3 questions Russert should have asked Bush

[Martin Eden]

1) Mr. President, you have stated that your decision to go to war with Iraq was based on the "good, sound intelligence" contained within the NIE report of October 2002. However, on page 4 of that report the CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency and the other U.S. spy agencies unanimously agreed that Baghdad:

had not sponsored past terrorist attacks against America, was not operating in concert with al-Qaida, and was not a terrorist threat to America.

Furthermore, Page 5 ranks the key judgments by confidence level – high, moderate or low.

According to the consensus of Bush's intelligence services, there was "low confidence" before the war in the views that "Saddam would engage in clandestine attacks against the U.S. Homeland" or "share chemical or biological weapons with al-Qaida."

Mr. President, how do square these conclusions with the subsequent statements you made:

"Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists"

"This is a man that we know has had connections with al-Qaida." This is a man who, in my judgment, would like to use al-Qaida as a forward army." ???

2) Mr. President, your administration characterized the Iraqi threat as "grave and gathering", but denies ever having said the threat was "imminent."

If the threat wasn't imminent, why was it necessary to to launch an invasion before the UN inspectors had completed their task?

3) Mr. President, On July 25, after a meeting with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan you made this statement to the press:

“The fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow inspectors in, and he wouldn’t let them in. And therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region.”

More recently, in response to the absence of actual weapons stockpiles in Iraq, you said:

" First of all... I was hoping the United Nations would enforce its resolutions... that said to Saddam, ‘You must disclose and destroy your weapons programs,’ which obviously meant the world felt he had such programs. He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in."

Mr. President, it is a well known fact that Saddam Hussein did indeed allow the UN weapons inspectors back into Iraq. Please explain your remarks that he did not.

[grasswire]

1. he said number three again today...

....not quite as directly. But he apparently thinks Hussein kept us out of Iraq in 2002.

[myomy]

2. These are the questions a “free press” would ask.

..

[FloridaPat]

3. The part about sending money to terrorist is sort of true.

He was sending money to suicide bombers families after they killed themselves. So is Saudia Arabia. When the US asked Saudia Arabia about it, they said it wasn't supporting the terrorist. End of subject as far as the government is concerned.

And since we're invading countries that defy UN resolutions, when are we going to invade Israel?

[Media_Lies_Daily]

4. Three more...

1) Is it true that you lied to the American people when you stated that you had stopped drinking?

2) Is it true that you participated in a coup in December 2000 to overthrow the lawful elected government of the United States?

3) Do you have any idea how badly you've hurt the reputation of America overseas?

Bonus question:

1) Do you have any clue what you've done to the greatest economy the world has ever seen?

[supercrash]

5. He should have asked...

About the OSP

[0007]

6. This was a dog and pony show! And ya just don't ask questions like that...

junior left his self wide open many times. The one I liked and would have torn into the sucker, like right now, was when he told Tim the administration was working with Chalabi for a Democratic Iraq.