This bit of the Village Voice article was a little disturbing:
Undaunted, McDermott challenged the credibility of White House attempts to prove the necessity of attacking Iraq. "It would not surprise me if they came up with some information that is not provable," he said. "I think the president would mislead the American people." A White House spokesperson responded, "The American people know he hasn't misled anyone and the American people know he won't mislead anyone."
The facts suggest otherwise. In a September 7 press conference with Prime Minister Blair, Bush leaned on what he called a report from the International Atomic Energy Commission, based on Hussein's nixing of inspections in 1998. "I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied?finally denied?access, a report came out...that they were six months away from developing a weapon," the president said. "I don?t know what more evidence we need."
But last week the commission claimed that no such document exists. "There?s never been a report like that issued from this agency," Mark Gwozdecky, head of the group, told Reuters last week.
Asked why Bush referred to an apparently imaginary document, the White House claimed he was really talking about a report from 1991. But Gwozdecky told Reuters no paper to that effect was issued by his agency in 1991, either. |
