Prometheus 6   

Dear MoveOn member,

The President took the nation to war based on his assertion that Iraq posed an imminent threat to our country. Now the evidence that backed that assertion is falling apart. Richard Butler, the chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq in the 1990s and a supporter of the war, recently wrote, "Clearly a decision had been taken to pump up the case against Iraq."(Source below, #1)

If the Bush administration distorted intelligence or knowingly used false data to support the call to war, it would be an unprecedented deception. Even if weapons are now found, it'll be difficult to justify pre-war language that indicated that the exact location of the weapons was known and that they were ready to deploy at a moment's notice.
With a crisis of credibility brewing abroad and the integrity of our President and our foreign policy on the line, we need answers now.

Please ask Congress to establish an independent, bipartisan commission to investigate the distortion of evidence right now, at:

http://www.moveon.org/distortion/

On March 17th, in the eve of the Iraq war, President Bush told the American people that "intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."(2) White House spokesperson Ari Fleischer said simply, "We know for a fact that there are weapons there."(3) And Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld elaborated: "We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and
east, west, south and north somewhat."(4)

Now, after two months of searching by the most skilled teams in the military, not a single piece of solid evidence of chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons programs in Iraq has been found. The top 87 sites identified by U.S. Central Command have turned up only vacuum cleaners, a swimming pool for Iraq's Olympic team, and a
license plate factory.(5)

Officials in the CIA and other intelligence agencies have complained for months that they have been under pressure to "cook the books" on Iraq intelligence.(6) Worse, a number of the key pieces of evidence that the Bush administration has released have come unraveled:

* The President's State of the Union claim that Iraq possessed an active nuclear program was based on fraudulent documents that included the forged signature of an official that weren't even in office at the time.(7)

* The dossier that Prime Minister Blair and Secretary Powell relied upon in critical presentations turned out to have been partially plagiarized from a graduate student's paper from 12 years ago.(8)

* The claim that Iraq could launch weapons of mass destruction in 45 minutes, first made by Prime Minister Tony Blair, now appears to have been fabricated.(9)

* The administration's claim that two tractor trailer trucks found in Iraq housed "mobile weapons labs" has now been disputed by numerous experts inside and outside of the military. An official British investigation has concluded that the trailer trucks were "exactly what the Iraqis said they were -- facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons."(10)

A President may make no more important decision than whether or not to take a country to war. If Bush and his officials deceived the American public to create support for the Iraq war, they need to be held accountable. Join the call now at:

http://www.moveon.org/distortion/

Sincerely,
--Carrie, Eli, Joan, Peter, Wes, and Zack
The MoveOn Team
June 16th, 2003

References:

(1) Newsweek, 6/16/03:
http://www.fareedzakaria.com/articles/newsweek/061603.html

(2) White House Press Briefing, 3/17/03:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030317-7.html

(3) White House Press Briefing, 1/9/03:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030109-8.html

(4) Department of Defense Briefing, 3/30/03:
http://www.dod.gov/news/Mar2003/t03302003_t0330sdabcsteph.html

(5) The Mirror, 6/4/03:
http://www.moveon.org/r?447

(6) Salon, 10/10/02:
http://www.moveon.org/r?448

(7) Washington Post, 3/22/03:
http://www.moveon.org/r?449

(8) Washington Post, 2/8/03:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42276-2003Feb7

(9) The Guardian, 5/29/03:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,966208,00.html

(10) The Observer, 6/15/03:
http://www.moveon.org/r?450