Statement from John Kerry on CIA Director George Tenet’s Speech at Georgetown University
johnkerry.com
February 05, 2004
For Immediate Release
“Today, the CIA Director, George Tenet, admitted that the intelligence agencies never told the White House that Iraq posed an imminent threat. But that’s not what the Bush White House told the American people. They said Iraq posed a ‘mortal threat,’ an ‘urgent threat,’ an ‘immediate threat,’ a ‘serious threat,’ and, yes, an ‘imminent threat’ to the people of the United States.
“Today, we found out that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Don Rumsfeld, and the rest of the Administration weren’t passing on sound facts on Iraq to the American people - they were playing politics with our national security.
“Americans should be able to trust that what the President tells them is true - especially when it comes to the life and death decisions of war and peace.
“We need to restore America’s credibility around the world and the trust of the American people in their government at home. That’s not going to happen with a sham commission hand-picked by George Bush to look into how these faulty facts on Iraq made it to the American people. It’s not going to happen while the Bush White House continues its stalling and stonewalling. What we need is for this President to take responsibility - to face the truth - and to finally tell the truth to the American people. And we need that now.” |
