Bush Statement on Iraq WMD Later Debunked

This is a mobile lab that could have been used for manufacturing biological weapons north of the city of Mosul, Iraq, Friday May 9, 2003, according to US forces. The Bush administration claimed trailers captured soon after the fall of Baghdad proved Iraq had weapons of mass destruction even though U.S. intelligence officials had strong evidence that was not the case, The Washington Post reported Tuesday night April 11, 2006. (AP Photo/Pfc. Joshua Hutcheson, 101st Airborne Division)

This is off Yahoo News:

WASHINGTON - President Bush's claim three years ago that weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq was based on U.S. intelligence that was later proved false, the White House acknowledged on Wednesday.

Spokesman Scott McClellan vigorously denied suggestions that Bush was making claims that already had been debunked when he said that two small trailers seized in Iraq were mobile biological laboratories.

McClellan did not directly answer questions about whether Bush, when he made his statement, was aware that a team of experts had already concluded the trailers were not involved with WMD manufacturing.

"The White House is not an intelligence-gathering agency," McClellan said.

Scotty, we're not arguing about the Bush administration's ability or inability towards gathering intelligence--the White House is certainly not an intelligence-gathering agency as you stressed. My argument is that the White House has misused the intelligence gathered by the intelligence agencies to present an incomplete and false argument for going to war in Iraq. In other words, the Bush administration cherry-picked intelligence information to support its argument for invading Iraq. And the Bush administration has continued this practice for presenting all its arguments backed by debunked intelligence evidence--these trailers, the Niger uranium yellow-cake, and the aluminum tubes.

So here's the latest lies:

[McClellan] said Bush was relying on information from the
Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency that said the trailers were used to produce biological weapons — information that later proved false.

The Washington Post reported Wednesday that experts on a Pentagon-sponsored mission who examined the trailers concluded that they had nothing to do with biological weapons and sent their findings to Washington in a classified field report on May 27, 2003.

One day later, the CIA and DIA publicly issued an assessment saying the opposite — that U.S. officials were confident that the trailers were used to produce biological weapons. The assessment said the mobile facilities represented "the strongest evidence to date that Iraq was hiding a biological warfare program."

The very next day, Bush declared in a Polish television interview, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories."

McClellan said information for public reports from the CIA comes from many sources and takes time to vet.

"It's not something that, they will tell you, turns on a dime," McClellan said.

McClellan dismissed the Post article and a report based on it that aired on ABC News Wednesday morning as irresponsible. He specifically called on ABC to apologize for reporting Bush knew that what he was saying was false.

Intelligence claims do not turn on a dime? I find it hard to believe that the Bush administration first claims these trailers were biological weapons platforms, to have their claims debunked by both the CIA and DIA, and then the very next day the President still claims these trailers were biological weapons labs on Polish TV? Does George Bush even read any of the intelligence briefings, or the summaries, sent to him by the intelligence agencies? This is just more examples of White House lies and disinformation to market their war in Iraq. George Bush has lied to the American people. Just as you are lying right now Scotty. Again and again we have seen this.

Unbelievable.