Bush tried to rewrite history yesterday by

saying:

Today in the

Washington Post, we find out he stretched the truth on that line.

President Bush and his national security adviser have answered critics of
the Iraq war in recent days with a two-pronged argument: that Congress saw
the same intelligence the administration did before the war, and that
independent commissions have determined that the administration did not
misrepresent the intelligence.

Neither assertion is wholly accurate.

The administration’s overarching point is true: Intelligence agencies
overwhelmingly believed that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction,
and very few members of Congress from either party were skeptical about this
belief before the war began in 2003. Indeed, top lawmakers in both parties
were emphatic and certain in their public statements.

But Bush and his aides had access to much more voluminous intelligence
information than did lawmakers, who were dependent on the administration to
provide the material. And the commissions cited by officials, though
concluding that the administration did not pressure intelligence analysts to
change their conclusions, were not authorized to determine whether the
administration exaggerated or distorted those conclusions

View complete article

here.

No wonder why only 33% (according to the latest

Newsweek poll) of the people feel Bush is honest.

Shortly after the attacks on September 11, Bush signed a memo limiting the
intelligence available to Congress, which sparked a heated debate.

A dispute over the Bush administration’s control of information since the
Sept. 11 terrorist strikes erupted into an angry exchange between the White
House and Congress yesterday after President Bush moved to restrict
intelligence shared with lawmakers.

Members from both parties objected strongly to Bush’s highly unusual step
of ordering that briefings with sensitive information be limited to just
eight of the 535 members of Congress. The memo was signed by Bush on Friday
following a report in the Washington Post that intelligence officials told
lawmakers there was a “100 percent” likelihood of further terrorist strikes.

“To put out a public document telling the world he doesn’t trust the
Congress and we leak everything, I’m not sure that helps develop unanimity
and comradeship,” said Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb. “We have to have classified
briefings if we’re going to do our oversight role,” said Senate Armed
Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin, D-Mich.

NewBank article (membership required)

Now why would Bush have limited intelligence back then and now say Democrats
have the same access to intelligence that the White House has? It appears as
though Bush limited the intelligence available to Congress in 2001 in order to
filter what they say in the coming year on Iraq.

Again we see that Bush’s comments yesterday were not only partisan attacks
but also flat out lies.

Harry Reid’s office has already started countering Bush’s speech. Here are
some of the facts they produced that shows Bush lied in his speech (hat tip to

Raw Story)

President Bush said today that Democrats in Congress “had access to the
same intelligence” as he did in deciding to go to war in Iraq. [Bush,
11/11/05]

Fact: Congress did not have access to the same intelligence the Bush
Administration did. And intelligence passed through the White House before
getting to Congress.

According to Bob Woodward’s Plan of Attack:

The Bush Administration showed Saudi Prince Bandar more intelligence than
was shown to Congress. (p. 264.)

Senators Not Shown the National Intelligence Estimate Until Three Days
Before the Iraq War Vote. It is not until October 8, 2002, three days before
the Senate vote on the Iraq war resolution, and after debate has already
started, that 47+ senators are briefed or shown the entire NIE with its key
judgment that Iraq “has chemical and biological weapons,” writes Woodward.
(p. 203)

With actions like this, the President must be trying to beat Nixon’s approval
rating of 27%. Thank you Bush for taking advantage of a day to honor our
veterans by lying to the American people.