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White House Reveals Bush Lied: Was Told in August Iran’s Nuclear Program "May Be Suspended"

Posted by Faiz Shakir, Think Progress at 4:52 AM on December 6, 2007.


Faiz Shakir: Bush now says he continued to warn of "World War III" and a "nuclear holocaust" because nobody told him to stop.
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Bush

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This post, written by Faiz Shakir, originally appeared on Think Progress

On Tuesday, President Bush said he was never forewarned by the intelligence community that Iran had suspended its nuclear weapons program in 2003:

In August, I think it was John -- Mike McConnell came in and said, We have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was.

Now the White House is revealing that wasn't true. In fact, Bush did know what the information was. CNN reports:

President Bush was told in August that Iran's nuclear weapons program 'may be suspended,' the White House said Wednesday, which seemingly contradicts the account of the meeting given by Bush Tuesday."

The White House statement released by Dana Perino tonight also states McConnell told Bush "the new information might cause the intelligence community to change its assessment of Iran's covert nuclear program."

On Tuesday, Bush said "nobody ever told me" to back down from his hawkish rhetoric on Iran. No, maybe not. But Bush knew Iran "may have suspended" its nuclear weapons program and that the intelligence community was in the process of "changing its assessment." And yet, he continued to warn of "World War III" and a "nuclear holocaust" because nobody told specifically him to stop.

UPDATE: Dan Froomkin reported today that Bush deceptively "changed the way he talked about Iran" starting in August. "Instead of directly condemning Iranian leaders for pursuing nuclear weapons, he started more vaguely accusing them of seeking the knowledge necessary to make such a weapon. Even as he did that, however, he and the vice president accelerated their rhetorical efforts to persuade the public that the nuclear threat posed by Iran was grave and urgent."

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Tagged as: iran, bush, nuclear weapons, nie

Faiz Shakir is the Research Director at the Center for American Progress and serves as Editor of ThinkProgress.org and The Progress Report.


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View:
yeah....
Posted by: JoshuaLudd on Dec 6, 2007 6:44 AM   
Current rating: 4    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
And nobody ever dreamed the levies could fail.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

PJ White
Posted by: PJ White on Dec 6, 2007 7:03 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Okay. Let me get this straight. So Bush says that Iran is THREATENING us (oh my) with nuclear weapons; the intelligence community says it ain't so. Then he says that they are trying to gain the knowledge to threaten us with nuclear weapons; the NIE says it ain't so, but he says that no one told him. Then that is proved to be a lie and he says, "Okay, I lied. But nobody told me I couldn't." Is that about right?

So, what is our dog-faced, chicken-shit Congress going to do about the fact that the FUKKING POTUS tried to yet again lie us into yet again another war? Not one fucking thing! Is that about right?

So now the lying POS is emboldened to do about anything he wants and lie about it (or not). But impeachment is OFF THE TABLE, no matter what. Is that about right?

Are there any adults here?

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

» RE: PJ White Posted by: VZEQICVA
» RE: PJ White Posted by: PJ White
» RE: PJ White Posted by: ad132
» RE: PJ White Posted by: phrogg40
Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil
Posted by: stevor on Dec 6, 2007 7:33 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Yeah, GW is one of the monkeys with the above three phrases. The big difference (no, it's not that he looks different from them) is that he does SPEAK EVIL, if it has to do with WMDs or Nukes in Iran.

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

Bikerdude
Posted by: bikerdude on Dec 6, 2007 7:42 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
So, does this mean that "the decider" decided not to decide? Or that he's just a puppet and others tell him what to say and make all the decisions...Arrogant and incompetent are terms that fill my head...

[« Reply to this comment] [Post a new comment »] [Rate this comment: 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5]

PJ is right...
Posted by: Wacre on Dec 6, 2007 7:42 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
that impeachment has to be put back on the table because I am not sure anything else is going to stop Bush and his cabal of liars. This situation would be almost comical if it weren't for the fact that when Bush lies his untruths have an accompanying body count in the thousands (if not hundreds of thousands).

I personally don't even see how anyone can continue to work with the man, since anything out of his mouth must either be an untruth or distortion.

This is also why Democrats MUST not give on the allocation of funds for our most recent military debacle. If they don't start drawing lines in the sand then we might as well get used to people dying in ill-conceived imperial conflicts, because there will be more where this one came from.

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Let's face it
Posted by: thekidde on Dec 6, 2007 7:44 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
the president of the U.S. is a jackass. A very dangerous one at that.

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The whole system is a danger to world peace
Posted by: farhada on Dec 6, 2007 8:37 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The problem is not Bush, it is not Cheney and it is not the republicans, it is the US society addiction to WAR. Of all the members of your congress, only a handful stood up and call up the BS, and in the media no one has the guts to stand us and say enough is enough (other than a few like Hersh and others).

The arrogance of the US power and the ignorance (or better yet indifference) of the general US public is the biggest danger to the world peace. Even with the hype of the NIE report, the danger or starting a war with Iran is there as long as your leaders do not act on behave of lobby groups such as AIPAC, JINSA and other strong Israeli groups as well as Saudi and other extreme Sunni Muslim groups who see Iran as their ultimate enemy and see the opportunity to start a conflict between the US and Iran as chance for them stay a few more years on power.

If you stop acting like the missionaries of the 21st century, and act like family members rather than big brothers of the world, and stop enforcing your views on others, maybe, maybe there is a chance that things changes, but if not, you will one idiot after another becoming presidents of your country, taking you into war in foreign countries and you as citizens have to suffer the consequences of it.

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If They Won't Impeach
Posted by: rjgwood on Dec 6, 2007 10:15 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
they should be recalled from their office immediately

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Nightmare presidency
Posted by: blitzmesser on Dec 6, 2007 11:05 AM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Bush said "nobody ever told me" to back down from his hawkish rhetoric on Iran.
The decider waits to be told what to decide on? Are we surprised?
It is a shame for this country that this stupid, evil man and his cohorts are still in office.

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Deb
Posted by: debmcd on Dec 6, 2007 12:57 PM   
Current rating: 5    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I'm am sick to death of the incurious man we have living in the White House. Can't somebody please do something about him. What? Does he think that after nearly six years of telling us he's the decider, he's the Commander-in-Chief, he's the decision guy, that now he's going to try telling us that Michael McConnel told him there was "important" intelligence" that would change the NIE and he didn't even ask what that information was. He knew. if he didn't he should just leave office now. If he did and still he went about systematically lying to America about the dangers of Iran he should be impeached. I think that lying to Congress and the American people earned Bill Clinton a trip to the woodshead and an impeachment. It seems that this president who doesn't even have a casual relationship with the truth andjust keeps spitting out the lies expecting everyone to just take his word even if every bit of evidence proves him wrong. He lies and lies and lies and Congress does nothing. WE NEED TO IMPEACH IMPEACH IMPEACH.

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» RE: Deb Posted by: house mouse
Impeach isn't enough.
Posted by: Ellie1 on Dec 6, 2007 4:56 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Impeach-Indite-Imprison.

I heard a rumor on the internet(s) that after Bushit is out of office, he will need extra security because so he has inspired the hate of so many people. Is it true he is moving to Venezuela with his crime family? Hope he takes Cheney and his whore boozing daughters with him.

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Bush suffers from dry drunk syndrome
Posted by: Intellect on Dec 6, 2007 7:04 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
"In August, I think it was John -- Mike McConnell came in and said, We have some new information. He didn't tell me what the information was."

Bush obviously thinks that the American public is so stupid that they would believe that McConnell came in to Bush's office to advise the president of information that they had that changed their assessment of Iran and left without telling Bush what he came in to tell him.
Bush may not remember being told because he is obviously a dry drunk.

The phrase "dry drunk" has two significant words for the alcoholic. "Dry" refers to the abstinence from drinking, whereas "drunk" signifies a deeply pathological condition resulting from the use of alcohol in the past. Taken together these words suggest intoxication without alcohol. Since intoxication comes from the Greek word for poison, "dry drunk" implies a state of mind and a mode of behavior that are poisonous to the alcoholic's well being.

OBVIOUS TRAITS Persons experiencing a full-blown DRY DRUNK are, for that period, removed from the world of sobriety; they fail, for whatever reason, to accept the necessary conditions for sober living. Their mental and emotional homes are chaotic, their approach to everyday living is unrealistic, and their behavior, both verbal and physical, is unacceptable.

This lack of sober realism manifests itself in many ways.

1. Grandiosity, put very simply, is an exaggeration of one's own importance. This can be demonstrated either in terms of one's strengths or weaknesses. In either case it is blatantly self- seeking or self-serving, putting oneself at the center of attention, from the "big me" who has ask the answers to the "poor me" whose cup of self-pity runneth over and wants all of our attention.

2. Judgmentalism is mutually related to grandiosity. It means that the alcoholic is prone to make value judgments - strikingly inappropriate evaluations - usually in terms of "goodness" or "badness".

3. Intolerance leaves no room for delaying the gratification of personal desires. This is accomplished by gross confusion of priorities with the result that a mere whim or passing fancy is mistakenly given more importance than genuine personal needs.

4. Impulsivity is the result of intolerance or the lack of ability to delay gratification of personal desires. Impulsivity describes behavior which is heedless of the ultimate consequence for self or others.

5. Indecisiveness is related to impulsitivity in the sense that while the latter takes no realistic account of the consequences of the actions, the former precludes effective action altogether. Indecisiveness stems from an unrealistic exaggeration of the negative possibilities of the action ; so one wavers between two or more possible courses of action, more times than not- nothing gets done.

These conditions, grandiosity, judgmentalism, intolerance ,impulsivity, and indecisiveness
Escapism. Fantasizing, daydreaming, and wishful thinking are very much in evidence in the dry drunk syndrome as the individual slips farther and farther from reality.

http://www.minnesotarecovery.info/literature/drydrunk.htm

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I have a question
Posted by: UnEasyOne on Dec 6, 2007 9:22 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Let's say that we determine that Iran has the knowledge to build a nuclear weapon.

What are we gonna do?

Obliterate the country? Invade, round up all the scientists and shoot em?

Pandora's box is wide open now. Any country with sufficient resources can obtain the knowledge.

As usual, the MSM dorks aren't asking the right questions.

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