Truth Still Snowed In At The White House Says DNC

[ProSense]

Truth Still Snowed In At The White House Says DNC

Wed Apr 26, 11:03 AM ET

To: National Desk, Political Reporter

Contact: Karen Finney of Democratic National Committee Communications Department, 202-863-8148

WASHINGTON, April 26 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Today, the Bush Administration announced that conservative news personality Tony Snow will replace Scott McClellan as the White House Press Secretary. This move signals that the White House is not serious about beginning a new era of telling the truth to the American people, the Democratic National Committee said.

"The American people should get ready for another Snow job from the Bush White House. Tony Snow represents more of the same, not the fresh start the Administration needed," said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. "This is an interdepartmental move from one part of the conservative infrastructure to another that allows a darling of the right-wing to deliver the same misleading message, cherry-picked information and spin to the American people. Josh Bolten's plan for re-energizing the White House called for more happy talk and a better PR campaign for the same failed policies. Snow's track record of delivering misleading rhetoric is a perfect fit for this Administration that refuses to change and has a problem telling the truth."

See below for a new document from DNC Research:

SNOW: REPEATED MISLEADING STATEMENTS ON CIA LEAK INVESTIGATION

Snow Falsely Claimed That Wilson Said Cheney Had Sent Him To Niger. Snow claimed in his July 15, 2005, column that former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV said he "had been dispatched by (Vice President) Dick Cheney to conduct a secret mission to Niger." Wilson actually wrote that the CIA requested he go on the mission "so they could provide a response" to questions raised by Cheney regarding allegations that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium from the African country. However, Wilson actually said it was "absolutely true" that Cheney was unaware he went on the trip. (Jewish World Review, 7/15/05; NY Times, 7/6/03; CNN, 7/6/03)

Snow Falsely Claimed That Intel Committee "Discovered" That Plame Recommended Wilson For The Niger Mission. In his July 15, 2005, column, Snow further claimed that the Senate Intelligence Committee, in its 2004 "Report on the U.S. Intelligence Community's Prewar Intelligence Assessments on Iraq," "discovered that Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, did indeed recommend him for the trip" to Niger. But the committee did not officially conclude that she had been responsible for Wilson's assignment. (Jewish World Review, 7/15/05; http://intelligence.senate.gov/iraqreport2.pdf )

Snow Said Wilson Said Plame Hadn't Been Covert For Six Years When She Was Exposed - Then Denied It. In February, Snow said of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame, "She wasn't covert anymore. Even her husband says she wasn't covert for six years" when she was exposed as a CIA operative. In April, Snow said, "No, that's not what I said. But I did say that she was not covert when she was exposed because she had not been on foreign soil for six years." (O'Reilly Factor, 2/3/06; Salon.com, 4/20/06)

SNOW: REWRITING HISTORY ON THE WAR ON TERROR

Snow Falsely Accused Clinton Of Rejecting Bin Laden Offer. Snow said that Sudan had offered to "hand over" Osama bin Laden to the United States in the 1990s, but that the Clinton Administration responded, "Nah, don't want to do it." However, the bipartisan 9-11 Commission found "no reliable evidence to support" the claim that Sudan offered bin Laden to the United States and determined that based on Clinton's testimony, in "wrongly recounting a number of press stories he had read," Clinton had "misspoken" in his 2002 speech. (Fox News' Weekend Live, 2/25/06; http://www.9-11commission.gov/staff_statements/staff_statement_5.pdf or http://www.9-11commission.gov/report/911Report_Notes.htm )

Snow Claimed Botched CIA Attack On Ayman Al-Zawahiri "Was A Success." Snow claimed the January 13 CIA drone attack in western Pakistan targeting top Al Qaeda official al-Zawahiri "was a success." Further, Snow and guest Richard Miniter both claimed the attack "knocked off four to five key Al Qaeda" figures. In fact, the strike reportedly killed at least 18 civilians, sparking widespread Pakistani condemnation and protests. Initially, U.S. officials claimed that, at minimum, some high level Al Qaeda officials were among those killed in the attacks, but this claim was never officially confirmed. A Financial Times report noted: "Pakistani intelligence official confirmed the identities (of alleged Al Qaeda officals) were made on the basis of intelligence information and not 'facts gathered through DNA tests or any other means.'" (Fox News' Weekend Live, 1/21/06; New York Times, 1/16/06; Financial Times, 1/20/06)

Snow Deemed Gitmo "The Most Humane Prisoner-Of-War Facility In History." In a June 15, 2005, column, Snow wrote that the Pentagon's military detention facility at Guant?namo Bay, Cuba, "may be the most humane prisoner-of-war facility in history." (Jewish World Review, 6/15/05)

SNOW: USED FALSE CLAIMS TO MAKE ARGUMENT JUSTIFYING DOMESTIC SPYING

Snow Falsely Claimed That Carter And Bush Both Authorized Warrantless Surveillance Of U.S. Citizens. Snow asserted that former President Jimmy Carter had "signed an executive order that authorized the attorney general to approve electronic surveillance to acquire foreign intelligence information." Snow went on to claim that this represented "exactly what the president is doing." However, Carter prohibited such surveillance of U.S. citizens. Carter's order specifically required the attorney general to certify that the surveillance will not contain "the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party." (Fox News, 12/24/05; mediamatters.org/rd? http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sec_50_00001802----000-.html )

Snow Falsely Claimed That The FISA Probable Cause Standard Kept The FBI From Inspecting Moussaoui's Laptop. Snow said that FBI agents in possession of Zacarias Moussaoui's laptop "decided not to go ahead and look at the contents because they ... had no definite proof that the guy was a terrorist" and, therefore, couldn't meet the probable cause standard necessary for a warrant under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). However, the bipartisan Senate Judiciary Committee found that the investigators had possessed sufficient evidence but that FBI attorneys had applied a too-stringent standard for establishing probable, preventing the investigators from petitioning the court for authorization. (Fox News' Weekend Live, 12/24/05; http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2003_rpt/fisa.pdf )

SNOW: MOUTHPIECE FOR BUSH IN 2004

Snow Said Kerry Was Criticizing the Troops, Not Bush, When He Criticized Action in Iraq. Snow said that 2004 presidential candidate Sen. John Kerry had blamed U.S. troops for the explosives looted from the Al Qaqaa military installation following the invasion of Iraq. Snow said, "The Kerry campaign is not criticizing the president here. They're criticizing our troops because those are the people who were going into the Al Qaqaa facility -- yes, that's its real name, the Al Qaqaa facility -- and what they're saying is, ah, these guys -- you know, they were in such haste to get to Baghdad, they didn't do their job." (FOX News, O'Reilly Factor, 10/26/04)

Snow Repeated Inaccurate Republican Line That Kerry Had Called Terrorists A "Nuisance." Snow said, " President Bush and Senator Kerry are back on the campaign trail, pounding away at each other, verbally, of course. This morning, the president pounced on a quote in Sunday's New York Times Magazine where Senator Kerry called terrorists a nuisance." However, Kerry's quote was actually, "We have to get to the place we were, where terrorists are not the focus of our lives, but they're a nuisance." (FOX News, The O'Reilly Factor, 10/11; St. Petersburg Times, 10/12/04)

Snow Falsely Claimed There Was No Documentary Evidence Proving Swift Boat Veterans Wrong. Snow backed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth's attacks on Kerry, claiming, "(T)here has been no documentary contradiction of the Swift Boat stuff." However, "Military documents and accounts of crewmates who did serve with Kerry support the view put forth by the candidate and his campaign -- that he acted courageously and came by his five medals honestly." (FOX News, O'Reilly Factor, 9/15/04; Los Angeles Times, 8/20/04)

SNOW: RACISM ISN'T THAT BIG A DEAL ANYMORE

Snow in 2003: "Racism Isn't That Big a Deal Anymore." In October 2003, Snow defended Rush Limbaugh's controversial comments that Donovan McNabb was overrated and that reporters are disposed towards black quarterbacks. "The comment wasn't racist," Snow said, "but that did not stop political opportunists from accusing Rush of bias." Snow added, "Here's the unmentionable secret. Racism isn't that big a deal anymore. No sensible person supports it. Nobody of importance preaches it. It's rapidly and thankfully becoming an ugly memory." (Fox News Sunday, 10/5/03)

Video Link:

http://a9.g.akamai.net/7/9/8082/v001/democratic1.download.akamai.com/8082/video/20060426_snow.wmv

Snow Defended David Duke. In 1991, then-White House speechwriter Tony Snow defended former KKK leader David Duke, saying, "Duke is talking about things people really care about: high taxes, crummy schools, crime-ridden streets, welfare dependency, equal opportunity. A lot of politicians aren't talking about these things." (Chicago Tribune, 11/20/91)

SNOW: NO EVIDENCE OF EVOLUTION

Snow Said There Was No Evidence Of Evolution. In 2005, Snow wrote a column arguing that "evolutionary theory, like ID (intelligent design), isn't verifiable or testable. It's pure hypothesis." Snow added, "the fossil record provides no evidence of any species ever turning into another. . . there's nothing to vindicate the notion of an evolutionary leap." Snow advocated calling science "a matter of inspired guesswork." http://www.townhall.com/opinion/column/tonysnow/2005/08/12/155152.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/usnw/20060426/pl_usnw/truth_still_snowed_in_at_the_white_house_says_dnc121_xml

[ProSense]

1. This is the guy Bush wants to push his

mixed messages? Lies, spin and insanity, the sooner the Bush admin gets run out of town, the sooner repairing the damage can begin.