5/5/2004
Prison Scandal Indicates Gap
in U.S. Chain of Command Washington
Post
SCHAKOWSKY CALLS ON PRESIDENT BUSH TO SUSPEND CONTRACTS WITH PRIVATE
MILITARY FIRMS INVOLVED IN SUPERVISION, SECURITY AND INTERROGATION OF
IRAQI PRISONERS
WASHINGTON, D.C. – (May 4, 2004)
Following reports that private civilian contractors remain on the job even
after being involved in the illegal abuse of Iraqi detainees, U.S.
Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), a Chief Deputy Whip, called on President
Bush to immediately suspend all contracts with private military firms involved
in the supervision, security or interrogation of Iraqi prisoners.
(Click
for Full Statement)
►Transcript:
4/27/2004
U.S. Troop Protection CNN - Lou Dobbs Tonight
SCHAKOWSKY REACTS TO REPORT SUGGESTING THAT THE DEATH OF
“ONE IN FOUR” SOLDIERS IN IRAQ
COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED
CHICAGO, IL – (Apr. 26,
2004) U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Chief Deputy Whip, today
issued the following statement after
Newsweek
reported “…that perhaps one
in four of those killed in combat in Iraq might be alive if they had had
stronger armor around them… Thousands more who were unprotected have suffered
grievous wounds, such as the loss of limbs.” (Newsweek,
5/3/04)
“A tragic mistake in
planning may have led to hundreds of US soldiers dying in Iraq, a mistake the
President might have cited as he struggled for an example in his prime time
news conference two weeks ago. Now that it appears that this war was a long
time in the planning, it is all the more shocking that the troops were
unnecessarily put at extreme risk..."
(Click
for Full Statement)
“Mistakes Accomplished” by President Bush – Sending Soldiers into Iraq
Without Lifesaving Equipment
Schakowsky's Floor Statement
(Apr. 20, 2004) ...We are finding out now that
the President and his advisers and Cabinet were thinking about this war in
Iraq for a very long time. And yet here is an AP story from March
26 of this year. It says soldiers headed for Iraq are still buying their own
body armor. In many cases their families are buying it for them despite
assurances from the military that the gear will be in hand before they are in
harm's way...
(Click for
Full Statement)
►Article:
4/19/2004
Schakowsky Slams Bush,
Iraq Policy The Daily
Northwestern
SCHAKOWSKY: ONE YEAR LATER, IRAQ WAR REMAINS UNJUST AND UNJUSTIFIED
WASHINGTON, D.C. – (Mar. 17, 2004) U.S.
Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today issued the following statement
during a news conference on Capitol Hill on the one-year anniversary of the
Iraq war:
“After one year, hundreds of American soldiers are dead because President Bush
sent them to battle a regime that he called an ‘urgent threat’ that ‘has
developed weapons of mass destruction’ and that ‘… is seeking nuclear
weapons...’
(Click
for Full Statement)
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY – IRAQ WAR INTELLIGENCE
(Feb. 17, 2004) During his weekly radio address,
President Bush said on Saturday, February 14, 2004:
The best intelligence is necessary to win the war on terror and to stop
proliferation. (President Bush, 2/14/04)
However, evidence is growing that in fact the Bush
Administration did not use the “best intelligence” while making its case for
war with Iraq. An
editorial in today’s New York Times titled “Distorting the Intelligence”
states:
"In making its case for war, the administration
leapt well beyond the battlefield chemical weapons that Iraq had used in the
past and repeatedly raised the specter that Iraqi nuclear and biological
weapons might cause truly enormous casualties. Top officials warned that Saddam
Hussein might use these terrifying weapons against the American homeland,
either by providing them to terrorists or by firing biological weapons directly
from points offshore. In making such claims, the administration went beyond the
intelligence consensus in important areas..." (Full
Misstatement)
SCHAKOWSKY EXPRESSES CONCERN ABOUT LONG TERM DETENTION
OF IRAQI JUVENILES ABSENCE
OF FORMAL CHARGES
WASHINGTON, D.C. – (Feb. 12, 2004) U.S.
Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today expressed her concern about the long
term detention of 13,000 Iraqis, including juveniles, without being formally
charged, adding that this policy “further aggravates distrust of our troops”
thus putting them in greater danger.
(Click
for Full Statement)
Schakowsky: Only an Independent Commission would Establish if the
President Manipulated Intelligence to Justify
War with Iraq
WASHINGTON,
D.C. – (Feb. 6, 2004)
“President
Bush’s handpicked commission with its narrow focus is unacceptable and an
insult to the millions of Americans demanding to know the truth..."
(Click
for Statement)
Bush Administration’s Misstatement of the Day –
IRAQ and Imminent Threat
(Feb. 5, 2004) In a speech
defending pre-war intelligence at
Georgetown University and the failure to find
weapons of mass destruction, Central Intelligence Agency Director George
Tenet announced that his analysts never claimed that
“Iraq
posed an imminent threat.”
However, the Bush
Administration justified the war with
Iraq to the American people because Iraq posed
an imminent security threat to our nation. According to a report compiled
by the Center for American Progress,
the Administration's
efforts to claim it never hyped the threat in the
lead-up to war is belied by its statements:
"There's no question that
Iraq was a threat to the
people of the United States."
- White House spokeswoman Claire
Buchan,
8/26/03
"We ended the threat from Saddam
Hussein's weapons of mass destruction."
-
President Bush,
7/17/03
Iraq
was "the most dangerous threat
of our time."
- White House spokesman Scott
McClellan,
7/17/03
"Saddam Hussein is no longer a
threat to the
United States because we removed
him, but he was a threat...He was a threat. He's not a threat now."
-
President
Bush,
7/2/03
"Absolutely."
- White
House spokesman Ari Fleischer answering whether
Iraq was an "imminent threat,"
5/7/03
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
SCHAKOWSKY REACTS TO PRESIDENT BUSH'S ANNOUNCEMENT ON NAMING COMMISSION TO
INVESTIGATE PRE-WAR INTELLIGENCE ON IRAQ
(Jan. 2, 2004) “Unable to continue to resist
mounting pressure to answer truthfully why the United States went
to war, President Bush was forced to act. Unfortunately, President Bush’s
response is completely inadequate. What is required is an independent
commission created by Congress, not by the White House political machine..."
(Click
for Full Statement)
►Congressional
Leaders Call for Truly Independent Review of Iraq Intelligence
(Letter to President Bush)
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
UN WEAPONS INSPECTORS IN IRAQ
(Jan. 28, 2004) On
January 27, 2004, President Bush said, “"Iraq did not let [inspectors]
in."
However, according to the
U.S. State Department,
U.N. weapons inspectors entered Iraq on November 27th, 2002.
CBS News reported on March 18, 2003
that “U.N. weapons inspectors climbed aboard a plane and pulled out of Iraq on
Tuesday after President Bush issued a final ultimatum for Saddam Hussein to
step down or face war.”
Finally,
the Sydney Morning Herald reported on April 4, 2003
“The United States will not permit United Nations weapons inspectors to return
to Iraq, saying the US military has taken over the role of searching for
Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.”
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -
IRAQ
AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
(Jan. 26, 2004) Dr. David Kay, who
resigned as head of the U.S. team in charge of locating Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction, said today in a New York Times interview:
"I'm personally convinced that
there were not large stockpiles of newly produced weapons of mass
destruction. We don't find the people, the documents or the physical plants
that you would expect to find if the production was going on. I think they
[Iraq] gradually reduced stockpiles throughout the 1990's. Somewhere in the
mid-1990's, the large chemical overhang of existing stockpiles was
eliminated." (New York Times, 1/26/04)
The statement by Dr.
Kay, an international expert on weapons inspection, directly contradicts
President Bush and members of his cabinet, who used the threat of Iraq’s
weapons of mass destruction as the reason for going to war. However, while
justifying the war in Iraq, President Bush said during this year's State of the
Union that the United States has “…identified dozens of weapons of mass
destruction-related program activities.” But before the war,
President Bush and members
of his Administration did in fact state that Iraq had weapons of mass
destruction:
-
“We believe Saddam
has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.” – Vice President Cheney (NBC
“Meet the Press,” 3/16/03)
-
“There can be no doubt
that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly
produce more, many more…Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a
stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is
enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets.” – Secretary of State Colin
Powell (Address before UN Security Council, 2/5/03)
-
“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.” –Vice President Cheney (Speech to VFW 103rd National
Convention, 8/26/02)
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -
VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY AND IRAQ
(Jan. 22, 2004)
President Bush proclaimed on 5/29/03 during an interview with TVP, Poland:
“We found the weapons of mass destruction.” And earlier that year,
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld stated during a nationally televised
interview, “We know where the [WMD] are.” (ABC “This Week with George
Stephanopoulos,” 3/30/03)
However, in an interview
with National Public Radio today, Vice President Cheney said about weapons of
mass destruction in Iraq: “It's going to take some additional, considerable
period of time in order to look in all the cubby holes and the ammo dumps and
all the places in Iraq where you might expect to find something like that.”
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
►Vice
President Cheney's Latest Distortions
►Article:
1/12/2004
Army War College Study
Blasts U.S. War on Terrorism
Reuters
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY – WAR IN IRAQ
Pre-War Intelligence:
(Jan 12, 2004) Two days before the war,
President Bush addressed the nation. He said on March 17, 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.”
(President Bush, 3/17/03)
However, former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who served on the Bush Cabinet
for two years and was a permanent member of the National Security Council (NSC),
said:
"In the 23 months I was there, I never saw
anything that I would characterize as evidence of weapons of mass
destruction,'' Secretary O'Neill to Time magazine. (Chicago
Sun-Times, “O'Neill: Bush lacked Iraq weapons proof,” 1/12/03)
Planning for War with Iraq:
President Bush stated on March 17, 2003:
“America tried to work with the United
Nations to address this threat because we wanted to resolve the issue
peacefully.”
And on March 19, 2003, the day the war began,
President Bush declared:
“Our nation enters this conflict
reluctantly.”
Former Treasury Secretary O’Neill, however, contradicts the Bush Administration
claims. In a
60 Minutes interview (1/11/04), Secretary O’Neill stated that during
President Bush’s first NSC meeting “… going after Saddam was topic “A” 10 days
after the inauguration - eight months before Sept. 11”.
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
IRAQ AND WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
(Jan. 5, 2004)
President Bush and members of his Administration justified the war as
necessary to protect the American people against Saddam Hussein’s weapons
of mass destruction. So far, none has been found. (Bush Administration
Misstatement of the Day, December 17, 2003)
Now, it seems that that Bush Administration is deliberately attempting to
change the reasons given by the Administration for going to war in Iraq.
The following was reported in the Financial Times (12/29/03):
History, he [Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional Authority]
said, would record that the US and UK had done a "great thing relieving
these [Iraqi] people of an evil tyranny" rather than judge them on
"details" such as weapons of mass destruction.
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
►Article:
12/19/2003
Rumsfeld Visited Baghdad
in 1984 to Reassure Iraqis, Documents Show
The Washington Post
“FACTS” ABOUT IRAQ’S WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
(Dec. 17, 2003) In today’s Washington Post
Vice President Dick Cheney criticized what he considers a proliferation of
"cheap shot journalism" about the administration. "People don't check
the facts," he said.
Previously, however, Bush Administration
officials have stated:
-
“We believe Saddam has, in fact,
reconstituted nuclear weapons.” – Vice President Cheney (NBC “Meet the
Press,” 3/16/03)
-
“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.” –Vice President Cheney (Speech to VFW 103rd National
Convention, 8/26/02)
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
►Read
the following Misstatements of the Day relating to pre-war intelligence claims
by the Bush Administration:
STATEMENT OF U.S. REPRESENTATIVE SCHAKOWSKY FOLLOWING CAPTURE OF SADDAM
HUSSEIN BY U.S. TROOPS
EVANSTON, IL – (Dec. 14, 2003) “Like everyone, I am happy that Saddam
Hussein is in captivity. I congratulate our troops, our special forces, all
those who were responsible for his capture.
“It
remains to be seen if the situation in Iraq fundamentally changes: the chaos,
the lack of security, political instability, the danger to our troops. I
suspect it will not..." (Continue
to Full Statement)
►Editorial:
12/15/2003
The Capture of
Saddam
The Capital Times
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
SUPPORT FOR TROOPS IN IRAQ
(Dec.
9, 2003) White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said on CNN (12/7/03):
“…we've got tremendous men and women wearing the uniform of the United States
fighting to beat back terrorists and to secure the hopes and dreams of the
Iraqi people.”
However, while the Administration claims to support the troops serving
in Iraq, today’s Chicago Tribune editorial asks why the Bush
Administration has failed to provide soldiers with a critical piece of
equipment that could save their life -- up-to-date Interceptor body armor:
How could a government that spends as much on defense as the rest of the world
combined fail to allocate enough money for something so basic and critical as
this? (Chicago Tribune, 12/9/03)
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
PRE WAR INTELLIGENCE IN IRAQ
(Dec. 1, 2003) According to a Washington Post
article published on November 29, 2003:
The Bush administration's strategies of using preemption or preventing
countries from obtaining weapons of mass destruction "depend critically on
reliable intelligence on highly technical matters," wrote physicist David
Albright, president of the Institute for Science and International Security and
a consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In the fall of 2002, while polls were showing that
the U.S. public and Congress were not convinced of the case for invading Iraq,
administration spokesmen including Vice President Cheney and national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice were making statements that the tubes were for nuclear
weapons.
Such statements, Albright wrote, were made before
a fierce debate within the intelligence community over whether Iraq intended to
use them for rockets or centrifuges. The issue was decided in October 2002 by a
vote in which those intelligence agencies with "no technical [centrifuge]
expertise outnumbered those that did," according to Albright.
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
►Article:
11/23/2003
Returning Troops Left High and
Dry
Chicago Tribune
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
U.S. CONTRACTORS IN IRAQ
(Nov. 5, 2003) Responding to a
report by the Center on Public
Integrity, which found that President Bush received $500,000 for his 2000
election campaign from contractors now performing work in Iraq, a State
Department spokesman said:
“There's a separation, a wall, between them (career civil
servants) and political-level questions when they're doing the contracts.”
(New York Times, 10/31/03)
However, the Center’s report
stated:
"More than 70 American companies and individuals have won
up to $8 billion in contracts for work in postwar Iraq and Afghanistan over the
last two years… Those companies contributed more money to the presidential
campaign of George W. Bush—more than $500,000—than to any other politician over
the last dozen years."
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION EFFORT
(Nov. 4, 2003) (President) Bush said that
despite the continuing violence in Iraq progress is being made to rebuild
the country and get it back on its feet. (Dow Jones News Service,
11/04/03)
The New York Times Magazine, however, published a lengthy report on
the failures of US reconstruction efforts in Iraq. The story
concluded:
"The real lesson of the postwar mess is that while occupying and
reconstructing Iraq was bound to be difficult, the fact that it may be
turning into a quagmire is not a result of fate, but rather (as quagmires
usually are) a result of poor planning and wishful thinking. Both have
been in evidence to a troubling degree in American policy almost from the
moment the decision was made to overthrow Saddam Hussein's bestial
dictatorship."
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
PREWAR INTELLIGENCE
(Oct. 24, 2003) The intelligence was
sometimes "sloppy" and inconclusive, according to Senator Pat Roberts,
Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. (Washington Post,
10/24/03)
“Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials
to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.”
–President Bush (State of the Union Address, 1/28/03)
(Click
for Full Misstatement)
BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
PROGRESS IN IRAQ AND AFGHANISTAN
(Oct. 23, 2003) In a surprisingly honest
assessment of the U.S. efforts and progress in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S.
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrote in a memorandum to senior staff at
the Pentagon that was leaked to the media:
“It is pretty clear that the coalition can win in
Afghanistan and Iraq in one way or another, but it will be a long, hard slog.”
(Associated Press, 10/23/03)
However, the Associated Press reported on October, 12, 2003:
President Bush on Saturday offered a portrait of Iraq as a country where life
is returning to normal after war, insisting that “Iraq is making progress”
despite a steady drumbeat of bad news. Bush said that progress was coming as a
result of his “clear strategy.” (Click
for Full Statement)
SCHAKOWSKY DEMANDS ANSWERS FROM BUSH ADMINISTRATION
(Oct. 21, 2003)
►PERSONALLY
DELIVERS LETTER TO DEFENSE SECRETARY
RUMSFELD ON COST OF WAR IN IRAQ, TREATMENT OF U.S. TROOPS, AND IRAQI CIVILIAN
CASUALTIES
(Click
for Schakowsky's Letter)
SCHAKOWSKY REFUSES TO GIVE PRESIDENT BUSH
ANOTHER
$87 BILLION BLANK CHECK
FOR FAILED POLICY IN IRAQ
(Oct. 16, 2003) "...I am joining
the growing number of Democrats and the majority of Americans who say that
without accountability, without a plan, and without a guarantee that the
troops will finally get what they need, we will not hand over $87 billion
to the Bush Administration..."
(Continue
to Full Statement)
Misstatement of the Day - TROOP MORALE IN IRAQ
(Oct.
16, 2003) According to a Washington Post article (Many Troops Dissatisfied,
Iraq Poll Finds,10/16/03):
A broad survey of U.S. troops in Iraq by a
Pentagon-funded newspaper found that half of those questioned described their
unit's morale as low and their training as insufficient, and said they do not
plan to reenlist.
The survey, conducted by the Stars and Stripes
newspaper, also recorded about a third of the respondents complaining that
their mission lacks clear definition and characterizing the war in Iraq as of
little or no value. Fully 40 percent said the jobs they were doing had little
or nothing to do with their training…In the survey, 34 percent described their
morale as low, compared with 27 percent who described it as high and 37 percent
who said it was average; 49 percent described their unit's morale as low, while
16 percent called it high.
It
was also reported in the same article:
In recent days, the Bush administration has launched a
campaign to blame the news media for portraying the situation in Iraq in a
negative light. Last week, Bush described the military spirit as high and said
that life in Iraq is "a lot better than you probably think. Just ask people who
have been there."
(Continue
to Full Statement)
SCHAKOWSKY: NON-PARTISAN CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE FINDS NO NEED FOR
EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL FUNDS FOR U.S. ARMY OPERATIONS AND PERSONNEL IN
IRAQ
(Oct. 15, 2003) WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Representative
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today said that according to the non-partisan
Congressional Research Service (CRS), there is no immediate need for Congress
to pass an emergency supplemental appropriations bill for military operations
in Iraq.
“President Bush and the Republican leadership can no longer
blackmail members of Congress into voting for an $87 billion blank check for
the Bush Administration in the name of our brave soldiers. The non-partisan CRS
report is proof that the Bush Administration has enough money to support our
troops without yet another emergency funding bill from Congress...” (Continue
to Full Statement)
►CRS Document:
Availability of Army Funds Without Immediate Supplemental Appropriations (.pdf
file) (FROM: Stephen Daggett - Specialist in National Defense Foreign Affairs,
Defense, and Trade Division)
SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
SUPPORT FOR U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ
(Oct 14, 2003) Commenting on President Bush’s decision to grant exclusive
interviews to five regional broadcasters as part of the White House’s
public relations campaign to defend its failed policy in Iraq,
Communications Director Dan Bartlett said:
“We believe local media and regional broadcasters
are more interested in letting viewers or readers see or hear what the
president has to say.” (Washington Post, Bush Courts Regional
Media, 10/14/03)
However, an Associated Press story, which was printed in local newspapers
across the country, reported on a topic that President Bush failed to
address during his local media tour: Shortage of body of armor for troops
serving in Iraq:
"About one-quarter of the 130,000 U.S. troops in
Iraq still have not been issued a new type of ceramic body armor strong
enough to stop bullets fired from assault rifles... Delays in funding,
production and shipping mean it will be December before all troops in Iraq
will have the vests, which were introduced four years ago, military
officials say." (AP story in Chicago Tribune, 10/14/03)
►Troops
Short on Body Armor - Lifesaving Vests Hit by U.S. Delays (AP Article
10/14/03)
SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
SUPPORT FOR U.S. TROOPS IN IRAQ
Commenting on President Bush’s decision to grant exclusive interviews to
five regional broadcasters as part of the White House’s public relations
campaign to defend its failed policy in Iraq, Communications Director Dan
Bartlett said:
“We believe local media and regional broadcasters
are more interested in letting viewers or readers see or hear what the
president has to say.” (Washington Post, Bush Courts Regional
Media, 10/14/03)
However, an Associated Press story, which was printed in local newspapers
across the country, reported on a topic that President Bush failed to
address during his local media tour: Shortage of body of armor for troops
serving in Iraq:
"About one-quarter of the 130,000 U.S. troops in
Iraq still have not been issued a new type of ceramic body armor strong
enough to stop bullets fired from assault rifles... Delays in funding,
production and shipping mean it will be December before all troops in Iraq
will have the vests, which were introduced four years ago, military
officials say." (AP story in Chicago Tribune, 10/14/03)
►Troops
Short on Body Armor - Lifesaving Vests Hit by U.S. Delays (AP Article
10/14/03)
Schakowsky: Bush Administration's Misstatement of the Day –
Number of U.S. Military
Personnel in Iraq
(Oct.
9, 2003) Earlier this year, then Army's chief of staff, Gen. Eric
Shinseki, said that the occupation would require several hundred thousand
soldiers. According to USA Today (6/2/03):
“[Defense Secretary Donald] Rumsfeld and Deputy
Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz criticized the Army's chief of staff,
Gen. Eric Shinseki, after Shinseki told Congress in February that the
occupation could require "several hundred thousand troops." Wolfowitz
called Shinseki's estimate "wildly off the mark.”
While the
Washington Post reported today:
“…he [Wolfowitz] lauded Gen. Eric K. Shinseki, with
whom he clashed publicly last spring about the likely size of the U.S.
occupation force that would be needed in postwar Iraq. When Shinseki left
office as Army chief of staff in June, neither Defense Secretary Donald H.
Rumsfeld nor Wolfowitz attended his retirement ceremony, a breach of
protocol that raised eyebrows across the service.” (Defense
Official Moves to Ease Strained Relations With Army, 10/9/03)
(Click
for Full Statement)
Schakowsky Announces Opposition
to President Bush's Request
for an Additional $87 Billion
for His Failed Policy in Iraq
(Oct. 9, 2003) WASHINGTON, D.C. -
"...We want the American people to know, in no uncertain terms, that there
are Democrats willing to stand up against this reckless and dangerous
Administration, and we want to reassure our colleagues that if they join
us in voting no, they will not stand alone.”
(Click
for Full Statement)
Schakowsky: Bush Administration's Misstatement of the Day –
Progress in Iraq
(Oct. 8, 2003) Reporting on the
public relations offensive the Bush Administration is about to undertake
to defend its Iraq policy, the Washington Post today quoted a senior
administration official as saying: “This will be a
sustained effort to talk to the nation about the progress we are making.”
Another administration official said in the same story:
“We want to make sure the American people and the
members of Congress know that their money is being well spent.”
However, the Bush Administration is not
making progress to ensure that U.S. soldiers receive the equipment they
need even though the Administration is spending $1 billion a week in
Iraq.
According to an op-ed in The Alameda
Times Star (10/5/03) by Jonathan Turley, some soldiers were given
“Vietnam-era flak jacket that cannot stop the type
of weapons used today. It appears that parents across the country are now
purchasers of body armor because of the failure of the military to supply
soldiers with modern vests.”
(Please
Click for Full Statement and Additional Information)
SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
IRAQI NUCLEAR WEAPONS
(Oct. 7, 2003)
During a television appearance shortly before the war began, Vice
President Cheney said:
“We
believe he [Saddam Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons.”
March 16, 2003,
during an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press.
However, according to a
Washington Post article (10/5/03)
about the interim report by U.S. weapons inspector David Kay,
“…Kay
estimated it would have taken
Iraq
five to seven years to reconstitute its nuclear
program."
(Click
for Full Statement and Additional Information)
Schakowsky's Statement Following Failure of U.S. to Find WMDs in Iraq
WASHINGTON, D.C. – (Oct. 2, 2003) U.S. Representative
Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued the following statement on the failure of
David Kay, head of the 1200 person U.S. inspection team, to find weapons
of mass destruction in Iraq:
“President Bush forced our nation to war
based on an immediate threat that did not exist. President Bush’s weapons
inspector, David Kay, confirmed that sad reality today when he announced
that he has not found any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq..."
(Click
for Full Statement)
►Document:
Claim
vs. Fact: Pre-War Assertions Compared to David Kay's Report
Schakowsky Reacts to President Bush's Speech to the UN on Iraq
(Sept. 23, 2003) During his address before
the United Nations on Tuesday, September 23, 2003, President Bush said:
“The regime of Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while it built
weapons of mass destruction.” And “Iraq [is] the central front in the war on
terror.”
Schakowsky said, “The case for war in
Iraq presented by President Bush to the world and to the people of the
United States is neither supported by evidence nor facts. Where are the
weapons of mass destruction? Where is the link to Al Qaeda? The American
people and the world are waiting for the truth.”
(Continue
to Full Statement)
Read:
CLAIMS & FACTS -- Rhetoric, Reality and the War in Iraq.
(A report prepared by Produced by the Center for American Progress)
SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY –
IRAQ - AL QAEDA CONNECTION
(Sept. 22,
2003)
In a March 19, 2003 letter to Congress, President Bush declared
that diplomacy alone cannot solve the situation in Iraq and that he was
authorized to use force against “nations, organizations, or persons who
planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that
occurred on September 11, 2001.”
However, on 9/17/03,
President Bush finally admitted:
“No, we've
had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th.”
(Bush Disavows Hussein-Sept. 11 Link; Administration Has Been Vague on
Issue, but President Says No Evidence Found. Washington Post,
9/18/03)
(Continue
to Full Statement)
Bush Administration Misled Americans About Threat Posed by Iraqi Unmanned
Aerial Vehicles
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
(Sept. 10, 2003) U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today said that the
Bush Administration misled the American people and exaggerated the threat posed
by Iraqi unmanned aerial vehicles (UVAs). (Continue
to Press Release)
►The Wall Street
Journal article (9/10/03) titled:
Air Force Doubts Drone Threat. Report Says Bush Exaggerated Perils of Unmanned
Iraqi Aircraft
The News-Star
Schakowsky, Colleagues Call
for Release of Pentagon Report
Blaming Failures in Iraq on Bush Administration Poor Planning
WASHINGTON, D.C. –
(Sept 10, 2003) U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Chief Deputy
Whip, joined her colleagues at a news conference today to demand the
release of a secret Pentagon report, which blames the Bush
Administration’s poor planning for failures in post war Iraq. (Continue
to Statement)
►Schakowsky, colleagues introduce resolution to force release of Pentagon
report . (09/08/2003)
(Continue
to Press Release)
►Schakowsky
Also Applauds Congressman Obey’s Call on President Bush To “Allow”
Secretary Rumsfeld to Return to the Private Sector.
(Read
Rep. Obey’s Letter to President Bush)
CHICAGO, IL – (August 28, 2003)
U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) today applauded the courage of
military families and those ordinary Americans who are demanding answers
from President Bush about whether his administration exaggerated or
manipulated evidence to bolster its case for war against Iraq.
(Continue
to Press Release)
►Summary
of H.R. 2625, Bill to Create Independent Commission
►Exaggerations
by Bush Administration
►CNN
Interview with Jan and Military Families
(August 28, 2003)
|