Bush tops the list with 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and another 28 about Iraq’s links with al-Qaeda.
His administration made 935 false statements on Iraq: study
NEW DELHI: A study conducted by the Centre for Public Integrity, a non-profit, non-partisan research organisation based in Washington DC, has found that US president George W. Bush and top officials of his administration made as many as 935 false statements over the Iraq war since 9/11.
Bush tops the list with 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and another 28 about Iraq’s links with al-Qaeda.
Bush-bashing comrades back home, especially CPI(M) leaders, are elated. Sources said the party is circulating details of the study for the benefit of its various in-house publications.
The study posted on the website of the Centre for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism, concluded that the false statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanised public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war on decidedly false pretenses”.
The other top-ranking liars of the Bush administration are then secretary of state Colin Powell (244 false statements), national security advisor Condoleezza Rice (56), vice-president Dick Cheney (48), defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld (109), deputy defence secretary Paul Wolfowitz (85), White House press secretary Ari Fleischer (109) and Scott McClellan (14).
The statements were found in their speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues - that Iraq had WMDs or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaeda or both.
Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith, staff members of the Fund for Independence in Journalism, writing an overview of the study, concluded, “In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003.”
The centre said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning September 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.
k_benedict@dnaindia.net
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