SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATIONS MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY IRAQI NUCLEAR WEAPONS
OCTOBER 7, 2003
SCHAKOWSKY: BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S MISSTATEMENT OF THE DAY -IRAQI NUCLEAR WEAPONS
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) issued today's "Bush Administration's Misstatement of the Day" on claims made by President Bush and Vice President Cheney about Iraqi nuclear weapons.
President Bush, during his State of the Union Address (1/28/03) before the war, said:
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." (After the war, the Administration stated that those 16 words should not have been included in the speech.)
However, according to a Washington Post article (10/5/03) about the interim report by U.S. weapons inspector David Kay:
Even in furnishing additional information about the findings, Kay reported Friday that he found no evidence for another one of [President] Bush's key claims -- that Iraq sought uranium in Niger. In fact, another African country offered uranium to Iraq, but Hussein declined, Kay reported.
It was also reported in the same Washington Post story:
On Thursday, after briefing House and Senate intelligence committee members, Kay had said that the team had discovered no chemical or biological weapons and that the nuclear program was only rudimentary. "It had a long way to go," he said. Friday, Kay estimated it would have taken Iraq five to seven years to reconstitute its nuclear program.
However, during a television appearance shortly before the war began, Vice President Cheney said:
"We believe he [Saddam Hussein] has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." March 16, 2003, during an interview on NBC's Meet the Press
Schakowsky said, "The Administration's own weapons inspector is shedding light on claims made by President Bush in his rush to war about Iraq's imminent threat to the United States. An independent commission is the only way to find out the extent of the exaggerations. Those responsible for misleading us into war must be held accountable."
Schakowsky is a cosponsor of H.R. 2625, legislation authored by U.S. Representative Henry Waxman, to create an independent commission - modeled after the September 11 Commission. The Commission would examine the intelligence about Iraq, representations made by executive branch officials about this intelligence, and whether the Bush Administration distorted evidence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.