Update on "Reject Nomination of Bush & Blair for Nobel Prize"

[Qutzupalotl]

I just received this email update from a petition I signed months ago (mods, feel free to edit, though I don't think it's copyrighted):
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This is a one- time thank you & update for the "Reject Nomination of Bush and Blair for Nobel Prize" Petition on ThePetitionSite.com (http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/302184339) Your opposition to this nomination is being delivered to The Norwegian Nobel Prize Institute Committee along with 98,537 others. The Committee is currently considering the nominations, and will have your letters to help influence their decision.

In fact, new evidence has come to light that an investigation of Bush & Blair's rationale for war in Iraq would be more appropriate than a Nobel nomination. Many of you have heard in the news that some of the information used as a rationale for war in Iraq may have been false. Recent statements by the CIA* suggest that President Bush knowingly used unreliable information about Iraq during his 2003 State of the Union address to increase public and congressional support for war. We all need to know if this is indeed true, especially in light of this Nobel Peace Prize nomination.

Support a thorough investigation behind the evidence used as justification for war in Iraq. We are trying to gather 75,000 signatures and we need your help. HELP NOW: http://www.care2.com/go/z/7310

In essence, it is a matter of trusting our leaders & decision-makers to tell the absolute truth. It is important to know if we can TRUST President Bush to act responsibly and carefully, especially during these times of terrorism and instability. If the allegations are true that Bush intentionally misrepresented the threat that Iraq posed to the world in order to gain support for military intervention, then not only does it make a mockery of the Nobel Peace Prize, but it also makes it harder to trust our leaders when our lives are on the line.

An independent committee should investigate the truth behind the information that led the U.S. to war in Iraq. We can not allow our loved ones and our country to be exposed to danger unless it is TRULY a necessity. We must know if we can entrust our lives and those of our loved ones to the decisions of President Bush. More upheaval and unrest lies in our future, and we must know whom to trust.

Sign this petition to call for an INDEPENDENT BIPARTISAN Commission to help discover the truth! http://www.care2.com/go/z/7310

Once you have signed, please forward this petition to your friends and family! This effort will succeed by word of mouth and every person counts.

Thank you,
Ingrid Baker
The PetitionSite Team
& Care2.com

* "CIA officials warned members of the President's National Security Council staff the intelligence was not good enough to make the flat statement Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa..." (July 10, CBS News).

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The Evidence-- A recent Washington Post report gives credence to the suggestion that the White House systematically manipulated the evidence to ensure popular and congressional support for military action in Iraq.

Bush: A report came out of the... , that were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need." Camp David, 9/7/02

Reality: "There was no new IAEA report... Bush cast as present evidence the contents of a report from 1996, updated in 1998 and 1999. In those accounts, the IAEA described the history of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program that arms inspectors had systematically destroyed."

Bush: "Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon." United Nations, 9/12/02

Reality: "Gas centrifuge experts consulted by the U.S. government said repeatedly for more than a year that the aluminum tubes were not suitable or intended for uranium enrichment. By December 2002, the experts said new evidence had further undermined the government's assertion. The Bush administration portrayed the scientists as a minority and emphasized that the experts did not describe the centrifuge theory as impossible."

Bush: "Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud."
Cincinnati OH, 10/7/02

Reality: "What Hussein did not have was the principal requirement for a nuclear weapon, a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium or plutonium. And the U.S. government, authoritative intelligence officials said, had only circumstantial evidence that Iraq was trying to obtain those materials."

Bush: "The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group of his 'nuclear mujahedeen,' his nuclear holy warriors." Cincinnati OH, 10/7/02

Reality: "Bush and others often alleged that President Hussein held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, but did not disclose that the known work of the scientists was largely benign. Iraq's three top gas centrifuge experts, for example, ran a copper factory, an operation to extract graphite from oil and a mechanical engineering design center."