Why Leaders Lie - Mearsheimer, John J_ [55]
35. See “Cheney: No Link between Saddam Hussein, 9/11,” CNN.com, June 1, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/06/01/cheney.speech/; Rebecca Christie, “US Rumsfeld Concedes No WMDs or September 11 Ties in Iraq,” Dow Jones Newswires, September 17, 2004; Cirincione, Mathews, and Perkovich, WMD in Iraq, 44; Milbank and Deane, “Hussein Link to 9/11 Lingers”; Greg Miller, “No Proof Connects Iraq to 9/11, Bush Says,” Los Angeles Times, September 18, 2003; Paul Reynolds, “Rumsfeld Weakens a Pillar of War,” BBC News Online, October 5, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3717024.stm; David E. Sanger, “Bush Reports No Evidence of Hussein Tie to 9/11,” New York Times, September 18, 2003; Susan Walsh, “Rumsfeld Sees No Link between Saddam Hussein, 9/11,” USA Today, September 16, 2003. An article in the National Journal reports that “ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.” Murray Waas, “Key Bush Intelligence Briefing Kept from Hill Panel,” National Journal, November 22, 2005.
36. Transcript of testimony of U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld before the Senate Armed Services Committee Regarding Iraq, September 19, 2002.
37. Letter from the President to the Speaker of the House of Representatives and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate, March 18, 2003.
38. “Bush Makes Historic Speech aboard Warship,” CNN.com, May 1, 2003, http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/01/bush.transcript/. See also Jim Rutenberg and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, “Bush Says G.O.P. Rebels are Putting Nation at Risk,” New York Times, September 16, 2006; David E. Sanger and Robin Toner, “Bush and Cheney Talk Strongly of Qaeda Links with Hussein,” New York Times, June 18, 2004.
39. New York Times, “What the Bush Administration Said,” June 20, 2004; Christopher Scheer, Robert Scheer, and Lakshmi Chaudhry, The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq (New York: Seven Stories, 2003), 42.
40. Another lie that served the same purpose was President Bush’s claim—which he made on three separate occasions—that Saddam Hussein refused to allow UN inspectors into Iraq in late 2002, and therefore he had no choice but to remove the Iraqi leader from power. Joe Conason, “Saddam Chose to Deny Inspectors,” Salon, March 31, 2006, http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/joe_conason/2006/03/31/bush_lies. Of course, Saddam allowed the inspectors into Iraq and gave them free reign to look for WMD. However, Bush pulled them out before they finished the job, and then invaded Iraq. For an excellent overview of the Bush administration’s deception campaign in the run-up to the Iraq war, see David Corn, “Can the ‘Bush Lied’ Deniers Handle the Truth?” Politics Daily, March 17, 2010, http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/17/can-the-bush-lied-deniers-handle-the-truth/; David Corn, “Charges and Countercharges: Did Bush Knowingly Mislead the U.S. into War with Iraq?” Politics Daily, March 30, 2010, http://www.politicsdaily.com/2010/03/30/a-long-war-did-bush-knowingly-mislead-the-u-s-into-iraq/.
41. Woodward, Plan of Attack, 296; Brian Knowlton, “Diplomacy Won’t Be Given ‘Months,’” New York Times, January 31, 2003. See also Bush’s comments in Scheer, Scheer, and Chaudhry, Five