ambitious_wench (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ambitious_wench) wrote2006-03-22 07:48 am
ambitious_wench) wrote2006-03-22 07:48 am
"Shock and Awe" Retrospective
My friend S. has put together a series of quotes that are worth reading 3 years after the start of the attack on Baghdad and the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, April 13, 1966
Principle is OK up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose.
-- Dick Cheney, 1976
And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place. What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi'i government or a Kurdish government or Ba'athist regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalists? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U.S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable?
-- Dick Cheney, April 29, 1991
And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.
-- Dick Cheney, August 1992
You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier...So long as I'm the dictator.
-- George W. Bush, July 1998
Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.
-- George W. Bush, April 9, 1999
Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the identity of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.
-- George H.W. Bush, April 26, 1999
America has never been an empire. We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused -- preferring greatness to power and justice to glory.
-- George W. Bush, November 19, 1999
But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.
-- Condalezza Rice, January 29, 2001
Dealing with Congress is a matter of give and take. The president doesn't get everything he wants, the Congress doesn't get everything they want. But we're finding good common ground. A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.
-- George W. Bush, July 26, 2001
I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt.
-- George W. Bush, September 13, 2001
Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
-- George W. Bush, September 20, 2001
We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror.
-- George W. Bush, November 10, 2001
I don't think that anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.
-- Condalezza Rice, May 16, 2002
After all, this [Saddam Hussein] is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time.
-- George W. Bush, September 26, 2002
The document discloses that his military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them . . . We can also agree that Saddam Hussein most certainly has chemical and biological weapons and is working towards a nuclear capability. The dossier contains confirmation of information that we either knew or most certainly should have been willing to assume.
-- Iraq'a Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government with forward by Tony Blair, September 24, 2002
We'll do everything we can to remind people that we've never been a nation of conquerors; we're a nation of liberators.
-- George W. Bush, December 4, 2002
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
-- George W. Bush, January 28 2003
F*ck Saddam, we're taking him out.
-- George W. Bush, March 2002
I think there is a potential civic culture in Arab countries that can lead to democratic institutions and I think Iraq is probably the best place to put that proposition to the test.
-- Richard Perle, November 14, 2002
However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?
-- Donald Rumsfeld, Handwritten response to new interrogation technique recommendations including using dogs, stress positions, stripping, and other methods. November 27, 2002
I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, February 28, 2003
When assessing exceptional interrogation techniques, consideration should be given to the possible adverse affects on U.S. Armed Forces culture and self-image, which at times in the past may have suffered due to perceived law of war violations.
-- Pentagon legal memo to Donald Rumsfeld regarding new interrogation recommendations which later led to torture and abuse at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, March 2003
I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I've talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. The president and I have met with various groups and individuals, people who've devoted their lives from the outside to trying to change things inside Iraq, men like Kanan Makiya, who's a professor at Brandeis, but an Iraqi. He's written great books about the subject, knows the country intimately, is a part of the democratic opposition and resistance.
-- Dick Cheney, March 16, 2006
As I told the President on January 10th, I think they will be greeted with sweets and flowers in the first months and simply have very, very little doubts that that is the case.
-- Kanan Makiya -- an Iraqi opposition leader and very close associate of Richard Perle and Ahmed Chalabi -- March 17, 2003
Firstly an extensive program of all Iraqi authorities and ministries. Secondly, a complete dismantling of the security services of the regime, leaving only the regular police force intact. Thirdly, to form and possibly even decommissioning of the Iraqi army, post-liberation, with the possible use of parts of that army for the sake of the reconstruction of Iraq. Fourth, a dismantling of the forces of the republican guard and five, a gradual transfer of authority to an Iraqi interim authority that will be created out of the existing Iraqi opposition. These are the essential steps that we need to be able to begin the constitutional process that we will ourselves be undertaking inside Iraq the day after liberation.
-- Kanan Makiya, March 17, 2003
War crimes will be prosecuted. And it will be no excuse to say, 'I was just following orders.' Any official involved in such crimes will forfeit hope of amnesty or leniency with respect to past action.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, March 20, 2003
I would not call the resistance stiff at all. Our people advanced a very long way into Iraq on a timetable that I think no one would have imagined. We're just about at the end of--I believe it's just the fourth day since the bombing really began, a little bit longer actually since our ground forces went in. The speed of this advance is extraordinary. That doesn't mean it's going to keep up that way. We are braced for some worse times ahead, but I would say so far things are going very well according to a very good plan.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 25, 2003
It's almost like cutting off the head of the snake and then the rest of the body will go.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 25, 2004
We're not there to occupy the country. We're there to liberate the country. I think our record historically makes it very clea-- including our recent history in Northern Iraq--where we came in, we liberated the northern part of the country and we left in six months. We have no interest in being there one day longer than we have to . . . What rallied the Russian people behind Josef Stalin was that they saw a much more evil dictator on the other side. We don't have that problem. I think once the fear of Saddam and his thugs go away, his own people will take care of a lot of the work.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 25, 2004
There's a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 27, 2003
We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003
I don't know that there is much reconstruction to do.
-- Donald Rumsfeld April 11, 2003
Condoleezza Rice was there and the vice president was there. And we had just seen the pictures of a statue come tumbling down. The president was very emotional and happy. And I remember telling him, "I was off by two weeks, Mr. President, but it happened," because I had said to the president back in January that the U.S. forces would be greeted with sweets and flowers. And of course, they weren't in the first two weeks. So-- and it was-- it was a moment of, what can I say, of real joy for me and for him, and obviously, for everybody concerned. And we felt we were being vindicated.
-- Kanan Makiya, regarding the events of May 1, 2003
Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat . . . As for the actual memorandum, I never saw it. But news accounts have pointed out that the documents had glaring errors -- they were signed, for example, by officials who were no longer in government -- and were probably forged. And then there's the fact that Niger formally denied the charges.
-- Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, July 6, 2003
Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told me . . .
-- Robert Novak, July 14, 2003
We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.
-- George W. Bush, May 29, 2003
The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.
-- George W. Bush, June 27, 2003
I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it.
-- George W. Bush, October 1, 2003
We provided exactly three defectors on the weapons of mass destruction to the United States. The first one was an engineer who was involved in building sites for weapon storage and development. ... The second fellow -- Harith. ... He gave them information about mobile biological weapons labs. ... The third one is a young man who is with us here, still, who told them about an isotope separation facility that he was working on. They didn't want to talk to him.
-- Ahmed Chalabi, Frontline Interview October 9, 2003
Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers and children's prisons are closed forever.
-- George W. Bush, October 18, 2003
I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way.
-- George W. Bush regarding the 'Mission Accomplished' banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln, October 28, 2003
We took care of the production of it. We have people to do those things. But the Navy actually put it up.
-- Scott McClellan, October 29, 2003
The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution.
-- George W. Bush, November 6, 2003
I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.
-- Richard Perle, November 20, 2003
Oh, indeed there is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11. It's not that Saddam Hussein was somehow himself and his regime involved in 9/11, but, if you think about what caused 9/11, it is the rise of ideologies of hatred that lead people to drive airplanes into buildings in New York.
-- Condalezza Rice, November 28, 2003
It seems to me that it's up to all of us to try to tell the truth, to say what we know, to say what we don't know, and recognize that we're dealing with people that are perfectly willing to, to lie to the world to attempt to further their case and to the extent people lie of, ultimately they are caught lying and they lose their credibility and one would think it wouldn't take very for that to happen dealing with people like this
-- Donald Rumsfeld in Control Room, 2004
Right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment, that they want a constitution eventually written that recognizes minority rights and freedom of religion.
-- George W. Bush, February 7, 2004
Let me explain to you the President's thinking on this. A greater, more important truth is being lost in the flap over whether or not Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. The greater truth is that nobody, but nobody, denies that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. He was pursuing numerous ways to obtain nuclear weapons. The United States never said that he had nuclear weapons. We have said that he was pursuing them . . . What did the President say in the State of the Union? He said: according to British reports, Iraq is seeking uranium from Africa. And the intelligence cited two other countries, in addition to Niger. So, again, the larger truth, was Saddam Hussein a threat, in part because he was seeking nuclear weapons, in addition to what we know and have said about chemical and biological. Now, if you ask, how is the President approaching this, what's the President's approach, the President sees this as much ado, that it's beside the point of the central threat that Saddam Hussein presented.
-- Scott McClellan, March 4, 2004
My meetings with [Ahmed Chalabi] were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him.
-- George W. Bush, June 1, 2004
I want to be the peace president
-- George W. Bush, July 21, 2004
[It] appears that Mr. Russert's testimony is sought solely because the Special Prosecutor believes that his recollection of a telephone conversation with an Executive Branch official is inconsistent with that official's statements.
-- Grand Jury Court Documents Regarding the I. Lewis Libby Investigation, 2004
I wasn't happy when we found out there wasn't weapons [of mass destruction in Iraq]
-- George W. Bush, October 8, 2004
The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.
-- Dick Cheney, May 31, 2005
I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts. And if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration
-- George W. Bush, July 19, 2005
I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.
-- George W. Bush, September 1, 2005
I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome.
-- George Bush, December 12, 2005
To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor and I will not allow it.
-- George W. Bush, December 18, 2005
Dictators must have enemies. They must have internal enemies to justify their secret police and external enemies to justify their military forces.
-- Richard Perle, February 17, 2005
This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table.
-- George W. Bush, February 25, 2005
"Enough is enough. We're going to aggressively go after them. We'll go after the terrorists wherever we find them. We'll go after those states that sponsor terror. We'll go after people who can provide them with weapons of mass destruction."
-- Dick Cheney, March 20, 2005
Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution/
-- George W. Bush, April 20, 2005
My heart goes out to the families of the London tragedy. We are sending our prayers across the pond to each of you.
-- A relative of a victim of the September 11th attacks in response to the London Bombings, July 8, 2005
I think the word of the United States has been as good as gold in its international dealings and its agreements
-- Condalezza Rice, October 26, 2005
So long as I am commander in chief our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgement of our military commanders on the ground.
-- George W. Bush, November 18, 2005
I didn't advocate invasion . . . I wasn't asked. I'm sure the President understood what my views were . . . I agree completely with the decision to go to war and said that a hundred times. The interesting thing to me about the pre-war intelligence is clearly it was wrong . . . [Question: Would you have been for invasion if we had known that?] Probably yes.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, November 21, 2005
There was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the attack of 9/11, I.ve never said that and never made that case prior to going into Iraq.
-- George W. Bush, December 17, 2005
This terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America.
- George W. Bush, January 31, 2006
It's hardball all the way.
-- Unnamed Senator regarding threats by Karl Rove to blacklist any Republicans voting to investigate Bush for wiretapping, February 2006
There's been a credibility erosion for three years.
-- Senator Chuck Hagel, March 21, 2006
In hindsight, clearly we probably needed to establish some definitive rules and put out some clear guidance to everybody concerned.
-- Intelligence chief Colonol Thomas M. Pappas testifying under immunity at the prisoner abuse trial of Army dog handler Sergeant Michael J. Smith, Spring 2006
"I'd like to ask you, Mr. President -- your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, your Cabinet officers, former Cabinet officers, intelligence people and so forth -- but what's your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil, the quest for oil. It hasn't been Israel or anything else. What was it?"
-- Journalist Helen Thomas, March 21, 2006
Listen, every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy
-- George W. Bush, March 21, 2006
It's a difficult thing today to be informed about our government even without all the secrecy.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, April 13, 1966
Principle is OK up to a certain point, but principle doesn't do any good if you lose.
-- Dick Cheney, 1976
And once we'd done that and we'd gotten rid of Saddam Hussein and his government, then we'd have had to put another government in its place. What kind of government? Should it be a Sunni government or Shi'i government or a Kurdish government or Ba'athist regime? Or maybe we want to bring in some of the Islamic fundamentalists? How long would we have had to stay in Baghdad to keep that government in place? What would happen to the government once U.S. forces withdrew? How many casualties should the United States accept in that effort to try to create clarity and stability in a situation that is inherently unstable?
-- Dick Cheney, April 29, 1991
And the question in my mind is how many additional American casualties is Saddam worth? And the answer is not very damned many.
-- Dick Cheney, August 1992
You don't get everything you want. A dictatorship would be a lot easier...So long as I'm the dictator.
-- George W. Bush, July 1998
Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is.
-- George W. Bush, April 9, 1999
Even though I'm a tranquil guy now at this stage of my life, I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the identity of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors.
-- George H.W. Bush, April 26, 1999
America has never been an empire. We may be the only great power in history that had the chance, and refused -- preferring greatness to power and justice to glory.
-- George W. Bush, November 19, 1999
But in terms of Saddam Hussein being there, let's remember that his country is divided, in effect. He does not control the northern part of his country. We are able to keep arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt.
-- Condalezza Rice, January 29, 2001
Dealing with Congress is a matter of give and take. The president doesn't get everything he wants, the Congress doesn't get everything they want. But we're finding good common ground. A dictatorship would be a heck of a lot easier, there's no question about it.
-- George W. Bush, July 26, 2001
I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty tent and hit a camel in the butt.
-- George W. Bush, September 13, 2001
Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.
-- George W. Bush, September 20, 2001
We must speak the truth about terror. Let us never tolerate outrageous conspiracy theories concerning the attacks of September the 11th; malicious lies that attempt to shift the blame away from the terrorists, themselves, away from the guilty. To inflame ethnic hatred is to advance the cause of terror.
-- George W. Bush, November 10, 2001
I don't think that anybody could have predicted that these people would take an airplane and slam it into the World Trade Center, take another one and slam it into the Pentagon, that they would try to use an airplane as a missile.
-- Condalezza Rice, May 16, 2002
After all, this [Saddam Hussein] is a guy that tried to kill my dad at one time.
-- George W. Bush, September 26, 2002
The document discloses that his military planning allows for some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an order to use them . . . We can also agree that Saddam Hussein most certainly has chemical and biological weapons and is working towards a nuclear capability. The dossier contains confirmation of information that we either knew or most certainly should have been willing to assume.
-- Iraq'a Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government with forward by Tony Blair, September 24, 2002
We'll do everything we can to remind people that we've never been a nation of conquerors; we're a nation of liberators.
-- George W. Bush, December 4, 2002
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.
-- George W. Bush, January 28 2003
F*ck Saddam, we're taking him out.
-- George W. Bush, March 2002
I think there is a potential civic culture in Arab countries that can lead to democratic institutions and I think Iraq is probably the best place to put that proposition to the test.
-- Richard Perle, November 14, 2002
However, I stand for 8-10 hours a day. Why is standing limited to 4 hours?
-- Donald Rumsfeld, Handwritten response to new interrogation technique recommendations including using dogs, stress positions, stripping, and other methods. November 27, 2002
I can't imagine anyone here wanting to spend another $30 billion to be there for another 12 years.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, February 28, 2003
When assessing exceptional interrogation techniques, consideration should be given to the possible adverse affects on U.S. Armed Forces culture and self-image, which at times in the past may have suffered due to perceived law of war violations.
-- Pentagon legal memo to Donald Rumsfeld regarding new interrogation recommendations which later led to torture and abuse at Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib, March 2003
I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. I've talked with a lot of Iraqis in the last several months myself, had them to the White House. The president and I have met with various groups and individuals, people who've devoted their lives from the outside to trying to change things inside Iraq, men like Kanan Makiya, who's a professor at Brandeis, but an Iraqi. He's written great books about the subject, knows the country intimately, is a part of the democratic opposition and resistance.
-- Dick Cheney, March 16, 2006
As I told the President on January 10th, I think they will be greeted with sweets and flowers in the first months and simply have very, very little doubts that that is the case.
-- Kanan Makiya -- an Iraqi opposition leader and very close associate of Richard Perle and Ahmed Chalabi -- March 17, 2003
Firstly an extensive program of all Iraqi authorities and ministries. Secondly, a complete dismantling of the security services of the regime, leaving only the regular police force intact. Thirdly, to form and possibly even decommissioning of the Iraqi army, post-liberation, with the possible use of parts of that army for the sake of the reconstruction of Iraq. Fourth, a dismantling of the forces of the republican guard and five, a gradual transfer of authority to an Iraqi interim authority that will be created out of the existing Iraqi opposition. These are the essential steps that we need to be able to begin the constitutional process that we will ourselves be undertaking inside Iraq the day after liberation.
-- Kanan Makiya, March 17, 2003
War crimes will be prosecuted. And it will be no excuse to say, 'I was just following orders.' Any official involved in such crimes will forfeit hope of amnesty or leniency with respect to past action.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, March 20, 2003
I would not call the resistance stiff at all. Our people advanced a very long way into Iraq on a timetable that I think no one would have imagined. We're just about at the end of--I believe it's just the fourth day since the bombing really began, a little bit longer actually since our ground forces went in. The speed of this advance is extraordinary. That doesn't mean it's going to keep up that way. We are braced for some worse times ahead, but I would say so far things are going very well according to a very good plan.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 25, 2003
It's almost like cutting off the head of the snake and then the rest of the body will go.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 25, 2004
We're not there to occupy the country. We're there to liberate the country. I think our record historically makes it very clea-- including our recent history in Northern Iraq--where we came in, we liberated the northern part of the country and we left in six months. We have no interest in being there one day longer than we have to . . . What rallied the Russian people behind Josef Stalin was that they saw a much more evil dictator on the other side. We don't have that problem. I think once the fear of Saddam and his thugs go away, his own people will take care of a lot of the work.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 25, 2004
There's a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money. We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon.
-- Paul Wolfowitz, March 27, 2003
We know where they [Iraq's WMD] are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south, and north somewhat.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, March 30, 2003
I don't know that there is much reconstruction to do.
-- Donald Rumsfeld April 11, 2003
Condoleezza Rice was there and the vice president was there. And we had just seen the pictures of a statue come tumbling down. The president was very emotional and happy. And I remember telling him, "I was off by two weeks, Mr. President, but it happened," because I had said to the president back in January that the U.S. forces would be greeted with sweets and flowers. And of course, they weren't in the first two weeks. So-- and it was-- it was a moment of, what can I say, of real joy for me and for him, and obviously, for everybody concerned. And we felt we were being vindicated.
-- Kanan Makiya, regarding the events of May 1, 2003
Based on my experience with the administration in the months leading up to the war, I have little choice but to conclude that some of the intelligence related to Iraq's nuclear weapons program was twisted to exaggerate the Iraqi threat . . . As for the actual memorandum, I never saw it. But news accounts have pointed out that the documents had glaring errors -- they were signed, for example, by officials who were no longer in government -- and were probably forged. And then there's the fact that Niger formally denied the charges.
-- Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, July 6, 2003
Wilson never worked for the CIA, but his wife, Valerie Plame, is an Agency operative on weapons of mass destruction. Two senior administration officials told me Wilson's wife suggested sending him to Niger to investigate the Italian report. The CIA says its counter-proliferation officials selected Wilson and asked his wife to contact him. "I will not answer any question about my wife," Wilson told me . . .
-- Robert Novak, July 14, 2003
We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.
-- George W. Bush, May 29, 2003
The United States is committed to the worldwide elimination of torture and we are leading this fight by example.
-- George W. Bush, June 27, 2003
I don't know of anybody in my administration who leaked classified information. If somebody did leak classified information, I'd like to know it.
-- George W. Bush, October 1, 2003
We provided exactly three defectors on the weapons of mass destruction to the United States. The first one was an engineer who was involved in building sites for weapon storage and development. ... The second fellow -- Harith. ... He gave them information about mobile biological weapons labs. ... The third one is a young man who is with us here, still, who told them about an isotope separation facility that he was working on. They didn't want to talk to him.
-- Ahmed Chalabi, Frontline Interview October 9, 2003
Saddam's rape rooms and torture chambers and children's prisons are closed forever.
-- George W. Bush, October 18, 2003
I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way.
-- George W. Bush regarding the 'Mission Accomplished' banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln, October 28, 2003
We took care of the production of it. We have people to do those things. But the Navy actually put it up.
-- Scott McClellan, October 29, 2003
The establishment of a free Iraq at the heart of the Middle East will be a watershed event in the global democratic revolution.
-- George W. Bush, November 6, 2003
I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing.
-- Richard Perle, November 20, 2003
Oh, indeed there is a tie between Iraq and what happened on 9/11. It's not that Saddam Hussein was somehow himself and his regime involved in 9/11, but, if you think about what caused 9/11, it is the rise of ideologies of hatred that lead people to drive airplanes into buildings in New York.
-- Condalezza Rice, November 28, 2003
It seems to me that it's up to all of us to try to tell the truth, to say what we know, to say what we don't know, and recognize that we're dealing with people that are perfectly willing to, to lie to the world to attempt to further their case and to the extent people lie of, ultimately they are caught lying and they lose their credibility and one would think it wouldn't take very for that to happen dealing with people like this
-- Donald Rumsfeld in Control Room, 2004
Right here in the Oval Office I sat down with Mr. Pachachi and Chalabi and al-Hakim, people from different parts of the country that have made the firm commitment, that they want a constitution eventually written that recognizes minority rights and freedom of religion.
-- George W. Bush, February 7, 2004
Let me explain to you the President's thinking on this. A greater, more important truth is being lost in the flap over whether or not Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa. The greater truth is that nobody, but nobody, denies that Saddam Hussein was seeking nuclear weapons. He was pursuing numerous ways to obtain nuclear weapons. The United States never said that he had nuclear weapons. We have said that he was pursuing them . . . What did the President say in the State of the Union? He said: according to British reports, Iraq is seeking uranium from Africa. And the intelligence cited two other countries, in addition to Niger. So, again, the larger truth, was Saddam Hussein a threat, in part because he was seeking nuclear weapons, in addition to what we know and have said about chemical and biological. Now, if you ask, how is the President approaching this, what's the President's approach, the President sees this as much ado, that it's beside the point of the central threat that Saddam Hussein presented.
-- Scott McClellan, March 4, 2004
My meetings with [Ahmed Chalabi] were very brief. I mean, I think I met with him at the State of the Union and just kind of working through the rope line, and he might have come with a group of leaders. But I haven't had any extensive conversations with him.
-- George W. Bush, June 1, 2004
I want to be the peace president
-- George W. Bush, July 21, 2004
[It] appears that Mr. Russert's testimony is sought solely because the Special Prosecutor believes that his recollection of a telephone conversation with an Executive Branch official is inconsistent with that official's statements.
-- Grand Jury Court Documents Regarding the I. Lewis Libby Investigation, 2004
I wasn't happy when we found out there wasn't weapons [of mass destruction in Iraq]
-- George W. Bush, October 8, 2004
The level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline. I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency.
-- Dick Cheney, May 31, 2005
I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts. And if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration
-- George W. Bush, July 19, 2005
I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.
-- George W. Bush, September 1, 2005
I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome.
-- George Bush, December 12, 2005
To retreat before victory would be an act of recklessness and dishonor and I will not allow it.
-- George W. Bush, December 18, 2005
Dictators must have enemies. They must have internal enemies to justify their secret police and external enemies to justify their military forces.
-- Richard Perle, February 17, 2005
This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table.
-- George W. Bush, February 25, 2005
"Enough is enough. We're going to aggressively go after them. We'll go after the terrorists wherever we find them. We'll go after those states that sponsor terror. We'll go after people who can provide them with weapons of mass destruction."
-- Dick Cheney, March 20, 2005
Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution/
-- George W. Bush, April 20, 2005
My heart goes out to the families of the London tragedy. We are sending our prayers across the pond to each of you.
-- A relative of a victim of the September 11th attacks in response to the London Bombings, July 8, 2005
I think the word of the United States has been as good as gold in its international dealings and its agreements
-- Condalezza Rice, October 26, 2005
So long as I am commander in chief our strategy in Iraq will be driven by the sober judgement of our military commanders on the ground.
-- George W. Bush, November 18, 2005
I didn't advocate invasion . . . I wasn't asked. I'm sure the President understood what my views were . . . I agree completely with the decision to go to war and said that a hundred times. The interesting thing to me about the pre-war intelligence is clearly it was wrong . . . [Question: Would you have been for invasion if we had known that?] Probably yes.
-- Donald Rumsfeld, November 21, 2005
There was no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with the attack of 9/11, I.ve never said that and never made that case prior to going into Iraq.
-- George W. Bush, December 17, 2005
This terrorist surveillance program has helped prevent terrorist attacks. It remains essential to the security of America.
- George W. Bush, January 31, 2006
It's hardball all the way.
-- Unnamed Senator regarding threats by Karl Rove to blacklist any Republicans voting to investigate Bush for wiretapping, February 2006
There's been a credibility erosion for three years.
-- Senator Chuck Hagel, March 21, 2006
In hindsight, clearly we probably needed to establish some definitive rules and put out some clear guidance to everybody concerned.
-- Intelligence chief Colonol Thomas M. Pappas testifying under immunity at the prisoner abuse trial of Army dog handler Sergeant Michael J. Smith, Spring 2006
"I'd like to ask you, Mr. President -- your decision to invade Iraq has caused the deaths of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, wounds of Americans and Iraqis for a lifetime. Every reason given, publicly at least, has turned out not to be true. My question is: Why did you really want to go to war? From the moment you stepped into the White House, your Cabinet officers, former Cabinet officers, intelligence people and so forth -- but what's your real reason? You have said it wasn't oil, the quest for oil. It hasn't been Israel or anything else. What was it?"
-- Journalist Helen Thomas, March 21, 2006
Listen, every war plan looks good on paper until you meet the enemy
-- George W. Bush, March 21, 2006
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