George Bush, A Slam Dunk Liar
by
Larry C Johnson
Today's Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/08/AR2006040800916.html has a genuine barn burner of an article that settles the case that George Bush deserves impeachment. He lied to the American people and the world during his 2003 State of the Union Address when he claimed that:
“The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa .”
Up to this point the Bush apologists tried to argue he did not lie, but was simply reporting what the intelligence community was telling him. Now we know--HE LIED
Specifically, the story by Gellman and Linzer notes:
After that, the Pentagon asked for an authoritative judgment from the National Intelligence Council, the senior coordinating body for the 15 agencies that then constituted the U.S. intelligence community. Did Iraq and Niger discuss a uranium sale, or not? If they had, the Pentagon would need to reconsider its ties with Niger. The council's reply, drafted in a January 2003 memo by the national intelligence officer for Africa, was unequivocal: The Niger story was baseless and should be laid to rest. Four U.S. officials with firsthand knowledge said in interviews that the memo, which has not been reported before, arrived at the White House as Bush and his highest-ranking advisers made the uranium story a centerpiece of their case for the rapidly approaching war against Iraq.
The White House and Republican National Committee spin has been exposed now as a bald face lie. The CIA did not tell the President it was okay to say this. The told him it was wrong. What is it, Mr. President, about "baseless" that you do not understand?
...................
Instead of admitting their error, George Bush and Dick Cheney defamed Joe Wilson, destroyed Valerie's ability to serve as a clandestine CIA operative, and exposed a CIA front company. Why? Because Joe Wilson dared to tell the truth. God save us when our leaders decide to punish a citizen for telling the truth. And, at the end of the day, the President used these lies to take us to war. The survivors of the 2400 Americans who have died in Iraq deserve better from their President. I pray our members of Congress find the courage to punish the President and the Vice President for violating the trust the American people invested in them.
more at:
http://noquarter.typepad.com/my_weblog/2006/04/george_bush_get.html