WASHINGTON,
D.C. – U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued today’s “Bush Administration’s
Misstatement of the Day” on Iraq.
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
"We
gave our word that the threat from Iraq would be ended."
-
President Bush 4/24/03
"The
threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction will be removed."
-
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 3/25/03
"It
is only a matter of time before the Iraqi regime is destroyed and its threat
to the region and the world is ended."
-
Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke, 3/22/03
"The
people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at
the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of
mass murder."
-
President Bush, 3/19/03
"The
dictator of Iraq and his weapons of mass destruction are a threat to the
security of free nations."
-
President Bush, 3/16/03
"This
is about imminent threat."
-
White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 2/10/03
Iraq
is "a serious threat to our country, to our friends and to our allies."
-
Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/31/03
Iraq
poses "terrible threats to the civilized world."
-
Vice President Dick Cheney, 1/30/03
Iraq
"threatens the United States of America."
-
Vice President Cheney, 1/30/03
"Iraq
poses a serious and mounting threat to our country. His regime has the
design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of
enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities
of uranium from Africa."
-
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 1/29/03
"Well,
of course he is."
-
White House Communications Director Dan Bartlett responding to the question
“is Saddam an imminent threat to U.S. interests, either in that part of
the world or to Americans right here at home?”, 1/26/03
"Saddam
Hussein possesses chemical and biological weapons. Iraq poses a threat
to the security of our people and to the stability of the world that is
distinct from any other. It's a danger to its neighbors, to the United
States, to the Middle East and to the international peace and stability.
It's a danger we cannot ignore. Iraq and North Korea are both repressive
dictatorships to be sure and both pose threats. But Iraq is unique. In
both word and deed, Iraq has demonstrated that it is seeking the means
to strike the United States and our friends and allies with weapons of
mass destruction."
-
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 1/20/03
"The
Iraqi regime is a threat to any American. …Iraq is a threat, a real threat."
-
President Bush, 1/3/03
"The
world is also uniting to answer the unique and urgent threat posed by Iraq
whose dictator has already used weapons of mass destruction to kill thousands."
-
President Bush, 11/23/02
"I
would look you in the eye and I would say, go back before September 11
and ask yourself this question: Was the attack that took place on September
11 an imminent threat the month before or two months before or three months
before or six months before? When did the attack on September 11 become
an imminent threat? Now, transport yourself forward a year, two years or
a week or a month...So the question is, when is it such an immediate threat
that you must do something?"
-
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 11/14/02
"Saddam
Hussein is a threat to America."
-
President Bush, 11/3/02
"I
see a significant threat to the security of the United States in Iraq."
-
President Bush, 11/1/02
"There
is real threat, in my judgment, a real and dangerous threat to American
in Iraq in the form of Saddam Hussein."
-
President Bush, 10/28/02
"The
Iraqi regime is a serious and growing threat to peace."
-
President Bush, 10/16/02
"There
are many dangers in the world, the threat from Iraq stands alone because
it gathers the most serious dangers of our age in one place. Iraq could
decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a
terrorist group or individual terrorists."
-
President Bush, 10/7/02
"The
Iraqi regime is a threat of unique urgency."
-
President Bush, 10/2/02
"There's
a grave threat in Iraq. There just is."
-
President Bush, 10/2/02
"This
man poses a much graver threat than anybody could have possibly imagined."
-
President Bush, 9/26/02
"No
terrorist state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security
of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam
Hussein in Iraq."
-
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 9/19/02
"Some
have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent - that Saddam
is at least 5-7 years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be
so certain. And we should be just as concerned about the immediate threat
from biological weapons. Iraq has these weapons. "
-
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 9/18/02
"Iraq
is busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological
agents, and they continue to pursue an aggressive nuclear weapons program.
These are offensive weapons for the purpose of inflicting death on a massive
scale, developed so that Saddam Hussein can hold the threat over the head
of any one he chooses. What we must not do in the face of this mortal threat
is to give in to wishful thinking or to willful blindness."
-
Vice President Dick Cheney, 8/29/02 |