OUTING THE PRESIDENT

The following is a piece that I stuck into my emailed blog subjects file a couple of weeks ago for just such a writer's block emergency as today has been!! It gave me great joy to see this in the mainstream press. I hope it brightens your day, too. Not that we can expect much to come of it except the rising sentiment that the kind of "leadership" BushCo has provided is something to be avoided like the plague in the future.

The manufacturing of the "need" for this war combined with the accompanying slip into the immoral mire of approving and supporting the use of torture on prisoners, many of whom are not guilty of anything, has led to the United States version of the dark ages. I'd like to see Torquemada Bush and Richelieu Cheney brought to justice for it, but at least their vile ways are being brought to light, however minimally, by articles like this.

It doesn't make my day to see an American president outed like this, but it does my heart good to see that the nation is catching on -- however belatedly.

[USAToday, 23 Jan.'08; Study: Bush made false statements on Iraq]

WASHINGTON (AP) — A study by two non-profit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
The study was posted Tuesday on the website of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism. White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said he could not comment on the study because he had not seen it.
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaeda or both.
"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaeda," according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. "In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003."
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Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.
Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaeda, the study found. That was second to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaeda.
The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.
"The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war," the study concluded.
"Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq," it said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.