Democrats.com Offers $1,000 Reward to Any Reporter Who Will Ask Follow-Up Question to Bush
David Swanson
February 06, 2006
At a White House press conference on June 7, 2005, Steve Holland of Reuters asked President Bush and Prime Minister Blair the $1,000 question: (1)
"On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street Memo from July, 2002, says 'Intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military actions.' Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?"
The responses that first Blair and then Bush gave were widely reported by the White House press corps. But a new "White House Memo," reported in the British media on Feb. 2, 2006 (2), has now exposed both responses as lies.
Blair brushed aside, and Bush did not speak at all to, the first part of the question: that the "intelligence and facts" had been "fixed." (3)
Instead, Bush and Blair tried to rebut the second part of the question: that there was a "policy of removing Saddam through military actions" at the time of the Downing Street Memo on July 23, 2002 - 8 months before Bush and Blair actually invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003.
To rebut the existence of a plan for war in July 2002, Blair insisted their plan was to avoid war by resolving their concerns about Iraq peacefully through the United Nations Security Council. (4)
"[L]et me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that 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." (5)
Bush also chose the second part of the question - whether there was a "policy of removing Saddam through military actions" - and ignored the first part about the "intelligence and facts" being "fixed":
"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. (6)
"On Iraq, the so-called Downing Street Memo from July, 2002, says 'Intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy of removing Saddam through military actions.' Is this an accurate reflection of what happened? Could both of you respond?"
The responses that first Blair and then Bush gave were widely reported by the White House press corps. But a new "White House Memo," reported in the British media on Feb. 2, 2006 (2), has now exposed both responses as lies.
Blair brushed aside, and Bush did not speak at all to, the first part of the question: that the "intelligence and facts" had been "fixed." (3)
Instead, Bush and Blair tried to rebut the second part of the question: that there was a "policy of removing Saddam through military actions" at the time of the Downing Street Memo on July 23, 2002 - 8 months before Bush and Blair actually invaded Iraq on March 19, 2003.
To rebut the existence of a plan for war in July 2002, Blair insisted their plan was to avoid war by resolving their concerns about Iraq peacefully through the United Nations Security Council. (4)
"[L]et me remind you that that memorandum was written before we then went to the United Nations. Now, no one knows more intimately the discussions that 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." (5)
Bush also chose the second part of the question - whether there was a "policy of removing Saddam through military actions" - and ignored the first part about the "intelligence and facts" being "fixed":
"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. (6)
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