Yeah, it’s another cut and paste article!  The scope and impact is so massive that only the authors’ comprehensive description can do it justice.

Remember Bush’s contention that the 2004 election results were his “accountability moment”? Well, the Center for Public Integrity has revisited that notion by scooping the MSM in investigative journalism with its searchable database documenting 935 “official” lies by Bush, Cheney and other top administration officials which hyped Iraq’s WMDs and Al Qaeda links during the two years following 9/11.

The Center states that its "exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

The database also documents how Bush and others had reason to know, or at least suspect, that what they were saying was not supported by the facts.

From the overview: "Bush and the top officials of his administration have so far largely avoided the harsh, sustained glare of formal scrutiny about their personal responsibility for the litany of repeated, false statements in the run-up to the war in Iraq. There has been no congressional investigation, for example, into what exactly was going on inside the Bush White House in that period. Congressional oversight has focused almost entirely on the quality of the U.S. government's pre-war intelligence -- not the judgment, public statements, or public accountability of its highest officials. . . .

"Short of such review, this project provides a heretofore unavailable framework for examining how the U.S. war in Iraq came to pass. Clearly, it calls into question the repeated assertions of Bush administration officials that they were the unwitting victims of bad intelligence.

"President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq's links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).

"The massive database at the heart of this project juxtaposes what President Bush and these seven top officials were saying for public consumption against what was known, or should have been known, on a day-to-day basis. This fully searchable database includes the public statements, drawn from both primary sources (such as official transcripts) and secondary sources (chiefly major news organizations) over the two years beginning on September 11, 2001. It also interlaces relevant information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches, and interviews. . . ."

An example:

“On August 26, 2002, in an address to the national convention of the Veteran of Foreign Wars, Cheney flatly declared: ‘Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us‘ In fact, former CIA Director George Tenet later recalled, Cheney's assertions went well beyond his agency's assessments at the time. Another CIA official, referring to the same speech, told journalist Ron Suskind, ‘Our reaction was, “Where is he getting this stuff from?”’"

"The cumulative effect of these false statements -- amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts -- was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war. Some journalists -- indeed, even some entire news organizations -- have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, 'independent' validation of the Bush administration's false statements about Iraq."

The Center’s report certainly sets a benchmark for evaluating the forthcoming Senate Intelligence Committee inquiry into whether the Bush administration intentionally deceived the public in the run-up to the Iraq invasion.

Great work Center for Public Integrity!

Oh, and the AP reports the White House reaction to the Center’s report: "White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration's position that the world community viewed Iraq's leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.

"'The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world,' Stanzel said."

http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5ilEvmNkMwodj0jDtAWgNtOWmaRzQD8UBB2UO2