Please thank Sen. Levin for uncovering lies at the heart of the Iraq war

Here is the link to Sen. Carl Levin's webpage about Bush’s misleading use of pre-war intelligence known to be unreliable and which (the NYT reports) was obtained through torture: <http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/release.cfm?id=248339>

Key dates and facts:

In February 2002 Bush received a Defense Intelligence Agency briefing informing him that the torture-induced admission of Ibn al-Shaykh (also known as al-Libi) which supposedly established a link between Iraq and al Qaida was "intentionally misleading":

"This is the first report from Ibn al-Shaykh in which he claims Iraq assisted al-Qaida CBRN (i.e., Chemical, Biological, Radiological or Nuclear) efforts. However, he lacks specific details on the Iraqis involved, the CBRN materials associated with the assistance, and the location where training occurred. It is possible he does not know any further details; it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers. Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest."

See the document: <http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2005/DIAletter.102605.pdf>

In July 2002 the Downing Street Memo confirms that Bush was manipulating intelligence to justify the war in Iraq:

"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."

See the document: <http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/docs/memotext.pdf>

In October 2002 Bush gave a major pre-war speech in Cincinnati where he told America and the world that war against Iraq was justified because a high level al Qaeda leader (al-Libi) told us "that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases" despite the fact that Bush knew that al-Libi's torture-induced statements were "intentionally misleading":

"We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade. Some al Qaeda leaders who fled Afghanistan went to Iraq. These include one very senior al Qaeda leader who received medical treatment in Baghdad this year, and who has been associated with planning for chemical and biological attacks. We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases."

See the document: <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html>

In February 2003 Bush often repeated this lie:

See the documents: <http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2005/adminstmts.IraqalQaeda.110605.pdf>, <http://levin.senate.gov/newsroom/supporting/2005/adminstmts.CBW.110605.pdf>

In March 2003 America invaded Iraq resulting in tens of thousands of innocent civilian casualties in addition to well over 2000 US military deaths.

Please read the documents.

Please spread the truth.

Please thank Sen. Carl Levin for his work in uncovering the truth behind Bush's misuse of torture-induced unreliable confessions to justify our otherwise unjustifiable invasion of Iraq: <http://levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm>

Please keep this kicked if you don't mind.

For fighting the good (if futile) fight to make our primaries fair and equal.

Thank you Senator.

Senator :yourock:

into one enormous unified scandal. Not only did Bush use torture (which he has falsely denied), and not only did he manipulate the pre-war intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq (which he has falsely denied), but he used torture to create false evidence which he used to wrongfuly promote the Iraq war.

The Bush administration based a crucial prewar assertion about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda on detailed statements made by a prisoner while in Egyptian custody who later said he had fabricated them to escape harsh treatment, according to current and former government officials. The officials said the captive, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, provided his most specific and elaborate accounts about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda only after he was secretly handed over to Egypt by the United States in January 2002, in a process known as rendition. The new disclosure provides the first public evidence that bad intelligence on Iraq may have resulted partly from the administration's heavy reliance on third countries to carry out interrogations of Qaeda members and others detained as part of American counterterrorism efforts. The Bush administration used Mr. Libi's accounts as the basis for its prewar claims, now discredited, that ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda included training in explosives and chemical weapons. ... American officials had not previously acknowledged either that Mr. Libi made the false statements in foreign custody or that Mr. Libi contended that his statements had been coerced.
...
A classified Defense Intelligence Agency report issued in February 2002 that expressed skepticism about Mr. Libi's credibility on questions related to Iraq and Al Qaeda was based in part on the knowledge that he was no longer in American custody when he made the detailed statements, and that he might have been subjected to harsh treatment, the officials said.
...
In statements before the war, and without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state, and other officials repeatedly cited the information provided by Mr. Libi as "credible" evidence that Iraq was training Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons. Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that "we've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases." The question of why the administration relied so heavily on the statements by Mr. Libi has long been a subject of contention. Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, made public last month unclassified passages from the February 2002 document, which said it was probable that Mr. Libi "was intentionally misleading the debriefers." The document showed that the Defense Intelligence Agency had identified Mr. Libi as a probable fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims about ties between Iraq and Al Qaeda involving illicit weapons. Mr. Levin has since asked the agency to declassify four other intelligence reports, three of them from February 2002, to see if they also expressed skepticism about Mr. Libi's credibility.

2002 Defense Intelligence Agency briefing declassified?

You fight for me! :hi:


and Lord knows we need some "fighters" not appeasers right about now!

and he kicks ass on our behalf regularly. I'm proud he's one of my Senators.

:toast: Julie

I've always liked both of them.

Back in the Reagan days, he was busy uncovering unnecessary spending in the Pentagon-remember the $600 toilet seats, or whatever the price was? Levin uncovered that back in the 80s. He's a great senator.