Britt Hume: President Bush never said "iraq iminate threat"

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

Just blabbed it, I thought my ears fell off!

[EllieDem]

1. I actually don't think he did either

he said "some would have us wait till the threat is imminent"........I'm a stickler for facts. I'd like to see the actual quotes if he did say it.

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

6. Hmm well if he did not I dont want to put words in his mouth

and I stand corrected, but as much blab about it, its easy to get confused.

[DrBB]

21. Ari Fleischer said it on his behalf

"Well, we went to war, didn’t we, to find these — because we said that these weapons were a direct and imminent threat to the United States? Isn’t that true?”

Fleischer: “Absolutely.”

Google on "Ari Fleischer" and "imminent threat"--this one is quoted from Josh Marshall in The Hill.

Ari's successor said it directly: ""This is about imminent
threat.". - White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 2/10/03.

Marshall's analogy is apt:

It’s true that administration officials avoided the phrase “imminent threat.” But in making their argument, Sullivan and others are relying on a crafty verbal dodge — sort of like “I didn’t accuse you of eating the cake. All I said was that you sliced it up and put it in your mouth.”

Also referred to as a distinction without a difference.

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

24. But this lets shrub off the hook

Or thats the way faux looks at it?

Its just shocking the damn bias they show is getting worse the more bush sinks.

[OneTwentyoNine]

38. Ari was the WH spokesman,his info comes from the WH

This doesn't let Chimp or his regime off the hook unless Ari makes things up or he was running the WH.

David

[LiberalFighter]

53. You got that right...

If that isn't what bush* wanted to be said he would rebut it.

[DrBB]

39. Yup, just as much as "what the meaning of 'is' is" did for WJC

In other words, pure sophistry.

Your desire to "stick to the facts" allows you to be drawn into a side issue--a meaningless quibble about word choice. The substantive issue was not "did he use this exact word"--who cares? what difference does that make?--but "was this in essence the argument he and his advisors and official spokesmen made." Clearly the answer to the real question is "Yes, of course."

Bush never said the exact word, but his official speokesman did, in no uncertain terms, and he let it stand. So he used synonyms--"grave and gathering danger"--how is that supposed to get him off the hook?

[Selwynn]

46. They've been posted all over DU, Ellie..

His Administration said it.

Fliesher, speaking for the president, said it. When asked to confirm that Saddam was considered an IMMINENT threat by a reporter, he confirmed it. Cheney used the exact word on meet the press. Rumsfeld used the word too.

Whether or not the word actually came out of Bush's own mouth is practically irrelevant.

[Selwynn]

47. Just for you, Ellie: Word Parsing to Rival the Masters

From the blog, with citation of a DU post:

Word Parsing to Rival the Masters
by Selwynn
In an amazing feat of linguistic acrobatic word parsing to rival the great is-definer Bill Clinton himself, the White House has been on a feverish campaign to back away from its sole justifications for going to war in Iraq: the actual, current, physical possession of stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction which were ready to deploy at a moments notice, and the claim that Saddam Hussein posed a grave, clear and - here it comes - immanent thread to the national security of the United States.

Nowadays it seems that the White House would desperately like to pretend that virtually any other pretext was the real pretext for going to war, but it just aint so. Now the attention is focused on denying that George Bush ever made the case that Hussein posed an imminent threat, by denying that he ever used that particular word. The mainstream press is aiding in this effort, criticizing people like Ret. General Wesley Clark for accusing Bush of falsely making that very case by saying Bush never used the “I” word.

Let’s take a look at what Bush, Cheney, Powel and Rumsfeld did say, in their own words:

Five minute video of quotations about WMDs and "immanent" threat

And then, let’s examine to points raised here by Who’s Lying.org, the non-profit media watchdog group.

Yet more evidence it may in fact be those who say Bush never claimed Iraq was an "imminent" threat are the actual fibbers here: Let’s start by looking at what the president’s spokesmen said about the 'imminent threat' claim before things in Iraq started going sour.

Last October, a reporter put this to Ari Fleischer: 'Ari, the president has been saying that the threat from Iraq is imminent, that we have to act now to disarm the country of its weapons of mass destruction, and that it has to allow the U.N. inspectors in, unfettered, no conditions, so forth.'

"Fleischer’s answer? 'Yes.'

"In January, Wolf Blitzer asked Dan Bartlett: 'Is an imminent threat to U.S. interests, either in that part of the world or to Americans right here at home.'

"Bartlett’s answer? 'Well, of course he is.'

"A month after the war, another reporter asked Fleischer, 'Well, we went to war, didn’t we, to find these — because we said that these weapons were a direct and imminent threat to the United States? Isn’t that true?'

"Fleischer’s answer? 'Absolutely.'

And finally, perhaps John Marshal best puts the nail in the coffin in his recent article:

It’s true that administration officials avoided the phrase “imminent threat.” But in making their argument, Sullivan and others are relying on a crafty verbal dodge — sort of like “I didn’t accuse you of eating the cake. All I said was that you sliced it up and put it in your mouth.”

The issue is not the precise words the president and his deputies used but what arguments they made. And on that count, the record is devastatingly clear.

To call something an imminent threat means that the blow could come at any moment and that any delay in confronting it risks disaster. Webster’s defines “imminent” as “ready to take place; especially: hanging threateningly over one’s head.” That gets it just about right. The White House described the Iraqi threat as a sword over our heads, a threat we had to confront now.

You can peddle your Clinton-equse backpedaling and word-parsing all you want, George. No one is buying it.

[BlueEyedSon]

2. If it wasn't, why invade?

[jpak]

16. Exactly

Preemptive war requires an imminent threat.

I don't care how the morans try to frame the debate - Bush is a liar and the war was (is) wrong.

[ComerPerro]

37. No kidding

Why the pre-emptive strike?

[maggrwaggr]

49. and why in such a hurry to invade?

Threatening to invade is fine, in a sense, for a strong-arm tactic, but these guys were in a huge huge hurry to get in there.

They were NOT interested in letting the inspectors find anything, because they KNEW they wouldn't find anything, and then their "rationale" for war would be lost.

They lost me when the inspectors were there, couldn't find anything, and Bushco kept saying "we know they're there and we know WHERE they are." And the inspectors said "well why don't you TELL us where they are."

And Bushco wouldn't do it.

That's when I knew they were lying.

[DebJ]

3. i thought someone posted a long list of quotes before on this

[DebJ]

4. didn't state of union say jobs were getting better?

[tom_paine]

5. Well, that's a lie

What must it be like to be a paid propagandist with a Totalitarian Sub-Media. To not only lie but to be encouraged to do so. To get away with it knowing your audience is mostly foolish brainwashed Brownshirts who will NOT question anything they hear from their beloved Party Sub-Media.

To get paid more than most people make in a lifetime to be a traitor to your nation...but loyal to the Imperial family that is destroying it?

What must it be like to be a high-paid whore, like Hume.

What must it have been like to be Julius Streicher or some other Nazi Propagandist?

About the same, I'm guessing.

About the same.

[PaDUer]

7. Send him a copy

of a transcript..let him eat it on the air.

[DebJ]

8. that reporter talking now is giving him he##. Go!

[EllieDem]

11. Seriously, if Bush did say imminent

I'd like to have the transcript of it - date and place - because I'm always having arguments about this with a republican cousin. But I never have an actual quote to tell him.

[Old and In the Way]

15. Go to www.atrios.blogspot.com

He's put up a detail list of at least 30 administration quotes from mid 2002 on that clear pressed the need for immediate action. I even think there's one or two statements that use the word "imminent", but regardless of semantics, words were used to press for action rather than let the UN inspections do their job.

[alcuno]

33. "Imminent" is what people heard, but he never said...

"Iraq poses an imminent threat to the US." We were fighting about this here last year. I said that even if he didn't say those words that that was what people heard.

All of their words add up to an "imminent threat." Condi, Rummy, Cheney, Wolfowitz, and *. The fact that the country is still arguing about why we went to war indicates a loss for the policy. How can you have a country full of people who do not have a COMMON understanding of WHY we went to war?

People should stop arguing about the word "imminent." That's just right-wing spin; quibbling over semantics.

[Sticky]

9. He certainly implied it

.....how many times did we hear, "murderous tyrant, growing danger, weapons of mass destruction"

Bush was a broken record 1 year ago and now we're supposed to blame ourselves for falling for the wrong conclusion?

[bushwakker]

10. What about the 45 minutes thing

didn't he say in the SOU that British intelligence believes Saddam could hit us in 45 minutes? Why say it if he weren't implying that it was true?

[EllieDem]

13. I don't think that was in the SOTU

and I thought that was something Blair said. But I may be wrong.

[bushwakker]

48. No he said it somewhere

[efhmc]

55. That was Blair.

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

12. Panel now

Saying bush approval polls mean nothing "a snapshot"

Although not what they said when it sky rocketed?

[EllieDem]

14. Hey what the hell are you doing watching

Fox news anyway???!!!

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

18. I hear the real news during the morning and scan the net

I listen to faux while on the PC to hear how they spin the days news to death.

[Greylady]

17. I think he said *Grave and Gathering Threat*

I believe *Imminent Threat* was one of the requirements for invading a country which has not yet attacked but may. It would justify the rush to invade.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

19. WHO CARES?

They're splitting hairs anyway. Even the latest Newsweek magazine knows Bush and Co. lied about the threat Iraq presented.
The Repub spin machine is whirring out of control, and I think I heard it throw a bearing just now...

[Greylady]

22. Splitting Hairs is correct

Bush may not have said the phrase Imminent Threat but the WMD lies were an attempt to prove Iraq was an Imminent Threat. We can split hairs right back at them.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

26. We don't need to.

All we have to do is have someone read the various quotes about Iraq and it's "danger to the United States" made by * on the air and watch the Republicans panic. The admin's own words will hang them.
This story is snowballing, and nothing Brit can do will stop it.

[lancdem]

20. Does Hume have any idea how stupid he looks

trying to defend Bush like this when he was all over Clinton for his parsing of words? Give me a friggin' break.

[kanrok]

23. I Listened Carefully to Chimpy McCokespoon

and I never heard him say "Iraq is an imminent threat to the United States." I had arguments with my "conservative" friends about the run-up to the war, and it's clear that the implied rhetoric was that there was an "imminent threat" to us. I remember vividly a dinner discussion with a friend and his wife (an orthodontist) and when I asked them what the rationale was for the war, she immediately jumped in and blurted: "It's because Saddam Hussein is an imminent threat to our country." Her husband corrected her, but the message she got from "half listening" to the rhetoric was clear to me. It's almost more sinister for the administration to use artful turns of phrasing to make it appear that there was an "imminent threat" to the US if we didn't act. As I recall it (I was listening carefully) there was no time when Chimpy came right out and made the case for Iraq being an imminent threat to us. He certainly did imply it, and so did the rest of the douche bags in his administration, but unless i heard wrong, I never heard that come directly from them.

[snippy]

36. Well, it is a three syllable word.

It is understandable that Bush would not use it.

[spindoctor]

25. He didn't. Condoleeza Rice did I believe.

Rumsfeld and Cheney also made similar remarks, Bush made various insinuations.

We were definitely lead to believe that Iraq was an imminent threat. If it wasn't, then why did we attack it in the first place?

[Greylady]

28. Don't forget the Mushroom Clouds!

All the lying was an attempt to prove Imminent Threat. When people say Iraq was not an imminent threat they don't mean that Bush said it was (though he strongly implied it), they mean that Bush hasn't proved yet that it was. Ouch, my head hurts when I try to decipher BushSpeak.

[bobbieinok]

27. earlier DU discussions on this referred to Bush's letter to congress

to get the vote.

From what I recall, the word 'imminent' was not used but the context was clearly 'We must act at once; we are in DANGER.'

[RainDog]

29. Truth Squad! Send this to Brit Hume now!

from the link provided by atrios-

for the record, the CAP has provided this list for us:


"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

"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. They not only have weapons of mass destruction, they used weapons of mass destruction...That's why I say 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

[Maeve]

30. Right--the issue isn't the exact words

That's the weasel's way out.

It's about the gestalt, the whole, the frickin' ton of LIES the misAdministration put out there.

[if it comes from the whitehouse it must be true]

31. Sent and also to faux in general, maybe shep will read?

NA!

[snippy]

32. Bush may have tried to say "imminent" but was unable to get the word out.

Here is a lengthy discussion of this question. http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/000816.html

It appears that Bush did not say the word "imminent" (which is understandable, three syllables and all) but Comrade Squealer (Ari Fleischer) confirmed it on his behalf at least twice.

Q Well, we went to war, didn't we, to find these -- because we said that these weapons were a direct and imminent threat to the United States? Isn't that true?

MR. FLEISCHER: Absolutely. One of the reasons that we went to war was because of their possession of weapons of mass destruction. And nothing has changed on that front at all. We said what we said because we meant it. We had the intelligence to report it. Secretary Powell said it. And I may point out to you, as you may know, there is a news conference at Department of Defense today at 2:00 p.m. to discuss one element in this.


And so we have always had confidence, we continue to have confidence that WMD will be found. He's had a long period of time to hide what he has in a variety of different places, and there is a whole protocol of the search that is underway, that is being conducted in a very methodical fashion.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/05/20030507-7.html#5

Q Ari, the President has been saying that the threat from Iraq is imminent, that we have to act now to disarm the country of its weapons of mass destruction, and that it has to allow the U.N. inspectors in, unfettered, no conditions, so forth.

MR. FLEISCHER: Yes.

Q The chief U.N. inspector, however, is saying that, even under those conditions, it would be as much as a year before he could actually make a definitive report to the U.N. that Iraq is complying with the resolutions and allowing the inspections to take place. Isn't there a kind of a dichotomy? Can we wait a year, if it's so imminent we have to act now?

MR. FLEISCHER: Well, that's why the President has gone to the United Nations to make certain that the conditions by which the inspectors would go back would be very different from the current terms that inspectors have been traveling around Iraq in as they've been thwarted in their attempt to find out what weapons Saddam Hussein has. But it's also important to hold Saddam Hussein accountable to make certain he no longer violates the will of the United Nations.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021016-5.html

It may just depend on what the definition of "was" was.

[TacticalPeek]

34. The dog that didn't bark.

Does anyone else find it strange that considering:

(1) aWol is such a thoughtful, articulate, careful and precise speaker ('this is a crusade'. 'we have found WMD', etc.), and

(2) he tried for months to the best of his feeble abilities to frighten the world into war against Iraq in speechs, interviews, press conferences, etc.

(3) In the end, throughout all that propaganda, he never once said the words "Iraq is an imminent threat."!!!??? (Its apparently true, not one recorded instance.)

What are the odds of that?

Happenstance? I think not. Like when Rove taught him the difference between Medicaid and Medicare, I think aWol was drilled extensively in not saying those exact words himself. Somewhat like a lawyer preparing a witness.

Like the false Saddam/911 'connection' snow job, they never actually said it, just implied and associated to the max, complete with mushroom clouds, the most eminent of imminent threats possible.

So, while they shielded Shrub from asserting an objective (legal) claim which could be proven or disproven (before or after the fact), their move has now left the Emperor's naked ass chilling in the breeze as the WMD 'search' enters it's comic phase.

You were right, George, there was no imminent threat. History will not treat you with kindness.

[Liberal_Andy]

35. Brit Hume is an ass

http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh092602.shtml

[never cry wolf]

40. Parsing words is all, here is what the admin said

http://www.angelfire.com/creep/gwbush/remindus.html

[ignatius]

41. Besides Tucker Carlson and Traitor Novack this is one man

I simply despise. The way his eyes light up when he talks about Bush, like he just had the best sex ever, makes me want to vomit.

How can he and his kind stand themselves, have they not one thread of common decency. How can he perpetuate the myth of the moral and wise president when he is the biggest jackoff ever in the WH?

[ajacobson]

42. WTF

The Big Lie in operation.

If 43* keeps on dropping in the polls, they may deny that the U.S. ever invaded Iraq! (uh, invasion is such a harsh term, it was a widely implemented urban and rural socio-political reorganization effort...)

Or blame it on Bill Clinton...

[Terran]

43. Hey, welcome back IICFTWHIMBT

Good to see you back 'round these parts!

Dirk

[Cat Atomic]

44. Hume is making our argument for us. Thank you, Brit.

No, Bush did not say the threat was imminent. Bush knew very well that it was *not* imminent, long before the invasion began, and long, long, before David Kay ever carried out his farcical "hunt for WMD".

Thank you Brit, well said.

Of course, beyond the rhetoric, the real issue here is the Bush Doctrine, which redefines "self defense" to include preventive wars. It's shit. It needs to go.

[JanMichael]

45. "One thing is for certain: Saddam Hussein no longer threatens America...

...with weapons of mass destruction."

He threatened us with WMD's? What does that imply?

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.
George W. Bush, President
Speech to UN General Assembly
9/12/2002

"Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons. We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have
George W. Bush, President
Radio Address
10/5/2002

Needless to say he may have never uttered the word but they exaggerated, lied, about the "growing" threat on a daily basis.

Quotes taken from: http://billmon.org/

[KG]

50. brit hume = professional liar.

[Raenelle]

51. And Clinton never denied getting head

[kentuck]

52. Then why did we invade???

It's a contradiction that they cannot reconcile...??

[leesa]

54. Didn't this idiot just win some big journalism award. A major

member of the committee resigned in protest. Journalism has sunk to it's lowest depths with this trash reporting. You think the guy never heard of synonyms? Never looked at a thesaurous. This is such a pitiful, shabby defense!