CNN: Did Bush/Blair blatantly lie about DS Minutes? - (VIDEO)

[dzika]

June 7, 2005

Video - CNN: Did Bush/Blair blatantly lie about DS Minutes?

In a joint press conference today, Bush and Blair were asked if they had "fixed the intelligence to fit the policy" as the Downing Street Minutes has shown.

I listened for the truth but never heard it.



Video in Real Media format (2 minutes)

Video in Windows Media format (2 minutes)

[Coexist]

1. thanks for the memory

....good times.

ARgh.

[bpilgrim]

37. notice bush points to himself when he says "He (Saddam) made the decision"

to go to war...

Another 'Tell'

peace

[Griffy]

41. you are SO right.. cant wait till IMPEACHMENT! nt

[otohara]

2. How Could We Do This Peacefully?

fucking liar.

[Coexist]

4. Grrrr

they keep making me angry. Randi talking calmly about it now.

[LifeDuringWartime]

7. how many pre-war bombing campaigns were there?

i read somewhere 87. there werent quite as many lies after that question was asked, but im sure if the conference were longer there would have been.

for somebody who knows, when did those 87 or so bombings begin, and when did they end?

[magellan]

53. The US carried out 78 airstrikes against Iraq in 2002

It comes from Jeremy Scahill's article The Other Bomb Drops for The Nation:

The Sunday Times of London recently reported on new evidence showing that "The RAF and US aircraft doubled the rate at which they were dropping bombs on Iraq in 2002 in an attempt to provoke Saddam Hussein into giving the allies an excuse for war." The paper cites newly released statistics from the British Defense Ministry showing that "the Allies dropped twice as many bombs on Iraq in the second half of 2002 as they did during the whole of 2001" and that "a full air offensive" was under way months before the invasion had officially begun.

...

On the eve of the official invasion, on March 8, 2003, Bush said in his national radio address: "We are doing everything we can to avoid war in Iraq. But if Saddam Hussein does not disarm peacefully, he will be disarmed by force." Bush said this after nearly a year of systematic, aggressive bombings of Iraq, during which Iraq was already being disarmed by force, in preparation for the invasion to come. By the Pentagon's own admission, it carried out seventy-eight individual, offensive airstrikes against Iraq in 2002 alone.

I don't think the airstrikes DID end. Probably more like they morphed into "shock & awe".

[Hapameli]

33. We wait for the verdict of the World Tribunal on Iraq, June 23-27

When the neocons are found guilty of all of their crimes, the world will have to decide their punishment.

All of the neo-cons will either have to never leave the country or face being impeached from the Hague.

Ray McGovern (and John Bonifaz, I'm sure) and the C.O.'s who will be testifying are well aware of the possibilities of the Tribunal. The Downing Street Memo is just the icing on the cake.

Somebody should ask Conyers about it.

[AuntiBush]

44. Wow. Here's the link for the World Tribunal!

Psst: Check this one out, too!

http://www.worldtribunal.org/main/?

snip

The World Tribunal on Iraq is collecting a definitive body of evidence on the illegality of the invasion and occupation that will be indispensable to the global anti-war movement, to conscientious objectors, and to students of history for years to come. Americans who oppose the war have a duty to support and participate in this crucial international effort to stand up to U.S. government lawlessness and impunity.

WTI is a horizontal network of local groups and individuals worldwide that work together in a non- hierarchical system. The project consists of commissions of inquiry and sessions held around the world investigating various issues related to the war on Iraq, such as the legality of the war, the role of the United Nations, war crimes and the role of the media.

On June 23rd to the 27th 2005, at the start of the third year of the occupation of Iraq, the culminating session will take place in Istanbul. This session will reach a decision following an examination of the results of the previous sessions as well as new reports and testimonies, while evaluating the implications of the aggression against Iraq for the world at large.



end snip

Thanks for that flash link "hapameli!"

[Hapameli]

48. AuntiBush, thanks for noticing! Its SO HUGE & nobody here knows about it

We need to get the word out and get DUers to endore it.

[Just Me]

57. Whoah. Is this the first I've heard of this body?

It's hard for me to believe I'd allow that to go down my memory hole!!!

I am making a note to watch for the activities in this tribunal.

THANKS!!! :bounce:

[Hapameli]

61. The World Tribunal has been going on for a year, verdict due on June 27

I wouldn't have thought so much about it, except that the same people who are involved with the DSM (C.O.'s, war resisters, Gold Star Families, Iraq Veterans Against War) are also involved on the jury of the Tribunal or giving testimony. Certain C.O.'s who've been in the news here on DU lately are among those who believe that the Neocons will be charged with war crimes.

Nuremberg Tribunal = World Tribunal on Iraq !!!

And it really IS that bad.

[stubtoe]

62. Yo, another great find from Aunti!

You are unstoppable! Thanks for digging this little gem up for us.

[bpilgrim]

3. ---------------- ----------------- ------------------ > MP3

http://news.globalfreepress.com/mp3/DSM/DSM-Bush-Blair.mp3

psst... pass the word ;->

peace

[Bethany Rockafella]

5. This video is only 2 minutes, so I take it none of the other reporters

pressed * or Blair on the DS minutes? Well I guess it's because we're not dealing with sex right?

[LunaC]

6. Come, get pissed with me

OF COURSE the bastards lied their asses off and I'VE HAD IT!

COME, GET PISSED WITH ME
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3807017

[htuttle]

8. "Blair: It's a two-way committment"

Bush: Yea, sure baby. I'll call you sometime.

[Karenina]

15. The visual...

[jillan]

20. Instead of PEZ, is that PREZ?

Thx for posting!:rofl:

[smartvoter]

9. "Before we went to the UN" is the frickin' point. nt

[DemoTex]

10. "Last option."

Bullshit! The world knows these two buffoons for the notorious liars they are.

[Imagevision]

11. Blair grabs the first response - Bush totally blows it - they're on

the defensive instead of simply explaining an honest response all Bush can think of is to say that Iraq is better without Saddam in power.

Tell that to the Iraqi people, of which 730+ were killed since they had their infamous election!! (April 28/05

[otohara]

12. Blair First Was So Planned

he just jumped in knowing Yanks won't understand one word he was saying, then our buffoon adds his two cents worth of "the world is better off w/o Saddam" and more of the same old lies.

[ok_cpu]

13. The * doth protest too much, methinks n/t

[DoYouEverWonder]

14. Just add this video

to the pile of evidence for their war crimes trials.

[Jack Rabbit]

16. They are lying, both of them

Especially Bush.

The Downing Street document is clear that the decision was made in Washington by the time Blair conducted this discussion. It is very clear that the case for war was "thin" and that facts and intelligence were being fixed around the policy. If the case was "thin", then that could only mean that the regime was engaged in willful dissembling.

Resolution 1441 was not a green light to go to war. If it had been, the British government would never have risked putting a second resolution before the Security Council, a resolution that actually authorized the use of force. Blair's gamble backfired on him and Bush; the resolution was withdrawn because it faced certain defeat. Bush and Blair proceeded to invade Iraq without authorization or anything remotely resembling a causus bellum. This was a very serious violation of international law.

Mr. Blair's statement that Saddam was violating international law in this respect is absurd. If he had no weapons, and he did not, then he was in compliance with all UN resolutions. Once he allowed inspectors to return to Iraq and cooperated with them, he was in compliance with 1441.

This brings us back to the Downing Street document. If the case was thin and Bush, Blair and their people needed to "fix" facts and intelligence to support the case, then their case for war in the Spring of 2003 was in fact inferior to the case against war in light of the failure of UN inspectors to locate any more serious violations of UN resolutions than some missiles that flew a little further than permitted under ideal circumstances that rendered them useless.

[Festivito]

59. And, yet they are not .. MY TRANSCRIPT

Note: Blair has already talked with PBS answering this same question prior to this news conference. NPR will later characterize these two statements as both were in agreement. (Sounds like a RNC soundbite).

Blair says NO, the facts were not being fixed.
. Perhaps the Intelligence (not facts) was being fixed,
. Perhaps it wasn't Blair who fixed it -- just not answering the question.
. Why is Blair answering if the US fixed US Intel?
Blair does not discredit the memo, nor its meaning by saying it came before the UN trip.
Blair was looking to avoid war (perhaps not hoping too hard for the sake of Halliburton).
Blair ends with a bunch of tripe which is okay, but boring.

Bush (didn't even read the whole 3-page memo)
. read .. There is "Nothing" farther from the truth .. Translation: There IS something there!
. I'm sure some just wanted to build the pipeline peacefully, and asked for it. So, they could have looked for a peaceful way out -- Cheney would then have to have said NO.
. The rest is just MEGO tripe.

They could be truthful, just not honest.

MY TRANSCRIPT (errors R me):
GWB: uhm Steve.
Q Steve?: Thank you sir. uh On Iraq, the ah so-called Dowing Street Memo from July 2002 says Intelligence and facts are being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military action is this an accurate reflection of what happened? could both of you respond?

TB: Well, I can respond to that uhm very easily. Uh, NO the facts were not being fixed in any shape or form at'all. uh, and let me remind you that that memoran uh memo um memorandum was written BEFORE we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately, the uh discussions that uh we were conducting as two countries at the time than me. And the fact is we decided to go to the united nations and went through that process which resulted in the November 2002 United nations resolution to give a final chance to Saddam Hussein to comply with International law. He didn't do so. Uhh and that was the reason why we had to take military action ahhhm but, you know, all the way through that period of time, we were trying to look for a way of managing to result this without conflict. As it happened we weren't able to do that because as, I think was very clear, there was no way that Saddam Husein was ever going to change the way that he worked, or the way that he acted.

GWB: Well, I, um ya know, I read you know the characterisations of the memo, particulary when they dropped it out in the middle of his race .. I'm not sure who they dropped it ou ih .. ah .. I'm not suggesting that you all dropped it out there ah, and ah ih somebody said, well, that we had made up our mind uh to go use military force to deal with Saddam .. there is nothing farther from the truth ... my conversations with the Prime Minister was how could we do this peacefully What could we do ...ih eh in this meeting that ah ah evidently took place ah in uh in London happened before we even went to the United Nations. ..er I went to the United Nations ..and so it's a wup ip a it's a ..both of us didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat.. it's the last option... the consequences of committing the military are ua are are very difficult. you know the hardest things I do as the president is to try to comfort families who've lost a loved one .. uh in combat ... It's the last option... that the president must have. and it's the last option I know my friend had as well ... and so we work hard to se uh um see to figure how to uh see how do this peacefully, to kinda you know put a united front up to Saaddam Husein and say the world speaks and he ignored the world number 1441 passed the security council unanimously. He made the decision and ahhh the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

...GWB then looks to Blair nods his head perhaps to assure himself of his own confidence...

EDIT PS: I hope Sen. Feingold manages better answers when he talks with Blair.

[DrDebug]

17. Bump / Nominated and signatured

[BigBearJohn]

18. Well, what did you expect them to say? "Hot damn! You caught us!"

[Imagevision]

26. Hot Damn? Nah! - nor; "I'm not a crook" Bush should have used

ear-piece with outside source feeding him because the man is totally lost when forced to rely on his own intelligence? --- that may be stretching it a bit.

When they got ya? -- they gotcha!

[CantGetFooledAgain]

19. You can practically smell the fear...

...from both of them. They were expecting the question, they got it, they booted the answer. They don't have an answer. They're backed into the corner, big time. And it's only going to get worse.

My prediction: the MSM smell blood and will start going after this now with increasing intensity.

Okay, I'm off to get myself a snack now. :popcorn:

[dalloway]

25. you are right. smelling the fear. they looked like two little boys

trying to lie themselves out a broken window, except something much bigger than a window has been broken.

[jazzjunkysue]

27. Something bigger than watergate, too. IMPEACH!!!!!

[psychopomp]

40. Absolutely! That image is spot-on

n/t

[althecat]

21. yes

[understandinglife]

22. Thank you for posting this dzika. Nominated.

Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us - We support Apian's goal of 10,000,000 signatures on Congressman Conyers letter by June 21, 2005; make it happen! http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/6/214643/6438

[understandinglife]

23. Chuckle: "Reuters Wins $1000 for Asking Bush/Blair About DSM"

Per Brad Blog:
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001443.htm

Just imagine them both in matching, bright orange overalls


Peace.


www.missionnotaccomplished.us

[psychopomp]

24. Thanks for this post

Needs to be seen in conjunction with this BBC video on Bliar and the conspiracy to go to war, imo.

Iraq, Tony & the Truth
http://www.overcast.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/warofterror/iraqtonytruth.htm

[jazzjunkysue]

28. Who asked? Or, who's driving off a bridge tonight?

[Junkdrawer]

29. Did Tony Blair and Bush acknowledge that THE MINUTES ARE REAL...

Wasn't that the main question Conyers asked?

Well, that's done. What's next?

[shifting_sands]

30. Wonder if they smelled the crap they were in

I have raised a passel of kids and worked with a bunch more, the one thing you become really good at recognizing is a lie. If you watch and listen carefully to that video again you will see and hear in a millisecond Tony Blair take a deep sigh as Laural passed the question off to Hardy. Bush kept nervously looking at Tony for I guess support as he stammered and stuttered his response and his eyes were darting around constantly. I also think he said "the hardest thing he has to do is counsel families who have lost a loved one" I don't think he's done that, in fact that's been a criticism.

The only time Bush looked or sounded positive and strong was when he could repeat a statement he had permanently tattooed on his tongue in 2003 "the world is better off without Saddam." Course if you have ever told and been caught in a lie, you have to feel a little sympathy (not much)but a little for the sweat you knew was running down their backs.

[progressoid]

Well that settles it then! Lets concentrate on Micheal Jackson people.

:banghead:

[bunny planet]

31. Oh yes they did.

Lied, blatantly.

Something tells me Tony, this ain't gonna play too well back home. He just called high level members of his cabinet liars by denying the minutes veracity.
Oops.

[Nothing Without Hope]

32. To complement this, listen to the Bushies' lying voices in the runup

to the Iraq War. LIE after LIE after LIE - this powerful video was produced before the Nov 2004 election, but it is vitally relevant today, after exposure of the DSM, too. The name of this production is "Remind Us." If you haven't heard it yet, I strongly suggest you watch and listen:

http://www.peacecandy.com/gwbush/remindus/

[driver8]

39. Holy Shit -- its the Liar's Club!!

Every one of them...lie, lie, lie. They all stood there with a straight face, looked the citizens of America in the eyes and fucking lied to us. They didn't even think twice about it...they knew what they wanted to do and nothing was going to stand in their way.

Guilty -- all of them. Guilty, guilty, guilty! I dream of the day when these motherfuckers get what they deserve.

[spacelady]

34. And it's STILL hard work! n/t

[bleever]

35. Thank you!! Watch Tony blinking and shaking his head like Condi

as he lies about how they were looking for a way to avoid war!

Watch the shrub as he monkeys up while trying to cover up his "Fuck Saddam, we're taking him out".

It would be funny, except for all the dead, innocent people crushed under the wheels of the neocon war engine.

[gatorboy]

36. Bush's answer to the question.

Seriously, could he sound more moronic then he does here? He simply parrots what Blair had just said :puke:

BUSH: Well, you know, I read, kind of, the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I’m not sure who they dropped it out is, but I’m not suggesting that you all dropped it out there.

(LAUGHTER)

And somebody said, Well, you know, we had made up our mind to go to use military force to deal with Saddam. There’s nothing farther from the truth.

My conversations with the prime minister was how could we do this peacefully, what could we do.

And this meeting, evidently it took place in London, happened before we even went to the United Nations – or I went to the United Nations.

And so it’s – look, both of us didn’t want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. That’s the last option.

The consequences of committing the military are very difficult. You know, one of the hardest things I do as the president is to try to comfort families who’ve lost a loved one in combat.

It’s the last option that the president must have, and it’s the last option I know my friend had as well.

And so we worked hard to see if we could figure how to do this peacefully, to put a united front up to Saddam Hussein, so the world speaks. And he ignored the world. Remember, 1441 passed the Security Council unanimously. He made the decision. And the world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.

He read....kind of??? Oy.

[spacelady]

38. The more you watch this, the worse it sounds, who has heard this without

dropping their jaw and covering their eyes, and shaking their head? I mean we all knew this, but to hear it fall blatantly out of Blair's and Bush's mouths is just surreal.

[Straight Shooter]

42. What I want to know is, WHAT THE HELL IS SO DAMNED FUNNY?

BUSH: Well, you know, I read, kind of, the characterizations of the memo, particularly when they dropped it out in the middle of his race. I’m not sure who they dropped it out is, but I’m not suggesting that you all dropped it out there.

(LAUGHTER)

What is wrong with those people? Over a hundred thousand Iraqis dead, we're well on our way to Two Thousand Dead U.S. Soldiers. These people make me sick!

[Hailtothechimp]

43. He doesn't speak with the seriousness these troops deserve.

They are dying for him, and he laughs it off like you laugh off a crazy uncle or something. THERE'S NOTHING ABOUT THIS THAT'S HARD FOR HIM.

[halobeam]

45. the way they are lying outright like this is scary...

makes me think they will take FULL control over their own people, before they would be held accountable for this. They didn't look like they had a worry in the world, to me. I did hear defensiveness in Bush's voice for a bit, which he usually never is, he doesn't bother pretending he cares or is obligated to answer a question he doesn't want to. So, why the defense? Maybe because that's what he's supposed to do/say/look like, as if he "respects" the question enough to answer it.

It's all so depressing. My kids have to live through the mess of this all a lot longer than I do, that's what saddens me most. Then there are the other kids, who went to Iraq and didn't come home.

Oh God.

[AuntiBush]

46. Yes, Bu$h & bLAIR LIED about DS Minutes Documentation Proof!

[oioioi]

47. "We did not have sex with that woman..."

Blair: "No the facts were not being fixed, in any shape or form at all."

Bush: "I read kinda the characterizations of the memo..." :shrug:

"Somebody said that we'd made up our mind to use military force to deal with Saddam. There's nothing farther from the truth. My conversations with the Prime Minister was how can we do this peacefully".

"Both of us didn't want to use our military. Nobody wants to commit military into combat. It's the last option."

"We worked hard to see if we could figure out how to do this peacefully".

"The world is better off without Saddam Hussein in power".

[Helga Scow Stern]

49. I heard this on NPR today and it sounded like lies....

Bush even resorted to his whine--"it's hard work" consoling families.

"War is the last option..." It's very difficult, consoling families.

But seeing them say it makes the lies doubly obvious.

Blair sounded halfway sincere on the radio, although I knew he was lying. Seeing him tell the lies, though, his eyes have that shallow, nervous look. May as well wear a sign on his forehead, blinking off and on, "I AM LYING."

And Bush was so obviously trying his usual defense of big lies...that high-pitched voice he gets. He just looked doubly ridiculous and guilty in the visuals. They both had the upside down smile of liars, and used too much force to try and convince.

People who are telling the truth, when accused of something not true, become very serious and humble. They do not try to convince, they either say very little, or speak with an economy of words.

[nolabels]

60. Keep on squeezing them MAGGOTS till they pop

We have spent YEARS with all this but I have to say that after watching the video that they are much farther down the rope today.

[LeahD]

50. They make me want to upchuck.

How dare they? Omniscient, condescending, placating....it's all so very sick and demented. F *

[GeorgeGist]

51. Blair: It's a two-way commitment

Yes and you're the one who's always taking it up the *ss. What a schmuck.

[Disturbed]

52. " And he ignored the world. Remember, 1441"...

My memory is bad so help me out, please. Wasn't there a guy named Hans Blix in Iraq doing a WMD inspection and Saddam was complying to it?

[hnsez]

54. Impeachment is too nice - Remember what happened to Mussolini?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

55. Did they lie?

I don't know. Were their lips moving?

My favorite part was Blair's lame-ass excuse that they followed a very open process in the United Nations. What Tony forgot to mention was that the U.S. never allowed the final resolution to come to a vote because we knew we were going to lose. The "open" process was never concluded.

[cthrumatrix]

56. there are soooo many facts to used.... corp. media refrains from

going there again...the question is why?

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

58. I think there's another thread on this topic...

But I think it's because the media was somewhere between complicit in the lies or grossly incompetent in their coverage. As much as I'd like to blame BushCo for Iraq, the fact is that fish gotta swim and birds gotta fly. Of course the Bush Administration lied on behalf of the oil industry -- is there anybody who thought they wouldn't? The media, on the other hand, is supposed to at least attempt to tell the truth. I blame the mainstream media for their complicity in what happened.