Levin Reads Details of Bush Lies Into Senate Record

[Bob Geiger]

Michigan Democrat Carl Levin took to the Senate floor on Friday and gave what amounted to a primer on the lies of the Bush administration leading to the Iraq war.

"The President's decision to ignore intelligence community assessments prior to the Iraq war and to make repeated public statements that gave the misleading impression that Saddam Hussein's regime was connected to the terrorists who attacked us on 9/11 cost him any credibility he may have had on this issue," said Levin, who then went on to give a laundry list of some of the lies told by Team Bush.

Levin has provided some bullet points that are good ammunition for the next time some Republican sycophant tells you such charges against Bush are purely political, rather than proof positive of what a despicable administration this has been for six years now. He also cites the report issued by the Senate Intelligence Committee on Friday that sheds yet more light on attempts by Bush to mislead Americans on the justification for invading Iraq.

Here's Levin, for the record, on the Senate floor:

"President Bush said Saddam and Al Qaeda were allies--his words. And that:

'You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror.'

"The bipartisan report released today directly contradicts that linkage which the President has consistently made in his effort to build public support for his Iraq policy.

"The bipartisan committee report finds that the prewar intelligence assessments were right when the intelligence community said Saddam and Al Qaeda were independent actors who were far from being natural partners. The report finds that prewar intelligence assessments were right when they expressed consistent doubts that a meeting occurred between 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta and a senior Iraqi intelligence official in Prague prior to September 11. Our report finds that prewar intelligence assessments were right when they said there was no credible reporting on Al Qaeda operatives being trained in Iraq. Those were the two principal arguments which were used prior to the war to support the alleged linkage between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein.

"The accurate prewar intelligence assessments didn't stop the administration from making many false and misleading statements trying to link Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda."

Please go to BobGeiger.com to read the rest of this post.

[bugbones]

1. Yow!

Good job, Carl! I wish you were doing this at Ground Zero with a bullhorn yesterday too. That woulda been sumpin'.

[The Wielding Truth]

11. Welcome to DU, bugbones!

:kick: :yourock:

[GetTheRightVote]

2. Thank you Senator but we need so much more of this type of man

or women who will speak the truth to power.

:kick:

[Old and In the Way]

3. How long before the Congressional Record becomes the

domain of the unitary executive. He's the Decider, afterall; shouldn't he get to decide what the official record says?

[The Wielding Truth]

7. This dictator can't handle anything in his realm of responsibility, yet he

keeps grabbing more power. Congress show kick his * out of office!

[snappyturtle]

4. K&R WOW! Sounds like the perfect 5th

anniversary gift to the nation. IMHO

[Vidar]

5. Thank you, Carl.

[buddhamama]

6. Thank You Senator

please please please do not shut up now.

[JNelson6563]

8. Levin is fearless.

:toast:

[Straight Shooter]

9. Rice stands by claims of al Qaeda-Saddam links

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted that Al-Qaeda operatives in Iraq were developing weapons of mass destruction prior to the ousting of Saddam Hussein.

Rice, giving a series of interviews ahead of the fifth anniversary of the September 11 Al-Qaeda attacks on the United States, brushed aside a recently released US intelligence report saying there was no evidence Saddam’s regime was helping Al-Qaeda obtain such arms.

"There were ties between Iraq and Al-Qaeda," she said on Fox News Sunday.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060910/ts_alt_afp/usattacksiraqqaedarice

We don't call her Kindasleezy Rice for nothing, folks.

[Imagevision]

10. Condi will explain the president's incidence's of mis-speaking...

[bobbolink]

12. call 1 (888) 355 - 3588, toll free, and thank him!

You can be sure he and his staff is getting plenty of hate calls on this!

So, please, thank him and his staff!

Doesn't cost anything, please DO IT! :hi:

Thanks for the heads up on this.... wish more dems would get spine...

Hmmmm, maybe he could also be recommended for a backbone award??

[truth2power]

15. That 800 number has been disconnected...

Here's another one that I just used minutes ago: 1-800-459-1887.

Please call Sen. Levin's office. The gentleman I talked to said they are getting some hate calls; about half and half.

[liberalla]

13. I loved reading this.

I wonder how long til it's scrubbed?

Thanks for the link.

[eleny]

14. K&R

[noonwitch]

16. I'm so glad that Levin is one of my Senators

For a while in the 80s, he was the only person I voted for who won (other than former Gov. Blanchard, SOS Austin and AG Kelly)