Bush's Big Lie: Actually, the Intelligence Was RIGHT Mr. President. You Ignored It.

Bush made a very clever lie in his umpteenth speech on Iraq last night. Bush said, "But much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong." Actually, the intelligence was RIGHT. Bush just ignored it.

The lie that Hussein was trying to get uranium in Africa? That rumour was looked into on three separate occasions. Everyone said it didn't hold water. The cheap forgery that provided the only evidence? Dismissed as fake by everyone who examined it. Bush ignored all that and insisted it was true anyway.

Those tubes that could presumably be used only for enriching uranium? We now know the intelligence was right on that, too. Every scientist, yes EVERY scientist and EVERY scientific body that examined them said not only could those tubes be used for other purposes but that they were useless for enriching uranium. Every ally we showed them to said the same thing. Only one lone mid-level CIA analyst said different. Bush ignored the overwhelming judgment of the scientific and intelligence community and embraced the weakest argument as if it were gospel.

Saddam's links to Al-Quaeda and 9-11? Again, the vast majority of the intelligence (not to mention common sense) argued this was absurd and untrue. But Bush and Cheney cynically kept making that link again and again until most Americans believed right before the invasion that Hussein was involved in attacking America. Bush knew it simply wasn't true.

So don't let Bush pretend he's being wonderfully candid by saying the intelligence was wrong. The intelligence was right and he ignored it and misled the American people.