Misleading statements on the war

[OnyxCougar]

http://www.house.gov/reform/min/pdfs...record_rep.pdf

For purposes of the
database, a statement is considered “misleading” if it conflicted with what
intelligence officials knew at the time or involved the selective use of intelligence
or the failure to include essential qualifiers or caveats.
The database does not include statements that appear mistaken only in hindsight.
If a statement was an accurate reflection of U.S. intelligence at the time it was
made, the statement is excluded from the database even if it now appears
erroneous.

Vice President Cheney made perhaps the single most egregious statement about
Iraq’s nuclear capabilities, claiming: “we know he has been absolutely devoted to
trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted
nuclear weapons.”20 He made this statement just three days before the war. He
did not admit until September 14, 2003, that his statement was wrong and that he
“did misspeak.”21

For example, Secretary Rumsfeld denied on July 13, 2003, that there
was “any debate” about Iraq’s nuclear capabilities within the Administration,
stating: “We said they had a nuclear program. That was never any debate.”23
Since the war ended, the Iraq Survey Group has been unable to find evidence of
the nuclear program described by the five officials. On October 2, 2003, David
Kay reported that “we have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook
significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile
material.”24 In his January 28, 2004, testimony, Dr. Kay reported that “[i]t was
not a reconstituted, full-blown nuclear program.”25 He added, “As best as has
been determined . . . in 2000 they had decided that their nuclear establishment had
deteriorated to such point that it was totally useless.”26 His conclusion was that
there was “no doubt at all” that Iraq had less of an ability to produce fissile
material in 2001 than in 1991.27