AP Report Raises New Questions on Bush, WMDs (has Scotty comments)

[rodeodance]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060412/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_iraq;_ylt=AqOI_8wulv87vN2Qgj1vsYus0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3ODdxdHBhBHNlYwM5NjQ-

Report Raises New Questions on Bush, WMDs

By NEDRA PICKLER, Associated Press Writer 38 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The White House faced new questions Wednesday about President Bush's contention three years ago that weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq.


The Washington Post reported that a Pentagon-sponsored team of experts determined in May 2003 that two small trailers were not used to make biological weapons. Yet two days after the team sent its findings to Washington in a classified report, Bush declared just the opposite.

"We have found the weapons of mass destruction," Bush said in an interview with a Polish TV station. "We found biological laboratories."

Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said Wednesday that Bush was relying on information from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency when he said the trailers seized after the 2003 invasion were mobile biological laboratories. That information was later discredited by the Iraq Survey Group in its 2004 report.

[rodeodance]

1. ABC has apologized to the WH (had said Jr knew info was false)

...McClellan said it was unclear whether officials at the White House were aware of the contradictory field report when Bush repeated the claim in the television interview.

"If and when the White House became aware of this particular issue, I'm looking into that matter," McClellan said. "The White House has asked the CIA and the DIA to go and look into that issue."

The Post did not say that Bush knew what he was saying was false. But ABC News did during a report on "Good Morning America," and McClellan demanded an apology and an on-air retraction. ABC News said later in a clarification on its Web site that Charles Gibson had erred. McClellan said he had received an apology.

"This is nothing more than rehashing an old issue that was resolved long ago," McClellan said. "I cannot count how many times the president has said the intelligence was wrong."

"The intelligence community makes the assessment," he said. "The White House is not the intelligence-gathering agency."

[Moderator]

2. DUplicate

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2222831