Rove claims Bush administration never said Iraqi oil would help pay for war

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Run time: 01:26 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6lJjFPNv1s   Posted on YouTube: March 14, 2010 By YouTube Member: ThinkProgress2 Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: March 14, 2010 By DU Member: Amerigo Vespucci Views on DU: 3650

 

Rove claims Bush administration never said Iraqi oil would help pay for war

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/03/14/rove-iraq-oil/

Rove Falsely Claims Bush Administration Never Said Iraqi Oil Revenue Would Help Pay For War

In his new book and in recent media appearances promoting it, former top Bush aide Karl Rove has been revising the history of the Iraq war, particularly regarding the issue of Saddam Hussien’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

Today on NBC’s Meet the Press, Rove continued with his Iraq war history revision campaign. Noting that the Bush administration had mishandled the management of the war, host Tom Brokaw mentioned that “the cost of the war skyrocketed almost from the beginning. There was not a sharing of the oil revenue that a lot of people had promised.” But Rove flatly denied that the Bush administration said Iraqi oil revenues would help pay for the war:

ROVE: No, no. Tom with all due respect that was not the policy of our government that we were going to go into Iraq and take their resources in order to pay for the cost of the war. … he suggestion that somehow or another the administration had as its policy, “We’re going to go in to Iraq and take their resource and pay for the war” is not accurate.

Rove’s claim is simply not true. In fact, days after the U.S. invasion, then-Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz told a congressional panel that Iraqi oil revenues would help pay for reconstructing the country, i.e. a cost of the war. “The oil revenue of that country could bring between 50 and 100 billion dollars over the course of the next two or three years. We’re dealing with a country that could really finance its own reconstruction, and relatively soon,” he said.

One month before the war, then-White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Iraq “is a rather wealthy country. … And so there are a variety of means that Iraq has to be able to shoulder much of the burden for their own reconstruction.”

Since the start of the Iraq war, the U.S. has spent tens of billions of dollars in reconstruction costs

[aquart]

1. LOL! So 1984.

[bulloney]

19. Idiots like Rove just say anything to cover their arses. Fortunately, a websearch flushes this out.

The sad part is, our MSM gerbils rarely do their homework and these lies go unchallenged.

That stinkin' librul media.

[teknomanzer]

36. Exactly what I was thinking!

The republican party should just rename themselves INGSOC

I am left astounded by the fact that someone would just lied to your god-damned face like that. But what I want to know is -- what the fuck is wrong with Brokaw? I am so sick of the politeness... professional courtesy or whatever the hell it is that keeps him from telling that repugnant evolutionary mistep that he is a liar -- and warning him that if he continues to lie he will get slapped on live TV until the truth comes out. I know we have shit on tape to prove it, and the use of force may SEEM excessive -- but the beating and public humuliation that Rove deserves has been put off for too long.

I hear some of his associates claim waterboarding is useful for extacting the TRUTH... you know what they say about geese and ganders.

[EFerrari]

41. The best part is that, because of their message discipline

they probably ALL said it. I know Wolfie did and Rumsfeld did and Arie did. I've seen those clips.

[rfranklin]

2. He's constructing his own reality...while we watch in awe...

But seriously, can't somebody, please, shut this stupid criminal a-hole up?

[RoccoR5955]

3. You left out the part where Rove's pants caught fire! n/t

[tomm2thumbs]

4. Uh oh, here comes the Lie Police...

Don't put him in the same cell with Massa - they might go snorkeling

[EFerrari]

39. Wolfowitz said it flat out. The clip has to be somewhere.

"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."

* Congressional Testimony, March 27, 2003

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Paul_Wolfowitz

The Nation has a whole article with quotes but it's subscription. :(

March 13, 2008

The following quotes were compiled by Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky in their capacity as CEO and president of the Institute of Expertology, which has just issued a report on the experts who were wrong about Iraq--before, during and after the invasion--under the title Mission Accomplished! Or, How We Won the War in Iraq; The Experts Speak (Simon & Schuster). Here, the "experts" speak about the costs of war.

"Iraq is a very wealthy country. Enormous oil reserves. They can finance, largely finance the reconstruction of their own country. And I have no doubt that they will."

Richard Perle, chair
The Pentagon's Defense Policy Board
July 11, 2002

http://74.6.146.127/search/cache?ei=UTF-8&p=Wolfowitz+war+will+pay+for+itself&fr=yfp-t-701&SpellState=n-3165848138_q-ZNXqJhEBjpuTf6E25TSzIAAAAA%40%40&u=www.thenation.com/doc/20080331/navasky_cerf&w=wolfowitz+war+wars+will+pay+itself&d=RadM1u_EUZZD&icp=1&.intl=us&sig=VXvZ7skc7yL6tNdx3rO7zw--

Vanity Fair

In the run-up to the war there were few public discussions of the likely price tag. When Lawrence Lindsey, President Bush’s economic adviser, suggested that it might reach $200 billion all told, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld dismissed the estimate as “baloney.” Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz went as far as to suggest that Iraq’s postwar reconstruction would pay for itself through increased oil revenues. Rumsfeld and Office of Management and Budget Director Mitch Daniels estimated the total cost of the war in the range of $50 to $60 billion, some of which they believed would be financed by other countries.

http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/04/stiglitz200804

A film, Leading to War

Assurance #1: The Iraq War won’t cost a lot of money

• RUMSFELD: The Office of Management and Budget estimated it would be something under $50 billion dollars.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Outside estimates say up to $300 billion.

RUMSFELD: Baloney.


• Testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, March 27, 2003:

WOLFOWITZ: There’s a lot of money to pay for this. It doesn’t have to be U.S. taxpayer money. And it starts with the assets of the Iraqi people... We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.

http://www.leadingtowar.com/war_rosecolored.php

I'm looking in the CSPAN archives. It's there somewhere.

[louis-t]

5. Gee, maybe if Brokaw had done his homework....

Maybe if he had backup questions and had the quotes from Fleischer and Wolfowitz and the other zombies in the bush clan that no doubt parroted these statements, he could be considered a 'journalist'.

[tomm2thumbs]

6. Both 'This Week' and 'Meet the Press' are becoming megaphones for book sales

This is 'Must Ignore TV' - and I happily comply now after years of watching when real issues were discussed. Not anymore.

[PatSeg]

7. That's okay, no one remembers what the Bush

administration said............no wait, YES they do, unless of course, I was living in some alternate reality.

[Old and In the Way]

8. Liar

Andrew Natsios told us the total cost to taxpayers would be $1.7 billion. Maybe he meant $1.7 trillion?

http://www.fas.org/sgp/temp/natsios042303.html

TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) Well, it's a, I think you'll agree, this is a much bigger project than any that's been talked about. Indeed, I understand that more money is expected to be spent on this than was spent on the entire Marshall Plan for the rebuilding of Europe after World War II.

ANDREW NATSIOS
No, no. This doesn't even compare remotely with the size of the Marshall Plan.

TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) The Marshall Plan was $97 billion.

ANDREW NATSIOS
This is 1.7 billion.

TED KOPPEL
(Off Camera) All right, this is the first. I mean, when you talk about 1.7, you're not suggesting that the rebuilding of Iraq is gonna be done for $1.7 billion?

ANDREW NATSIOS
Well, in terms of the American taxpayers contribution, I do, this is it for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries who have already made pledges, Britain, Germany, Norway, Japan, Canada, and Iraqi oil revenues, eventually in several years, when it's up and running and there's a new government that's been democratically elected, will finish the job with their own revenues. They're going to get in $20 billion a year in oil revenues. But the American part of this will be 1.7 billion. We have no plans for any further-on funding for this.

[GreenTea]

9. Rove is a republican. i.e., A liar, a greedy hateful elitist corporate fascist.....

I'm sure elitist Nazi Rove is very proud and believes these are great attributes to have for Nazi's & republicans alike....That's the mentality and republican ideology we are dealing with, an agenda of elitist lies to benefit only themselves and their corporations.

These are ugly cold-hearted racist creatures, republicans are.

[Name removed]

26. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[keopeli]

27. That's just out of line.

Maybe you don't like Obama, which is fine. But, if that's the case, why don't you go elsewhere to spend your time? Otherwise, comparing him to being Rove's best friend in such a way is just vile and unproductive, to say the least.

:thumbsdown:

[perdita9]

10. Question for Main Stream Media Outlets

Why do you keep putting liars on the air? Have you no standards when it comes to guests? Don't you think your audience deserves the truth?

[liberal N proud]

11. I think they believe that nothing they said was ever recorded

[Grassy Knoll]

12. Yup.......

[AlbertCat]

13. We're simply gonna disagree on this one...

says Rove as Tom wimpily tried to not be confrontational by...oh... calling out Rove's lie.

What is this show again? "Bleat the Press" or "Meet the Puss"?



There's no grey area here. Rove is lying. Disagree with reality all you want. Reality wins.

[bulloney]

20. I call it "Press the Meat." That's all Gregory and Brokaw do with their Repub guests.

[FreakinDJ]

14. LOL - "The Mother of all Lies"

[AlinPA]

15. He forgot that he was not on Fox "News" where the stupid, drooling knuckle-dragging

asshole viewers believe everything he says.

[thelordofhell]

16. rove, "Are you going to believe me or your lying eyes and ears."

Burn in hell, you lying dipshit. This fuck can't travel out of the country anymore for fear of being arrested by patriotic citizens OF OTHER COUNTRIES who know he's a war criminal.

:argh:

[sulphurdunn]

17. Even children

are corrected by parents and teachers when they deny or lie about something they did. This simple standard does not apply to the retainers of the Bush family in their relationship with corporate media. Rather, they are endlessly paraded before the public and permitted to repeat such lies and denials by very wealthy propaganda whores posing as journalists.

[tomm2thumbs]

18. Brokaw can't even pronounce Congressman Weiner's name - who has been in the forefront

If they can't get someone legit to the run the show at the political level things run on, especially given the issues, let's just not have the show that week. It undermines the show's relevance when Brokaw phones it in.

[Subdivisions]

21. Fuck you Brokaw, you has-been piece of dogshit. Why do you let him

get away with that shit? Where's the fucking video of the chimp admin saying it? Where is it, Tom? Why don't you just fucking go away already?

[livingonearth]

22. This is sad and scary

Our nation's history being rewritten by one of the most sinister lying pieces of crap to walk the earth.
This is how our country will be sent down the tubes if we let it continue.

[pattmarty]

23. Tom Brokaw is a fucking useless idiot. He never was much of a.........

........"newsman", and now after seeing him today and on other "guest" appearances on NBC/MSNBC I believe he is getting senile.

[EFerrari]

40. It's not senility. It's trademark mendacity. n/t

[PSzymeczek]

24. Um, Karl,

There's this semi-recent invention called videotape. We can record peoples words and archive them for many years. Videotape exists upon which we have recorded multiple people saying that the war would be paid for with the proceeds from Iraqi oil.

[SlingBlade]

25. War Criminal !

[thecrow]

28. Doesn't Brokaw have the clip of Wolfie saying that???

Or can't he show clips on his show?
I suggest we all send him clips or youtube links!
Rove would have been nailed to the lie so fast and hard.


Edit:
Here's a link to send TOm a clip or quote:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10285339/

[onlyadream]

29. Very sad when you have to get real reporting from Comedy Central

Hopefully Jon will create a truth montage.

[ScottLand]

30. A coupla more years and they can say Clinton ordered

the invasion of Iraq.

[Stumbler]

32. Yep.

At this point they've already claimed "no terrorist attacks occurred during Bush's presidency." ...because 9/11 was either not a terrorist attack or it happened on Clinton's watch, obviously..

[ScottLand]

33. I still can't believe that one, but the most ridiculous

idea is that the right-wing sheep don't question it. Their logic about what counts as a terrorist attack in Bush's term and what counts in Obama's term is astounding.

[The Wizard]

31. He starts out lying

and it's all downhill from there. Everything changes once the lying starts.

[louis-t]

34. Notice, rove says "pay for the war"

Fleischer and Wolfie say "pay for reconstruction". Two different things.

[Jack Rabbit]

35. Rove: Who's Paul Wolfowitz?

I understand that in the Rover's account of the war, there is no memtion of Ahmed Chalabi.

[Jello Biafra]

37. Huh?....n/t

[Jefferson23]

38. What I would give to see this twisted thinking bastard on trial.