Analysis of Public Statements made by President George Bush
This website contains a collection of misleading and inaccurate public statements made by the five Administration officials most responsible for providing public information and shaping public opinion on Iraq. This section covers statements made by President George Bush. You may also read the introduction or select a different person from the menu bar above.
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| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| President George W. Bush on Nuclear Capabilities: |
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| "I strongly believe he was trying to reconstitute his nuclear weapons program." |
| Source: President Bush, Prime Minister Blair Discuss War on Terrorism, White House (7/17/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it failed to acknowledge the intelligence community's deep division on the issue of whether Iraq was actively pursuing its nuclear program. The statement also failed to mention weeks of intensive inspections conducted directly before the war in which United Nations inspectors found no sign whatsoever of any effort by Iraq to resume its nuclear program. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| President George W. Bush on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents." |
| Source: President Talks to Troops in Qatar, White House (6/5/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| President George W. Bush on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "Here's what -- we've discovered a weapons system, biological labs, that Iraq denied she had, and labs that were prohibited under the U.N. resolutions." |
| Source: President Bush, Russian President Putin Sign Treaty of Moscow, White House (6/1/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| President George W. Bush on Chemical and Biological Weapons: |
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| "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them." |
| Source: Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, White House (5/29/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. | | |
| The Bush Administration's Public Statements on Iraq |
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| President George W. Bush on Al-Qaeda: |
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| "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the 'beginning of the end of America.' By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed." |
| Source: President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended, White House (5/1/2003). |
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Explanation This statement was misleading because by referencing the September 11 attacks in conjunction with discussion of the war on terror in Iraq, it left the impression that Iraq was connected to September 11. In fact, President Bush himself in September 2003 acknowledged that "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th." | | |
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