11/14/2005

Speaking about the misleading statements that led to war in Iraq, President Bush said, on November 14, 2005, that “everyone had the same intelligence he had–[former President] Mr. [Bill] Clinton and his advisers, foreign governments, and members of Congress–and that all of them reached the same conclusions. The only part that is true is that Mr. Bush was working off the same intelligence Mr. Clinton had. But that is scary, not reassuring. The reports about Saddam Hussein’s weapons were old, some more than 10 years old. Nothing was fresher than about five years, except reports that later proved to be fanciful. Foreign intelligence services did not have full access to American intelligence. But some had dissenting opinions that were ignored or not shown to top American officials. Congress had nothing close to the president’s access to intelligence. The National Intelligence Estimate presented to Congress a few days before the vote on war was sanitized to remove dissent and make conjecture seem like fact.”

 – Editorial Staff, “Decoding Mr. Bush’s Denials,” The New York Times, Nov. 15, 2005