To: laura_bush who wrote (37631 ) 2/10/2004 9:17:50 PM From: Rick Faurot Respond to of 89467 Anti-War Activists Launch Campaign Against Bush Tue February 10, 2004 04:15 PM ET WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Two grassroots antiwar groups, backed by former military and intelligence figures, on Tuesday called on Congress to censure President Bush for what they said was the manipulation of secret intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.
Leaders of MoveOn.org and Win Without War announced the start of an Internet petition drive to demand Congress formally condemn the president's handling of prewar intelligence. The groups also ran a full-page ad in The Washington Post to press their campaign.
"The intelligence reports given to Congress were doctored. They were distorted. They excluded warnings and protests that weakened the president's case for war," said Tom Andrews, who heads Win Without War.
"Friend or foe, Democrat or Republican, the spotlight is going to go on them (members of Congress) if they refuse to put the spotlight on this administration" during the 2004 election campaign, said the former Democratic representative from Maine.
The Bush administration repeatedly said that Iraq had arsenals of chemical and biological weapons that posed an imminent threat to Americans, relying on what it said were intelligence reports to build its case for war before the American public and a skeptical international community.
However, no such stockpiles have been found and the CIA's lead arms hunter, David Kay, has since conceded that Iraq did not, in fact, maintain significant quantities of illicit arms.
Already, organizers said they had collected 450,000 signed petitions at their Web site, moveon.org .
"The Bush Administration ... is guilty of abusing intelligence and misrepresenting intelligence to the people of the United States and has engaged us in a war that we did not need to fight at that time and at that place," said Larry Johnson, a former deputy director of the State Department's Counterterrorism Office who is backing the petition drive.
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