In December 2005, Lieutenant Colonel Karen Kwiatkowski, who served in the Pentagon’s Near East and South Asia division from 2002-2003, said, regarding reports that documented the sale of 500 tons of yellowcake uranium per year from Niger to Iraq: ” ‘Yellowcake is unprocessed bulk ore… If Saddam wanted to make nuclear bombs, why would he […]
12/15/2005
“According to an assessment published in December 2005 by John Mueller, an expert in wartime American opinion, ‘The only thing remarkable about the current war in Iraq is how precipitously American public support has dropped off. Casualty for casualty, support has declined far more quickly than it did during either the Korean War or the […]
12/15/2005
In 2005, “Iraq held three democratic elections: a January [30] legislative election to draft a constitution; an October [15] countrywide referendum on a national constitution; and December [15] elections for a national assembly. Each produced moving images of Iraqis waving purple fingers, stained to show they had voted. Each election was marred by violence and […]
12/15/2005
“The December 15, 2005, elections [in Iraq] established an internationally recognized permanent Iraqi government with the authority to sign contracts. The Bush administration, for its part, spent the month of December reiterating its commitment to ‘stay the course in Iraq’ and would not speak of withdrawal of U.S. troops in any significant numbers prior to […]
12/15/2005
"…far from saving 'thousands of lives,' as claimed by Vice President Dick Cheney in December 2005, the NSA [National Security Agency] [warrantless surveillance] program never led investigators to a genuine terrorist not already under suspicion, nor did it help them to expose any dangerous plots." [The 15th of the month used for date sorting purposes […]
12/15/2005
On December 15, 2005, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) said: “When the Senate voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq in 2002, it was based on a more limited scope of prewar intelligence than was available to the [Bush] Administration.” – Jonathan S. Landay, “Congress Doesn’t See Same Intelligence as President, Report Finds,” Knight-Ridder […]
12/14/2005
From the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center, President George W. Bush said: “The terrorists affiliated with or inspired by al Qaeda are the smallest, but most lethal group. They are led by a brutal terrorist named Zarqawi. He’s al Qaeda’s chief operations officer in Iraq. He has stated his allegiance to Osama bin Laden. The […]
12/12/2005
Following a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on December 12, 2005, President Bush took a question from former libel lawyer Didi Goldmark. ” ‘Since the inception of the Iraqi war, I’d like to know the approximate total of Iraqis who have been killed,’ Goldmark said. It was a question that the White House and the Pentagon […]
12/11/2005
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wrote on December 11, 2005: “The phenomenon of weak and failing states is not new, but the danger they now pose is unparalleled. When people, goods and information traverse the globe as fast as they do today, transnational threats such as disease or terrorism can inflict damage comparable to the […]
12/11/2005
“On three separate occasions, for example, in mid-2001, mid-2002, and January 2003, just before the war, the CIA asked the French for their evaluation of the now infamous reports that Iraq was trying to buy ‘yellowcake’ uranium ore from Niger. According to the Los Angeles Times of December 11, 2005, the French intelligence chief at […]