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George W Bush: To those of you who received honors, awards and distinctions, I say, well done, And to the 'C' students, I say: you too can be president of the United States!” Norman MAILER, writer we have the worst president in America’s history. He’s ignorant, he’s arrogant, he’s stupid in all ways except one, which is he’s incredibly shrewd about the American people, particularly the less intelligent half of America because they’re very happy about him, in that they realize how stupid he is and they say to themselves: ‘Wonderful. If that stupid guy can be president, then so can I”. Robert STEELE , CIA, covert operations we have elected a puppet for president. Actually we didn’t elect him, he was appointed: his brother Jeb stole 50 000 votes in Florida and his father’s supreme court appointed him Michael LEDEEN, former advisor to president Reagan you know if God has spoken to you and said : “You are going to be president” you didn’t have to worry about court decision or recounts or anything like that. All right . so he became president but he didn’t know why and on Sept 11th he discovered why Archives : George W Bush's farewell ceremony in Texas George W Bush : “ this is my last stop on the way to Washington to serve as your president. I’m excited about the work. I’ll come back to see you soon, god bless you. narration : In January 2001, Georges W. Bush left his native Texas for Washington. He had just won the most controversial and muddled election in American political history. title : the world according to Bush narration : 8 years after his father, George Bush Snr., George W. became leader of the most powerful nation on earth. This was an unprecedented event in American history. All the major events of the last 12 years have taken place under a Bush presidency: the collapse of the Soviet empire and the communist bloc; the first Gulf war; the events of 9/11 ; the worldwide spread of terrorism and the second war with Iraq… Archives : Bush at Robison's Life today : George Bush : “they can pray for me, they can pray for my little girls, they can pray for my wife, they can pray for our family Robison : lets do that, lets do that together even now for this leader and all of them, we ask you to bless our leader, to direct our leader, to redirect when necessary our leader, to correct our leader, to comfort him to protect, him and his family. God we ask you not to only fill their hearts with love but lend them feel love from my heart through them. I pray this leader our governor Bush, we want him never looks for the opportunity to strike out someone but rather to make a mark for good and a mark for right. Bless him and his family and protect him. In Jesus’ name” James ROBISON, televangelist when he was asked in one of the Presidential debates who he admired most as a philosopher or someone in history, he said Jesus Christ. He said it because he does admire His character, His principles, the practice of His life. He really had an encounter with God. He did acknowledge that he did battle with perhaps excessive alcohol and drinking. He not for a moment ever implied to me or publicly that he was an alcoholic but he told me that it was a problem. He said that faith and his relationship with God had changed his life. Michael LEDEEN, former advisor to president Reagan he is the spoiled child of a rich family and while he was growing up he has an (...) full of fun lot of parties, lot of girls , lot of alcohol : normal story. At a certain point, he had a religious experience, God spoke to him and said : “prepare yourself I have a mission for you” and he stopped drinking and he stopped . Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations he considered he turned themselves around because of religion and he deals with a lot of very conservative people. And they truly believe that they are right stills archives : George W Bush with a lightning cross and George W Bush - wearing a chasuble - prays narration : In an interview with an Austin newspaper, George W. declared: "I'm invested with a divine mission : to promote a biblical world view in the policy carried out by the USA." David Frum, Bush's speechwriter, witnessed the president in the Oval Office telling members of Protestant congregations how God had saved him from booze. David FRUM, President Bush's speechwriter he said “you know I shouldn’t be here, I should be in a bar store in Texas and I’m only here because of the power of prayer, because I found God” Charles LEWIS, Center for Public Integrity the religiosity has a genuine quality to it. It has affected his life .he does feel it in a deep way and a lot of born again Christians who’ve met with Bush come away believing he’s like them, he is them. BAER Everybody prays. The first thing in the morning. They're believers. They're believers! And they pray in the White House. Stills archives : George W Bush stands against the light, Prayer before cabinet meeting narration: Bush declared during his campaign that "Heaven is open only to those who accept Jesus Christ". John Ashcroft, his Attorney General, proclaimed, "We have no King but Jesus". At the White House, cabinet meetings took on an air of prayer meetings where, in between readings from the Old and New Testaments, those in the room managed the affairs of America and the world. FRUM When I entered into the West wing the very first thing I was said is: “you’re missed bible study”; because they will have, the evangelicals have a weekly bible study with their Christian fellowship and religion was very important in that staff, very important to the president. Jim HOAGLAND, The Washington Post I think that Bush overdoes the religious aspect…it makes me uneasy and I think it makes many Americans uneasy FRUM it is not true that George Bush goes down on his knees and asks God: “What should I do?” the idea that God gives him every morning an agenda, no, George Bush does not think like that but you he finds his source of strength in religious faith Archives : George W Bush at the cathedral Joseph TRENTO, historian I mean, this administration religion kowtows to religion, to extreme religion. Sam GWYNNE, journalist Bush is strongest, his base, his strong base is the religious conservative right wing. Archives: McAteer shakes hand and speaks from a platform narration: Ed McAteer, who lives in Memphis, is a Christian Zionist. He withdrew his support from George W. because he rejects Dick Cheney as a suitable vice-president. His reasoning is quite surprising. Ed McATEER, Christian Coalition Bush says that he is against homosexuality. Yet he picked a Vice President whose daughter is a lesbian. Now I tell people I’m not blaming the father for that but George Bush knew that when he picked him, and so during the Republican convention that was played over and over that lesbian girl, and she’s seen all over the country, people know that. Archives : 2000 republican convention (Dick Cheney and his daughter Mary) Arnaud de BORCHGRAVE, Washington Times all of this is disturbing to many people but it happened to be a fact that the president is part of the Christian right. Archives : Falwell speaks from a platform narration: The founder of the Moral Majority, Jerry Falwell, blamed "pagans, gays and lesbians" in the September 11 attacks. Bush declared, "Let us ask for God's wisdom and presence in what we are undertaking. This crusade, this war on terrorism is going to take a while." Stills archives : Bush with “Christian” at the background Stanley HOFFMANN, Université de Harvard cette droite chrétienne a une politique étrangère: soutien à Israël parce que ce sont des gens qui savent se battre et aussi parce qu’il y a une teinture très anti-musulmane chez ces gens là. voice over: The Christian right has its own foreign policy: support for Israel because they know how to fight and also because there is a distinct anti-Muslim bent among those people. BORCHGRAVE we had Boykin, General Boykin, who is now head of intelligence of the pentagon, who was preaching in his uniform, like a Born Again Christian on a crusade against Islam. General Boykin and the president think the same way. Archives: Boykin’s briefing: General Boykin: it’s not Ossama bin laden, it’s not what you can see, it’s our enemy on the spiritual realms Joseph TRENTO, historian I mean we had Boykin showing people slides over Mogadiscio back when the black hawk dawn incident occurred, saying, “here is the slide that devil you’re seeing. That’s Satan flying over”. Archives: Boykin’s briefing: Boykin: ladies and gentlemen that’s not a fake, will you understand that it is a demon spirit TRENTO But it wasn’t, it was predator aircraft taking picture. But he tells people that. This is the head of us intelligence in the Pentagon. What do you say to that? Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations They believe in God and they believe in a mission. They believe in a crusade against Evil. top Archives CBS Falwell: I think that Mohammed was a terrorist he... I read enough of the history of his life written by both Muslims and non-Muslims that he was a violent man, a man of war James ROBISON, televangelist So if we are in harmony with God then we should love people. If Islam is in contact with some spiritual forces as they claim to be, would that spiritual force want to annialate everyone that disagreed with them? Well that would be another Hitler, a white supremacist that is terrible thought Ed McATEER, Christian Coalition I don’t hate Arab people, I got Arab friends, I love ‘em…but I’m a Bible believer and God gave that land to Abraham, who’s a Jew, and I use a little cliché saying that “every grain of sand on that little piece of geography called Israel belongs to the Jewish people” BAER up to 60 millions people has … defined themselves as the Christian Right believe that the state of Israel must exist at the end of history and that how we gonna go to heaven. And if it doesn’t exist or if it’s overrun by Muslims we gonna go to hell. Archives: Christian coalition narration: This could be a gathering in Jerusalem. We are in fact in deepest Colorado. None of the participants is Jewish, neither on stage, nor in the audience. This is the annual congress of the Christian Coalition of America. Thousands of people in this huge amphitheatre stand to acclaim the state of Israel. They come to Jerusalem to demonstrate their support for Israel simply because they believe it is a step towards the ultimate victory of Christianity, since the Jews are considered spiritually blind for their rejection of Jesus. After a final battle between good and evil, many Jews will convert to Christianity and non-believers will be damned and perish. Archives: Oklahoma loves Israel Michael LEDEEN, former advisor to president Reagan they are the most extreme total supporters of Israel supporters that you can find in the world. It is much higher percentage of American Christians evangelicals that support Israel than American Jews. Believe me Arnaud de BORCHGRAVE, Washington Times you have an alliance in the United states, which is a very important alliance, it’s not on paper it’s a de facto alliance between the Christian right and the Israeli Lobby. There’s a direct alliance there, and it’s a rather unusual alliance, it’s the first time I have seen it in my lifetime. narration: Ariel Sharon's appearances before the Christian Zionists provoke rapturous ovations of the kind generally saved for rock stars. For them, Sharon has been chosen by God to accomplish the prophecies relating to the end of time. Archives Christian coalition Ariel Sharon: with God’s help and your solidarity we will win, we will win BORCHGRAVE Prime Minister Sharon has been received nine times by President Bush for private meetings, which is more than any other leader in the world. The only way to understand the American foreign policy in the Middle East is to understand that Israel is an integral part of the American body politic. And just taking it one step further to explain to Arabs how they can possibly relate to what we’re doing in the Middle East is to think of Israel as the 51st American state. As a matter of fact we treat Israel better than we treat most American states. Stills Archives : Wolfowitz stands on a platform with poster " with Israel we stand" and Wolfowitz speaks to George W Bush narration: But it is from the neo-conservatives in Washington that the Israeli right-wing derives its staunchest support. A small group of intellectuals, journalists and researchers has penetrated the apparatus of America's power. Paul Wolfowitz, Under-secretary of State for Defense is their leader. Since George W. took up residence in the White House, they have set the political agenda in Washington. The neo-cons are pulling all the strings. Stanley HOFFMANN, Harvard University Pour eux, je crois qu’il n’y a pas de contradictions, ce qui est bon pour Israël, je veux dire plutôt pour la droite israëlienne est bon pour les Etats-Unis et vice-versa. voice over : I don't believe they see any contradiction in that, what's good for Israel, or rather for the Israeli right, is good for the USA and vice versa. Robert STEELE, CIA covert operations Paul Wolfowitz is a man who found a champion or a cause in Israel and neoconservatism and he knows nothing else and therefore his personal satisfaction and glorification has raped up in, using, abusing American Power Still Archives: a demonstrator carries a poster with "Wolfowitz will say anything to invade iraq" + Perle with his chin in his hand narration : In 1998, the Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf sent an open letter to the President urging military intervention in Iraq. The letter concluded with these words, "Let's make this quite clear! The overthrow of Saddam is overwhelmingly in the national interest". Among the signatories of the letter were Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. HOFFMANN ils sont ou bien au Pentagone avec Wolfowitz, ou bien autour de Cheney et ça, ça fait une petite équipe extrêmement homogène. voice over : They are either at the Pentagon with Wolfowitz or around Cheney and that makes for a very tight-knit little team. Jim HOAGLAND, The Washington Post it’s a mistake to lump together as one view Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle. Richard perle has his own views that he exercizes outside the government James WOOLSEY, former director of the CIA Paul is of course an extremely important official he’s deputy secretary of defence, Richard is merely a private citizen who occasionally gives advice through various advisory boards STEELE Richard Perle is a conniving, self-serving individual who has manipulated personal relationship and position on undue power. I think he is one of the 3 most dangerous people in the US Images : Perle at home top narration: Richard Perle, one of the most prominent of Washington's neo-cons, is here on vacation in his villa in Provence, southern France. Although he has no official function, Perle has at his disposal an office in the Pentagon, near Donald Rumsfeld. He also enjoys clearance providing direct access to confidential and top secret information. The New Yorker wrote, "Perle wants power and influence. He's living everybody's dream here in Washington: to participate in decision-making and never be accountable. The American press, which nicknames Perle the Prince of Darkness because of his fondness for secret, backstage maneuvers, describes him as "an agitator, uncontrollable, he plays an essential role next to the president". Richard PERLE, Advisor to the President No. No! Not at all! I'm Sometimes amused to see stories about how influential I am in the White House. I have not seen the president Bush since the day he took office LEDEEN we may have influence of a certain sort, we may help people understand the world but we certainly don’t have any direct effect on making policy. PERLE I don't understand why this is such a mystery to so many people. It's portrayed as a conspiracy. It's nothing of the sort STEELE the people around Bush are not stupid, they are very smart, they are very calculating and manipulating, they are not deaf or dumb in any sense of the word and Bush is not blind as much as he is inattentive. TRENTO I don’t think he understand the situation. I don’t think he understands the history. I think he would require … he is a uniquely uncurious man. HOAGLAND I don’t think he reads a lot but he talks a lot to people and he depends a great deal on what people tell him for his information. David FRUM, President Bush's speechwriter he is a quick learner, he is able to find out which people have the knowledge I need and then he uses them. PERLE he soaks up information like a sponge. And he is willing to ask questions or was then willing to ask questions that made it very clear there was a lot he didn't know but he wanted to know. BORCHGRAVE I just think that Bush 43 isn’t a geopolitical thinker. He doesn’t know too much about the world, which is not his fault, he simply did not travel. Robert BAER , CIA covert operations Bush didn't have a passport until he became president. How, by God's name, can he know about foreign policy of foreign countries? He hasn't been visiting any foreign country. He knows Texas. He knows Maine, where he takes vacation with his father. And then he has these people, who were friends with the family. FRUM the people who are the core of his staff in the White house were the people who were the core of his staff in Texas. This is very unusual. He spent 6 years with these people in Texas watching how they were going long with one another and this is Texas when national media were not watching where ever fights people had they have to back in 1995 and 1996. Norman MAILER, writer So Bush does surround himself, as I say, with these very sharp and intelligent people and to a great extent then, of course they manipulate him. BAER Richard Perle, Doug Feith, Bernard Lewis, the academic, Wolfowitz, all of them come in there and they say: "This is the way the world is." How would you ever know? Richard PERLE, Advisor to the President It's not that we have an influence on the president. It's that the president's own thinking is rather similar to ours. Stanley HOFFMANN, Harvard University Les néo-conservateurs ne s’intéressent pas beaucoup à la politique intérieure. Eux c’est vraiment la puissance de l’Amérique, le rôle de l’Amérique dans le monde. voice over : The neo-conservatives are not really interested in domestic policy. They are concerned about America's power, the role of America in the world. PERLE So if one is a hawk because of a readiness to use force when it is the only thing that has any reasonable chance to success, then OK, I am guilty as charged. Michael LEDEEN, former advisor to President Reagan we are all barged within the limits of our capacities within the context of .. a sort of reasonable possibilities to support democratic revolutions everywhere, always, that’s what we are. BAER They believe that they brought down the soviet union. OK? They really believe it. Richard Perle, Wolfowitz every body in the Reagan administration, they believe they took the place down. And thus they say, if we can do it with the soviet union why not bring down all these evil empires in the Middle East. And they are very clear about this, they were talking about this time to reform the Middle East. And one the things they want to do was to crush Saddam Hussein for the benefit of Israel Stills archives : Bush, Powell and Cheney with a US flag at the background, Bush opens his mouth with "Iraq" on the background HOFFMANN il y avait par dessus le marché, ce rêve d’une transformation du Moyen-Orient pour que les gens hostiles aux Etats-Unis et à l’Occident soient éliminés. voice over : On top of this, there was a dream of transforming the whole Middle East so that the people hostile to the USA and the West would be eliminated. LEDEEN and Iraq was the country for which we were best prepared because we have been at war with Iraq since 1990, so we had military options and we though we knew a lot about the country and we were prepared to do that. BAER all they were doing show that they need a pretext that was all they need Archives: firefighters in WTC's rubble ; someone holds a US flag in front of the White House HOAGLAND until 9/11, George W Bush had no program, Sept 11th comes and imposes on him a mission HOFFMANN c’est une catastrophe qui se produit et qui en même temps est très utile aux gens au pouvoir, parce que quand le 11 septembre s’est produit, l’équipe de Bush était au pouvoir depuis à peu près neuf mois et pataugeait voice over: A disaster occurred and, at the same time, it was extremely useful for the administration because when September 11 happened, the Bush team had been in office for around nine months and wasn't getting anywhere. LEDEEN 9/11defines his presidency, 9/11 the day he discovered Who he was and what he had to do Archives : President Bush's speech on 09/20 /2001 before the Congress subtitle: September 20th, 2001 George Bush : “our war on terror begins with Al qaeda but it does not end there, it will not end until every terrorist group of global reach, have been found stopped and defeated. I have a message for our military : be ready. I've called the Armed Forces to alert, and there is a reason. The hour is coming when America will act, and you will make us proud. may God grant us wisdom, and may He watch over the United States of America. David FRUM, President Bush's speechwriter the president Bush has come to congress on Sept 20th 2001 and said I've heard about these terrorists attacks and we must reexamine the force of our own foreign policy and what we certainly do our best to arrest the people who did these terrible things and we must also remember that we have a work of conciliation with the peace to do in the middle east and above all we must led Israel and the Palestinian this ? If you said that to congress and the American people they wouldn’t have pissed him, they wouldn’t have left the room alive. HOFFMANN c’est le lendemain du 11 septembre qu’un certain nombre des membres de l’administration, du côté du Pentagone, sont venus trouver le Vice Président pour lui dire : c’est le moment de renverser le régime de Saddam Hussein voice over : The day after 9/11, certain members of the Administration, based in and around the Pentagon, went to see the Vice-President, saying, "Now is the time to get rid of Saddam Hussein." Joseph TRENTO, historian They made a decision on 9/11 that this was the excuse they need to go in and finish up Saddam Hussein Robert STEELE, CIA, covert operation that was the plan and this administration was indeed waiting for pretext. General Clarke has said publicly that on 9/11 as Americans couple were holding hands and jumping to their death the White House called him and said : “pin it on Iraq”. They weren’t thinking on American dying, they weren’t thinking on people who are commiting suicide in order to escape the flames. They were thinking about 9/11 not as an attack but as a gift Sam GWYNNE, journalist Do it! They had an opportunity and they had the opportunity , and leaking out Al Qaeda and Hussein was a lie but that was what they really wanted to do. Stills archives : Black and white Stills with George W Bush from the back and Dick Cheney in front of him; Wolfowitz seats in a plane, Bush takes his head in his hand narration: It was Vice-President Dick Cheney who convinced George W. of the necessity of military action against Iraq. He had adopted exactly the same attitude as Secretary of Defense 12 years earlier during the first Gulf crisis. Paul Wolfowitz was equally persuasive with Donald Rumsfeld, the current Secretary of Defense. He secured the post of Deputy Secretary of Defense "to keep tabs on Colin Powell" as he said to Rumsfeld. On September 17, the whole team gathered at the president's ranch to plot the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Richard PERLE , Advisor to the President there was discussion about Iraq right after September 11th. I don't believe a decision was made at that point. Arnaud de BORCHGRAVE, Washington Times Paul Wolfowitz started talking up Iraq; « Iraq is the real culprit », well, how could Bush decide whether it is the real culprit or not if Paul Wolfowitz tells hi that it is, you trust Paul Wolfowitz top Jim HOAGLAND, The Washington Post I think that the inclination was there with Cheney. I think it is very clear Paul Wolfowitz push every opportunity he had to suggest that we should engage a regime change General William ODOM, former NSA director it’s quite true that Paul Wolfowitz was for invading Iraq very early. PERLE There are maybe circumstances in which we know that we are about to be attacked in those circumstances, if we can prevent that attack by striking first, of course we should do that. That’s perfectly normal GWYNNE if they come to the American people and said: " look; we want to engage you know, in a war conquest in affect to re-establish the balance politically in the middle east"; I don’t think people want to go along with it TRENTO the president basically has let the public believe a lie, which is that Iraq played a role in 9/11, which is nonsense! PERLE But he's done that entirely on his own. It's not that he's been under the influence by a small group of people. TRENTO Believe me the people knew who perpetuated this lie – the neo-conservatives around Bush and all the others- knew all that. They knew what effect it was having on the public. Archives: Paul Wolfowitz at George Mason university (November 4th 2003) subtitle: Paul Wolfowitz Paul Wolfowitz: what September 11th showed is if 19 people using nothing more than conventional airliners can kill 3000 people in one day; and we start to look at the weapons that those people were exploring even on September 11th and the potential for groups like that ultimately to inflict not 3000 in one day, not 30 000 but 300 000 or maybe 3 million then you realize this is not an evil you can continue to live with, this is an evil that has to be eradicated Anthony BLINKEN, Democratic staff director lisez les discours de Mr Bush, de Mr Cheney, de Mr Rumsfeld, tout au long de cette période avant la guerre en Irak mais après le 11 septembre. C’est très subtil, la première phrase, on parle de Saddam Hussein, la deuxième phrase, on parle du 11 septembre, la troisième phrase, on parle de Bin Laden, on ne les lie pas vraiment explicitement ensemble, mais pour ceux qui écoutent plus ou moins, les trois phrases se mélangent et se mêlent et l’idée est là au niveau de la conscience du peuple américain qu’il y a un lien entre ces trois faits et ces 3 événements voice over : Read the speeches by Mr Bush, Mr Cheney and Mr Rumsfeld throughout the period prior to the war on Iraq, after September 11. It's very subtle: they begin by referring to Saddam Hussein, then to September 11 and finally to Bin Laden. They never link them in an explicit manner but if someone listens with only half an ear, the three notions mingle and blend, sowing the seeds of the idea in the American people's mind that there is a link between these three figures and events Stanley HOFFMANN, Harvard University le Président est revenu plusieurs fois sur les liens entre Al Qaida et Saddam Hussein. 18 journalistes ont posé des questions, une sur les rapports entre le Président et le Seigneur, et les quinze autres sur l’Irak. Pas un n’a soulevé le problème du lien entre Al Qaida et Saddam Hussein. Ils ont avalé ça totalement voice over : The President spoke several times about the ties between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. 18 journalists asked questions, one about the President's relationship with God and all the others about Iraq. Not one of them raised the issue of the ties between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. They had swallowed it completely. Archives : Bush during a press briefing General William ODOM, Former NSA director I’ve never believed that from the very beginning. Why would Saddam Hussein risk being involved with Al Qaeda? He has no record of trusting terrorist groups. He’s played with them. But dictators in the Middle East don’t trust terrorist groups. Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations I don’t see how you could deny it….for Richard Perle... You know. Here is this guy. I was on TV with him. He said this in public: “that bastard Saddam Hussein was responsible for September 11.” When he knew very well that there was no basis for this story. And started this myth about Saddam being behind September 11th. There was no evidence stills archive: Bush gives a phone call narration : In late December, President Bush asked David Frum to pen his state of the union address. He needed to strike public opinion, by finding the equivalent of Ronald Reagan's famous sobriquet for the Soviet Union, the Evil Empire. David FRUM, President Bush's speechwriter in the original draft the phrase was axis of hatred but writing for President of the United States is very much like writing for a major Hollywood film production: your write your words and they go to a gigantic bureaucratic process and you revise and you work with others. He is like a character in a movie and you think to do that way : “What would George Bush say about this and you try to absorb the way he thinks the way he communicates, his values, his feelings so you can answer for him what he would say if he had the time. And I was asked: if the president wants to attack a war beyond Afghanistan how he explains to the American People, why, why he is doing what he is doing. Could you come up with an example of how he could speak? So I wrote a section, a page or two on that question and my material then became the basis of the section of the speech that dealt with Iraq. Stills Archives: Bush stands on a platform, wearing a parka from the us army ; Bush takes a look throught blue curtains Archives : State of the Union address - 2002 Subtitle : January 29th , 2002 George W Bush: “our war against terror is only beginning; Iraq continues to flaunt its hostility toward America and to support terror. The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax, and nerve gas, and nuclear weapons for over a decade. This is a regime that agreed to international inspections -- then kicked out the inspectors. This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world. States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. the price of indifference would be catastrophic. David CORN, Washington editor, The Nation One principle that Saddam Hussein possessed real significant weapon of mass destruction today. Not that he was building them, not that he want them in the future not that that he had them in the past. It was that he had them today Richard PERLE, Advisor to the President We know that Saddam built weapons of mass destruction. He used them. And we know that he refused to explain what had happened to them. Robert STEELE , CIA, covert operations these people came to their conclusions and then looked for intelligence to support it. And when they couldn’t find intelligence to support it they created lies to the American public, to the American congress, to the United Nation and to the rest of the world. They lied to the world. narration: For 18 months, the government proclaimed the same idea at every opportunity: the apocalypse was on end. Archives: Cheney speaks at the National Convention of the Veterans of Foreign Wars on August 26 2002, George W Bush speaks at west point on June 1st 2002, colin Powell's speech, Rumsfeld during the press briefing on April 9 2003, Wolfowitz speaks at the council on foreign relation on January 23 2003 Dick Cheney: there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein has now weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them and use against our friends, against our allies, and against us George w Bush : Our enemies have declared this very intention, and have been caught seeking these terrible weapons. Colin Powell: we are talking about anthrax, we are talking about botulinum toxin, we are talking about nuclear weapons programme Donald Rumsfeld : It clearly would be unhelpful if terrorists got their hands on some of Iraq's chemical or biological capabilities. Paul Wolfowitz : It is a shell game played on a grand scale with deadly serious weapons. George W Bush : he’s trying to shake the will of America and the civilized world. And this country will not be intimidated Dick Cheney : What he wants is time, and more time to husband his resources to invest in his ongoing chemical and biological weapons program, and to gain possession of nuclear weapons. George W Bush : The United States of America will not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons Stanley HOFFMANN, Harvard University c’est ça qui est inquiétant de voir avec quelle facilité une propagande bien organisée, répétitive, enfonçant le même clou dans les têtes, à quel point ça peut être efficace voice over : The disturbing thing is to see how well-organized and repetitive propaganda, driving the point home into people's minds, can be so effective STEELE this administration has chosen to use the propaganda tools of Hitler and Göering and Goebbels. HOFFMANN on est quand même pas en régime nazi, mais quand même quand Goebbels disait que si on répète un mensonge assez souvent, les gens l’avalent, il n’avait pas tort. Et c’est ça qu’on a vu se produire à ce moment-là. voice over : We're not living under a Nazi regime but, even so, when Goebbels said that if you repeat a lie often enough, people swallow it, he wasn't wrong. That's what we saw happen at that time. Jim HOAGLAND, The Washington Post we have to scare a lot of people in the United States…. I think Bush and Cheney and I don’t approve this, I think Bush and Cheney were engaged in scaring the people, try to unite public opinion CORN this was necessary for him to convince the public that this was an issue, this was a problem and this was a threat that it has to be dealt with immediately and there was no time to try any other alternative courses of action Archives: George Bush speaks at the national religious broadcaster convention, on february 10th 2003 George W Bush: over the years we've tried limited strikes against military facilities. It didn't work. We've offered Iraq the path of voluntary disarmament and inspections. The Iraqi regime is rejecting it. CORN He said the UN inspectors have concluded that there were massive stocks piles of chemical weapon and biological weapons. The problem with all this is, there was no evidence to back it up. The UN inspectors never said that Stills archives : Blix stands at UN platform, Wolfowitz discuss with Rumsfeld ( who swings his hand on the right) narration: The White House's strategy set out two specific stages. The first stage was to get rid of the UN weapons inspectors who persisted in finding no evidence of weapons of mass destruction and in saying so. The second stage was to prove that the WMDs did exist. Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld concentrated their efforts on discrediting Hans Blix, the head of the UN's arms control committee. Dragged through the mud by the Bush administration, Blix became the pet peeve of American diplomats. Eventually, he gave up and went home to Stockholm. Before his departure, however, in an interview with The Guardian, in highly undiplomatic terms he launched the counter-attack: "I was smeared by the Pentagon, who spread things around, who planted nasty things in the media. Those bastards pursued me for three years" Hans BLIX, UN chief weapons inspector perhaps I had not really thought that particular word was as strong in American English as it was. I had heard it many times in my student says in England and did not think it was so hard but maybe I should have used another word, maybe a word such as skunk. Sam GWYNNE, journalist I think that drivers of this are at the top level of the defence department people like Wolf , the hawks like Wolfowitz , I mean these are people who is interesting to see Blix discreditive BLIX there was a fairly severe; you might say smear campaign by media Archives: George Bush 's speech in Cincinnati, OH, on October 7 2002 George W Bush: we cannot wait for the final proof -- the smoking gun -- that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud BLIX the London Times had an article in which their New York correspondent suggested that I might turn the smoking gun on my own head. Javier PEREZ de CUELLAR, former UN Secretary-general C'est ignoble. C'est ignoble parce que c'est un homme d'une grande, grande honnêteté. voice over : It's revolting. Revolting because he's a man of great, great integrity. BLIX But they did so for a reason, I suppose, and that was that they might not have convinced their constituents, their parliaments, the congress to go to war simply by saying that we suspect. That would not have been enough GWYNNE if Americans believed Blix, we wouldn’t have gone to war when we did, so Americans had to not believe Blix BLIX they probably had many other reasons too why they wanted to go for Saddam. Mr. Wolfowitz has said t hat the choice of weapons of mass destruction as a reason was a bureaucratic one. This was one that everyone could agree on It was a hyping a spin. It was very hard to see that the Iraqis were terribly dangerous in the year 2002 and 2003. the Vice President gave some speeches in August of 2002 and which he did not conceal that he thought the inspections were useless at the best and I think Mr. Wolfowitz was of the same view. Joseph TRENTO, historian Now Collin Powell who’s supposed to be the smart one in this administration is the one-I remind everybody- who stood up before the United Nations and claimed that theses are weapons of mass destruction. Archives : Colin Powell speaks before the UN on February 5 2003 Colin Powell : Iraq declared 8,500 liters of anthrax, but UNSCOM estimates that Saddam Hussein could have produced 25,000 liters. BLIX he had gone through the evidence so he must, he took responsibility for what he said. And it is quite clear that not that he said there held water. Archives : Colin Powell speaks before the UN on February 5 2003 Colin Powell : But how much longer are we willing to put up with Iraq's noncompliance before we, as a council, we, as the United Nations, say: "Enough. Enough.". Saddam Hussein and his regime are busy doing all they possibly can to ensure that inspectors succeed in finding absolutely nothing. BLIX it’s a little like a witch hunt in the sense that in the Middle Ages people were convinced that there were witches and therefore you looked, and you find them here too They were convinced that there were weapons. they were inclined to interpret any sign as evidence of the existence of that. top Colin POWELL, Secretary of State every year the United Nations said stop and tell us what you’re doing and they did not. Finally President Bush, Prime Minister Blair and Mr Berlusconi and Mr Aznar and many other leaders in the world said this has to come to an end. Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations the problem is you really shouldn't be going to a war, a preemptive war based a suspicion or a belief. I mean, you should have some proof. I mean, there was no proof. That's the point. BLIX this is clearly unsatisfactory that the world’s biggest governments can go ahead on the basis of such information. Arnaud de BORCHGRAVE, Washington Times I saw a former Jordanian prime minister for dinner, and I said, what if we don’t find the weapons of mass destruction, and he said to me: “Well you better invent them”. Stills archives : Blix under Saddam Hussein's portrait, Rumsfeld discussing with Cheney in front of the Oval Office , Wilson at the left of the photograph with his desk on the right narration: With Hans Blix out of the way, all that remained was to prove that Saddam Hussein had procured enriched uranium as part of a nuclear weapons program. But such accusations had to come from an irreproachable source. The White House put forward the name of Joe Wilson, a friend of the president's family. Wilson was the last American diplomat to have met Saddam Hussein in Baghdad. His courage during the Gulf War had led him to be decorated by the first President Bush. Dick Cheney asked the CIA to contact Wilson for a particularly delicate mission. Joseph TRENTO, Historian Joe Wilson was a very able ambassador, gave money to Bush. And Wilson was called by the CIA to go to a country whose people he knew and check out a rumor that the country of Niger had sold yellow cake, which is material you use in part of nuclear weapons production, to Iraq. The Neo cons around the president Bush had been citing-including Cheney- this as a reason to invade Iraq. Joseph WILSON, diplomat je leur ai dit au moment où on a pris la décision, que j’irai, mais seulement comme représentant du gouvernement. C’est à dire comme que quelqu’un qui pose les questions de la part de mon gouvernement, pas du CIA. Je suis pas espion voice over : I told them, when the decision was made, that I would go but only as a representative of the government. In other words as someone who asks questions on behalf of the government, not for the CIA. I'm not a spy. David CORN, Washington editor,The Nation So he went and he talk to several government officials and asked them how,..heu.. What type of business they do with their uranium, what are the safe guard, what are the protections and come back and that on his view, unlikely, that such a deal could happen. WILSON J’ai fait mon rapport qui disait non, qu’il n’y avait pas, il n’y avait rien derrière cette histoire voice over : I made my report that said no, there was no truth in it, there was nothing to the story. TRENTO to Wilson’s great shock, he had learned that the speech that the president gave at the state of Union, which is the most important speech an American president can give sited this thing saying it was true Archives : George Bush - State of the Union address - 2003 subtitle : January 28th, 2003 George W Bush : The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. WILSON nous savions par les rapports qui ont été fait, y compris le rapport que j’ai fait, que ces informations étaient fausses voice over : We knew from the reports that were made, including my own, that this information was false. Robert STEELE, CIA, covert operations Bush is either a liar or he believes and doesn’t know it’s not true. Either he is bad either it disqualified Bush as president WILSON On peut pas dire que c’était les Anglais. On doit carrément dire que c’était quelqu’un dans la Maison-Blanche qui avait mis dans son discours quelque chose qui ne pouvait pas être justifié. voice over : You can't say that it was the British. It seems perfectly clear that it was someone within the White House who put something in his speech that couldn't be justified. TRENTO But Wilson was just appalled by it because he knew it wasn’t true The people at the CIA also knew it wasn’t true Sam GWYNNE, journalist they had told the white house before that this was wrong , this started a gigantic fight with CIA people leaking all over the place against the white house WILSON C’est une question c’était sur lequel ils ont basé la décision d’aller en guerre, non seulement en guerre, mais de faire une guerre qui était l’invasion, la conquête et maintenant l’occupation, d’un pays souverain. voice over : It's an issue on which they based the decision to go to war, not only to war but to wage a war that led to the invasion, the conquest and now the occupation of a sovereign nation. top BORCHGRAVE That’s when Joe Wilson got very upset TRENTO so he decided to write an op-ed piece for the New York Times describing his experience . Well, the political people at the white house were angry and the way they react with this is they decided to leak the story to 5 different organizations or friendly news people that had dealt with them in the past. The one organization that took it was Robert Novak, the conservative columnist BORCHGRAVE he calls one of his contacts at the white house, the white house is trying to diminish Joe Wilson, and says that his wife is of the CIA, and she is the one who had the idea of sending him to Niger. TRENTO he ran the story, mentioning Joe Wilson’s wife’s name, which was a federal crime. Joe Wilson’s wife was a cover operative for the operation directorate of the CIA. When you mention a spy’s name, you endanger her. Still archive: Wilson with his wife – Vanity Fair WILSON Regardez un peu ce qu’ils ont fait : on a compromis tout ce qu’elle a fait depuis 20 ans. Parce que c’est pas seulement la personne c’est toute sa carrière qui est mise en question, toutes ses relations avec les étrangers. Tout ce qu’elle aurait du faire pour son pays depuis le temps qu’il a été au CIA voice over : Look what they did: they compromised everything she had done in the previous 20 years. Because it was not only the person but her whole career that was called into question, all her relations with foreigners. Everything that she had been able to achieve for her country since joining the CIA. GWYNNE that’s one of the worst thing I’ve ever heard of anyone doing in the white house David CORN, Washington editor, the Nation This story was ruining her career and also under mining her work TRENTO every operation she has ever been involved in , every country she ever visited would now become the target of opposing forces in that country. So a lot of people lives were put in danger when he did that. WILSON l’idée de prendre un membre de la famille de l’adversaire pour essayer de le discréditer, en espérant qu’en la discréditant, on allait discréditer l’adversaire même, C’est idiot ça ; c’est éthiquement pas admissible voice over : The idea of using a member of an opponent's family to try to discredit him or her, hoping to discredit the opponent at the same time, is totally idiotic. Ethically, it's intolerable TRENTO So the leak is now being investigated in this country. But it’s believed to have come from somebody in the white house, either in the vice presidents office or the president’s office GWYNNE it’s hard for me to believe that that would have been orchestrated by Bush Robert STEELE, CIA, covert operations I suspect that the president of the United States, the appointed president of the United States is completely clueless about this and many other things. I believe that these individuals should work for Dick Cheney; the FBI has now established who it was, they worked for Dick Cheney and I believe that they acted independently perhaps of Cheney’s guidance but with his complete protection. WILSON c’était lui qui était le demandeur du rapport que j’ai fait et c’est lui qui était avec le président quand on a fait l’analyse et la revue du discours de l’état de l’union. C’est lui qui est resté le plus dur sur la question des armes nucléaires même après qu’il a reçu non seulement mon rapport, mais aussi tous les autres rapports. Donc je trouve en effet qu’il est malhonnête dans ses discours et dans ses efforts de menacer les américains et de créer une sorte d’état de peur voice over : He was the one who asked for the report that I made and he was with the President when we analysed it and went over the State of the Union address. He is the one who has remained the most inflexible on the issue of nuclear weapons, even after receiving not only my report but all the other reports. I, therefore, consider him to be dishonest in his speeches and in his efforts to alarm Americans and create a sort of climate of fear. narrration : At the White House, George W., avoiding confrontation with journalists, remained desperately silent. George W Bush's press briefing Journalist : Mr President I’ld ask you wether you remember to see ... your staff ….CIA … CORN President Bush didn’t say nothing, he didn’t dresses, he didn’t say « I’m outrage this is terrible. He didn’t say I want an investigation, he didn’t say to his staff « I want you to sign a piece of paper to say you didn’t do it”. He did nothing WILSON c’est clair que c’était un prétexte. Ils ont fait la guerre a Bagdad pour refaire la carte politique du Moyen-Orient. Pur, net et simple. voice over : It's obvious that it was a pretext. They waged war on Baghdad to redraw the political map of the Middle East. Pure and simple. narration: Congress was so subdued one might be tempted to believe there was a one-party state. It was left to Robert Byrd, one of the oldest members of the Senate, to make one of the most virulent speeches ever made against a sitting US president. More surprisingly, Byrd was a personal friend of George Bush Snr. and of Ronald Reagan. But Byrd was 85 and had nothing to lose. Archives : Robert Byrd - speech before the Senate on Februrary 12th 2003 Robert Byrd : There is no debate, no discussion. There is nothing, nothing. The idea that the United States or any other nation can legitimately attack a nation that is not imminently threatening but may be threatening in the future –The idea that the United States may attack a sovereign government because of its dislike for a particular regime- is a radical new twist on the traditional idea of self defense.diplomacy into threats, labeling, and name calling of the sort that reflects quite poorly on the intelligence and sensitivity of our leaders, and which will have consequences for years to come. Calling heads of state pygmies, labeling whole countries as evil, denigrating powerful European allies as irrelevant In only the space of two short years this reckless and arrogant Administration has initiated policies, which may reap disastrous consequences for years. Will we seize Iraq's oil fields, becoming an occupying powerwhich controls the price and "supply of that nation's oil for the foreseeable future ? there some who think so. Frankly many of the pronouncements made by this Administration are outrageous. There is no other word. Yet this chamber is hauntingly silent. Silent! Archives : war pictures Soldiers : come out, come out, come out, open the door, open the door, keep your hands up and come outside, everybody in the house has to come outside. You go, you go, you go, clean the house now, sweep out down straight, we go Images : center for public integrity narration: The Center for Public Integrity is staffed by a handful of volunteers who have decided to raise the alarm about George W's reshaping of America in the name of the war on terrorism. And above all, about the loss of liberties that this involves. It was the Center that revealed how Attorney General John Ashcroft was secretly preparing Patriot Act 2, endowing the administration with powers of surveillance, not only of the country's borders and foreign citizens, but of Americans themselves. Charles LEWIS, Center for public integrity this is a democracy, for godsake. The Patriot II Act, Ashcroft and his aides kept that legislation from the public and his own Republican Chairman of the Judiciary Committees in the House and the Senate for half a year, they never told them they were planning new legislation, they never showed them the legislation, and when we obtained the legislation everyone, including Republicans, in Congress, were utterly astonished because no one told them top VIET DINH, US Patriot Act's architect it was simply an internal circulation that was unfortunately disclosed in an unauthorized manner, prematurely really to the public LEWIS What is that about? When did we start developing secret legislation that changes our rights and liberties. VIET DIHN we are constantly challenging ourselves with ideas; some crazy, some stupid LEWIS This is not the USA, there is something very odd, whatever you think of the substance of that legislation, that’s inappropriate. VIET DIHN We supervise a workforce of 168000 persons ; some of those persons will make mistakes. US Patriot Act 2 was more of a think piece Stills archives: Viet Dihn swears in narration: Viet Dinh, who had sworn in the presence of President Bush, was entrusted with putting together this repressive package of measures, which would authorize unrestricted access to personal data and secret searches on private property as well as extending secret telephone taps across the whole country. Archives : George Bush signs the Patriot Act Bill Archives : George Bush's speech on October 26 2001 This new law that I sign today will allow surveillance of all communications used by terrorists, including e-mails, the Internet, and cell phones Stanley HOFFMANN, Harvard University On peut demander à n’importe quelle bibliothèque publique de communiquer la liste des livres qu’empruntent leurs clients voice over : They can ask any public library to provide the list of books borrowed by its readers. VIET DIHN they simply get a subpoena from a criminal grand jury in order to obtain such records from businesses including libraries and bookstores if they have evidence relevant to a criminal investigation. Joseph TRENTO, historian they can spy on anybody, they can get your phone records , they can get your credit card records, they can find in library the books you read. They will go after you. and they did it and they do it quite proudly Archives : surveillance narration: Operation TIPS was organized offering a toll-free number that people could call 24/7 to denounce the suspicious behavior or subversive comments of their neighbors, friends or relations. Under cover of anonymity. John Ashcroft declared: "We stood the system on its head but maybe for good reasons. It was a national emergency". VIET DIHN people have an obligation to contribute to the protection of that freedom… of that security Archives John Ashcroft introduces the US patriot act subtitle : John Ashcroft Attorney General John Ashcroft : we are asking all citizens to come forward to the FBI with any valuable information they have to help us apprehend terrorists or stop terrorist attacks. TRENTO their idea was they were gonna people who read meters for the electricity And gas. Anybody who sees anything and that they think it’s suspicious call report people of the government VIET DIHN because they know best who is… who is out of place who... who looks suspicious and it is no more than simply a reporting of suspicious activities to law enforcement authorities top TRENTO the last country that did this, that I know about, was the soviet union where you had people in your apartment block, who read on if you have the wrong book. And that’s they are trying to create here. And that’s what TIPS was. When American start pointing the fingers on another American saying : “you’re no good , you’re a communist. You’re red, you’re this you’re that. Now it’s you’re an Arab, you’re al Quaeda”. But whatever it is when we start doing we’re king of becoming what we’re supposed to be fighting. I mean this is the ding of stuff the Taliban did so now we’re gonna do it? We’re gonna say “ we wanna know what your read, we wanna know what you do, we wanna know what you say: what you buy what you rent who you’ve seen who you have dinner with. This is not America Still Archives : John Ashcroft with" Preserve life and liberty" wall behind him Stills Archives : demonstrators hold placard with“Ashcroft = ben laden”, demonstrators hold placard with “civil liberties stolen” et “Ashcroft is not a patriot” Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations Arabs can’t get visas to go to law school in the United States and NY is a very good law school but you find no Arabs students there, they can’t pass the visa exams. Friends of mine have been stopped at the border and asked to provide certificate from police department they’re not criminals. narration: Three states and 235 cities announced that they would not apply these laws in their jurisdiction. They contested the new legislation, warned against the excesses of the war on terror, and accused the government of abusing its power. Dick Cheney was unabashed: "The way I think of it is, it's a new normalcy. I think those will become permanent features in our way of life". Still Archives : girl with "1984" placard VIET DIHN I am constantly afraid of Big Brother, or George Orwell. those kinds of activities can quickly turn ourselves into a Gestapo state Norman MAILER , writer It won’t come easily to America, but it could come here because fascism is finally the deterioration of democracy as well as the upsurge of autocratic oppressive notions of government. And it can come from either direction. Democracies can crumble and oppressions can become so powerful that you can call them fascisms Charles LEWIS, Center for public integrity We are going after these people and we are going to prevail in court, I hope, I believe, because they are hiding the truth about their actions Images : Lewis travaillant narration : The other major preoccupation of the Center is the fight against corruption, and the huge profits to be made from the war in Iraq. LEWIS Bush and Cheney are the first time that we’ve had two businessmen, 2 Oil executives become President and Vice President. This is utterly unprecedented in US history. there are certain companies, dozens and dozens, hundreds of companies who are getting phenomenaly obscenely rich, And guess what? Two-thirds to three-quarters of those companies give their campaign contributions to the Republican party and George W. Bush in gratitude for this wonderful time they’re having. All of it is in the name of national security and while we have a flag in the background and put our hands over our hearts and say the pledge of allegiance, we’re getting rich. Stills archives: Cheney , Bush stands on a plateform with a giant us flag behind him Joseph TRENTO, historian This administration is behaving like pigs of the though. They’re saying, “We want it all”. “We wanna take it all. We went in there and we got ‘em out and we’re gonna, we’re now going to take all the business” LEWIS Dick Cheney said that “well, unfortunately God put oil in certain countries and you can’t control that” Stills Archives: Cheney with Ashcroft and Bush, Cheney leans against a pillar narration : Vice-President Dick Cheney was formerly President and CEO of Halliburton, the world leader in oil services. A Halliburton subsidiary was the first to offer George Bush Snr. a job, in 1948. A recent article in the Washington Post revealed how Halliburton continued to trade with Iraq, despite the embargo, when Dick Cheney was CEO. A week before his inauguration as Vice-President, Dick Cheney left Halliburton with compensation of over $45 million in stock-options. LEWIS So, so this has been a bonanza period for the company. They’re been doing quite well, thank you very much and having your former president CEO as Vice President obviously does not hurt one bit. Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations Halliburton, dick Cheney’s company, effectively stole 61 millions dollars since April, if I find that astonishing? everybody knew it, anybody who deals in Iraq know that their gasoline were being sold with enormous margins Jim HOAGLAND, The Washington Post it seems to be that they bought the petrol for one euro and sold it for 3. That’s outrageous Arnaud de BORCHGRAVE, Washington Times And nobody had a chance to bid it. And then we are told that Halliburton intern have to get 6 millions hundred dollars we'll pull up other contracts, subcontracts to bidding. It strikes that is a little dubious. Robert STEELE, CIA, covert operations I think that is part of a very small, organized mafia that is taken advantage of the American public BAER Look, they're all crooks. Every contract in Iraq today is taylor-made for Kellogg Brown Root, which is Cheney's company. It's a subsidiary of Halliburton. You can't go into Iraq unless you deal with an American company Stills archives : Lynne Cheney mirthful, Dick and Lynne Cheney during a party narration: The giant American arms firm, Lockheed Martin, possesses equally close relations with the Bush administration, since the Vice-President's wife, Lynne Cheney, sits on its board. LEWIS Mrs. Cheney being on a corporate board of a company, getting Ferragamo contracts and not resigning immediately when her husband took power as vice president is highly unusual. In fact I don’t know of a single time in US history, not in any recent like half century of contemporary America where a spouse of a Vice President was getting money from a corporation getting Government contracts. That’s such an obvious conflict of interests, That’s such an obvious conflict of interests, it is so obviously inappropriate and what is most incredible to me is that, when news reports of that connection surfaced she had a very defiant response…basically, “you can all go to hell! I will continue to serve on this board “…. Stills archives: Bush with his advisor, Bush with Rove, Wolfowitz, Powell, Rumsfeld, Cheney mirthful, Rumsfeld mirthful with an American Flag at the background , Perle points a finger on the left narration : Like himself and his father, George W's closest advisors are totally bound to the arms and oil industries. Karl Rove, the foremost of the president's advisors, was a shareholder in Boeing, many of whose activities are in the military arena. Boeing makes Apache helicopters, guided missiles and Tomahawk cruise missiles. Paul Wolfowitz, nº2 at the Pentagon, charged "consultancy" fees to Northrop Grumann before joining the administration. Northrop Grumann makes F-18 fighter-bombers, which have been massively used in Iraq. Donald Rumsfeld and Colin Powell were directors of Gulfstream Aerospace. They left the company with golden goodbyes of $1 million. Donald Rumsfeld also sat on the board of ABB, a company that sold nuclear reactors to North Korea. In March 2003, the New Yorker revealed that Richard Perle was a partner in the company Trireme. While Perle was at the Pentagon, Trireme turned over $45 million, of which more than half came from Boeing's military subsidiaries. BAER Come on! The guy writes an article in the Wall Street Journal but forgets to tell the readers that he took 20 millions dollars from Boeing LEWIS He is clearly making money from his close association with the President. The president did not have any problem with this, he didn’t rebuke Perle publicly BAER it starting to look like a third world republic isn’t it? Banana republic Archives: demonstrations against Halliburton, Boeing, …. narration: In two years, Northrop Grumann, the US Air Force's leading supplier, has increased sales by 60%, Boeing by 30% and Lockheed Martin by 25%. The very serious Los Angeles Times wrote, "No administration ever allowed herself a single tenth of what has occurred under George W. Bush. None." Robert STEELE, CIA, covert operations multinational corporations have no ethics, they would deal with the devil himself if they can make a profit. narration: Bush, father and son, have not only dined with devil, they have frequently invited themselves to his table. Archives: journaliste visits with George W Bush the oval office Journalist : do you mind if I pick up some of the family photos … George Bush : there is the swearing in as the 41st president. And this is an interesting picture, this is 3 generations of Bushes : senator Bush, President Bush and President Bush. Stills archives : Bush family photographs top narration: Prescott Bush, George W's grandfather, enjoyed an illustrious banking career and had become a respectable Republican senator, played golf with Eisenhower untill his past caught up with him. Joseph TRENTO , historian well it’s an interesting family . Prescott Bush was the grand father, the patriarch of the family. And Prescott Bush in 1940s had an interesting role. He was an investment banker for Brown Brothers Harrington. Unfortunately at the same time he was doing those things he was the secret banker for Adolph Hitler and the Thiessen family . and he moved money for the Nazis ; while his son was fighting them in the pacific, fighting their allies in the pacific, Dad was home doing that. Stills archives: Prescott and Geroge Bush wearing a suit, Prescott Bush on his doorstep narration: All of Prescott Bush's companies were taken over by the government due to their "cooperation with the 3rd Reich and trading with the enemy." One of his companies operated mines in Poland, using the inmates of nearby concentration camps as forced labor. TRENTO About a week ago the record Prescott Bush’s connections to the Hitler government were released in the national archives. Do you know there wasn’t one story about that on any network television Charles LEWIS, Center for public integrity I don’t think that the public really has looked ever that closely at the Bush family, today or in the past. Archives: George H Bush visits troops, Saddam Hussein, mosaic on the ground "Bush is criminal" narration: 10 years before the first Gulf War, George W's father, Ronald Reagan's vice-president, had offered Iraq America's support in its war with Iran. Back then, George Bush and Saddam Hussein were the best friends. CARLUCCI, CIA and department of Defense (76-89) I wouldn’t have called him a friend .We had relations with the Saddam Hussein regime, just like we’ve had relations with any number of tyrannical regimes around the world. We tried to moderate his behavior TRENTO George Bush, when he was vice president of Ronald Reagan, actually set up Saddam Hussein, actually backed him, actually put him into power in his envoy and all this, was then a private citizen, the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld. He actually went to see Saddam, and then came back and recommended: “we support him”. Robert STEELE, CIA, covert operations we created Saddam Hussein just like we created Ben Laden. United States of America created his own enemy. TRENTO it was blowing up in our face and we didn’t know and we were too stupid to see it. And that is the legacy of George Bush the father. Jim HOAGLAND, The Washington Post the idea was to keep the war going as long as possible so they destroy each other, it was astonishingly cynical and machiavellian. CARLUCCI So there was some modest cooperation between the US and the Saddam Hussein regime. It is simply not correct to say we gave them massive supply of weapons. We gave them some intelligence on order of battle information. STEELE we were willing to give Saddam Hussein anything in the world to hurt the Iranians. Archives : Photo satellite narration: Bob Woodward of the Washington Post has revealed how the CIA supplied the Iraqis with satellite photos taken by US spy planes so that they might better target their bombing of Iranian troops. For over 4 years, Saddam had access to and developed knowledge of America's intelligence-gathering methods. HOAGLAND the CIA helped the Iraqis by providing not satellite photographies I don’t believe but the information of the satellite photo… Yes the CIA cooperated with Saddam Hussein in 1984, we know that. Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations They did give satellite photographies. I mean, it was CIA that helped win the war for Saddam They informed the Iraqis, the United States government, when there was gonna be an attack STEELE we were providing direct intelligence support including signals intercept not just imagery. And the bottom line is we chose to support Iraq over Iran and were willing to overlook genocide on Saddam’s part. Richard PERLE , advisor to the President the United States tilted a little bit toward Irak. That is not a policy that I like very much. I didn't participate in that policy Archives: Inspections in iraq narration: George Bush Snr., as Reagan's vice-president, armed and financed Saddam Hussein. In 1986, in a top secret operation, strains of Anthrax were sent to Iraq. CARLUCCI We had given them anthrax? That’s crazy. That’s just absolutely untrue. Michael LEDEEN, former advisor to President Ronald Reagan in fact we prevent of them: during the Reagan administration the Pentagon stopped the shipment of the anthrax. So I mean it maybe something that you rather got through: the policy was never to give such things to Iraq. Stils archives : George H Bush reads papers standing before his desk, Reagan signs request with Shultz, Weinberger and George H Bush , Weinberger and Shultz testify narration: In October 1992, a Senate inquiry discovered that, between 1985 and 1989, 60 deliveries of biological compounds were made to Saddam's military laboratories. The giant American building contractor Bechtel, now run by Reagan's former Secretaries of State George Schultz and Caspar Weinberger, was chosen by the Iraqi authorities to build the factories that would enable Saddam to produce WMDs. HOAGLAND I remember very well cause I was writing about it in the newspaper at the time, criticizing Reagan and even more Bush the father for his administration helping Saddam Hussein after the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds. I thought it was clears what Saddam Hussein’s intentions were and we need to oppose him and not help him. And Bush the father read those articles, denied them, and never forgive me for writing them… Stills archives: Halabaja TRENTO We are fully aware of it. Past ambassador knew it. Our military advisor to Iraq knew it: Colin Powell who was visiting knew it. A number of people knew it; we still supplied aid to him. So 10 years later to say that he’s a terrorist, that this guy and that because he uses poison gas are absolutely disingenuous and ridiculous. Images : Texas Monthly narration: Sam Gwynne is the editor of the Texas Monthly. He published a series of articles and then a book about the Bush dynasty -- four generations of business scandals, tight personal and financial networks handed down from father to son, George Bush Sr. doing business with the Bin Ladens, corrupt bankers… The Bushes are the first American political clan to be inextricably mixed up with the oil-rich royal families of the middle-east. Saudi princes, the Bin Ladens and the Bushes have often been partners in business. The family of the future terrorist leader indirectly funded the business and political career of George W. Bush. Still archives: George W Bush in the Oval Office (black and white photograph) Robert STEELE, CIA, covert operations I don’t know if there is Bush dynasty… But Bush and his son have been much to willing to sell out the American interest to those who pay them Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations For the father, the moment he left the White House he goes off to Saudi Arabia to do business for the Carlyle group. Where he's a consultant. Sam GWYNNE, journalist It is what they call in America the revolving door. In Washington where you go you euh… suddenly one day you are in the Defence department like Frank Carlucci and suddenly you’re then out working for a company that has business with the defence department Images: Carlyle Group narration: Carlyle is one of the biggest private equity houses in America, handling nearly $16 billion in investments. Founded and run by Frank Carlucci, deputy director of the CIA and Secretary of Defense in the Reagan administration, the majority of its senior staff are also ex-Pentagon, CIA or White House. But Carlyle is much more than a simple investment fund. Today, the majority of its activities are linked to the defense sector: its subsidiary United Defense Industries makes the tanks that are on the ground in Iraq and the missiles that are lying in readiness on America's warships. BAER Then all we know is that people leave the government and, for some reason, they work for the Carlyle group. What value do they add? It's like the Mafia. It's a small family. And Carlucci was the head of it CARLUCCI, Carlyle Group There’s nothing mysterious about Carlyle, we’re a private equity house, basically owned by the partners of which I am one. We invest in companies, we buy companies, we probably control 17 or 18 European companies, mainly in the engineering area. GWYNNE and on the advisory board you have Georges H. W. Bush, euh I don’t know we distinguish him, 41, H.W.Bush or James Baker the former secretary of states, Frank Carlucci, these people are all major Bush era politicians CARLUCCI Some of our companies do deal with government, we have a company that does security clearance for the Air Force, we have a company that builds some of the armored vehicles for the Army Charles LEWIS, Center for public integrity This is historically unprecedented. We have never had a former US president helping a defence contractor during a time of war, we’ve never had the odd circumstance of it happening while the former presidents son is the sitting US president and this is an extraordinary, utterly peculiar situation BAER But they don't call it corruption. They call it business. Did you ever see "The Godfather"? It’s just business Stills Archives: Carlucci with a ring Images : Ritz Carlton top narration: At 9 AM, on September 11, 2001, at Washington's Ritz-Carlton hotel, the Carlyle group's annual investors conference opened. The meeting was presided by Chairman Frank Carlucci. Beside him was Shafiq Bin Laden, Osama's brother, who represents the Bin Laden family within Carlyle. BAER top officials from the former administration, the Bush administration were meeting with the Carlucci group and the Ben Laden family on September 11th in a nice hotel and, you know, everybody was friendly. They were talking about business. Frank CARLUCCI, Carlyle Group Like everyone else that is an investor, they were entitled to attend the investor conference, entirely a matter of their choice. Sam GWYNNE, journalist it’s interesting, there’s 2 Bin Laden, I guess BAER It was a brother of Ben Laden who was at the meeting with the Carlyle group.Yeah. He was the head of the Ben Laden group. CARLUCCI anybody as I said who has invested in Carlyle was able to attend. BAER they were actually sitting there when the airplanes hit the World Trade Center and, shortly after, the Pentagon. CARLUCCI it is correct that on September 11th of that year we were having an investor conference when the attack on the World Trade Center took place. Richard PERLE, advisor to the President And my guess is that Carlyle has severed all its connections with the Ben Laden family since September 11th.The problem is that at the highest levels of government the implications of Saudi policy were not understood. Still Archive : Bush discusses with Bandar in Crawford Joseph TRENTO, historian the Bush family’s very good friend Prince Bandar, their ambassador here arranged for chattered planes, while no Americans were allowed to fly, to pick up all the members of the Bin Laden’s family and other Saudi’s and take them home Robert STEELE CIA, covert operations the only jet allowed to fly in the united states the day after 9/11, it picked up all Ben Laden family members and flew them immediately to Saudi Arabia. I mean, if I were, I’m sorry but if I were the Us government I would have let them pick up all Ben Laden relatives and then I would have put them immediately into detention and interrogated all of them. Jim HOAGLAND, The Washington Post we accepted the Saudi version of the reality that they sell to us and ignore what’s really going on it then. TRENTO The Saudis spend more money in Washington than any other government. They put the money in law firms and lobbying groups , and they put the money in the campaigns BAER They paid for Colin Powell to go... to top universities to give a speech for fifteen minutes. And how much did he get for going to Boston? Two hundred thousand dollars. Plus a first class ticket. You know, like the next week, he became secretary of State. Out of Saudi money STEELE we have essentially be whores, political whores of the Saudis for the last forty years. TRENTO This is a country that has been buying off people for years. They buy off people; they buy off lobbies to lawyers on K streets in Washington; they buy off politicians buy hiring him his advisers , by investing in their children’s’ companies as they did with the Bush family. BAER George W. Bush, the president of the United States, was saved by Saudi Arabia. On several occasions. TRENTO If they made direct investments in the US political campaigns, that’s illegal. So they have to find intermediaries to do that with. STEELE we have allowed the Saudi in the name of cheap oil to rape and cheat and deceive the American public. BAER You know when you have this sort of dependence on money, it's very difficult, as any dependence, to criticize, you know, the source of your money. Images: Hudson Institute + Perle gives a phone call narration: The shadowy links between the United States and Saudi Arabia were were clearly set-out by a Frenchman, Laurent Murawiec, in a meeting held behind closed doors at the heart of the American defense community, the Pentagon. This out-and-out hawk, former advisor to the French Defense Ministry, is a close friend of Richard Perle MURAWIEC, former Rand corporation Analyst Richard Perle m’a invité à venir faire l’exposé au Defense Policy board pour qu’on lance un débat interne à l’administration, sur l’Arabie Saoudite. j’étais personnellement extrêmement honoré que mon pays d’adoption me demande à moi, Français, de venir au Pentagone, au Defense Policy Board participer à l’élaboration de la politique de Etats- Unis voice over : Richard Perle invited me to come and make a report to the Defense Policy Board to launch an internal debate within the administration on Saudi Arabia. I was extremely honoured that my adopted country should ask me, a Frenchman, to come to the Pentagon, to participate in the developpment of the US policy. Richard PERLE, advisor to the President And it created a bit of an explosion when the newspapers accounted of what had been said in that briefing. MURAWIEC il y a eu une fuite. Le contenu de mon briefing est apparu en première page du Washington Post et ça a crée un énorme scandale puisque jusqu’alors la question saoudienne était une question taboue. voice over : There was a leak. The contents of my report appeared on the front page of the Washington Post, causing a huge scandal because the Saudi issue had been taboo up until then. Still archives: Bush discusses with Crown Prince Abdallah, Rumsfeld discusses with Saudi officials narration: Murawiec's report was anything but politically correct. He put the unthinkable down in writing. The tone was brutal, the analysis extremely harsh towards the Saudi regime. It read as follows: "Saudi Arabia is the kernel of evil, the most dangerous opponent in the Middle East. Saudis are active at every level of the terror chain from planners to financiers to operatives. The Saudis are in fact no more than a sub-tribe, primeval brutes who procreate like rabbits." MURAWIEC J’ai parlé des princes saoudiens qui pullulent comme le lapin en Australie. Puisqu’il y a aujourd’hui aux alentours de 8000 princes saoudiens voice over : I spoke of Saudi princes proliferating like rabbits in Australia. After all, there are around 8,000 Saudi princes today. CARLUCCI, Carlyle Group the portrayal he gave of Saudi Arabia was totally erroneous. And but he made it clear that he was speaking as an individual, it was not a Rand position PERLE it was said in a meeting of Defense department advisors it created a big explosion.. CARLUCCI But his subsequent behavior led to a determination by Rand that his services were no longer needed. top MURAWIEC pourquoi, parce qu’il y a dans la Maison Blanche et dans l’entourage de la Maison Blanche des gens qui font partie de ce que j’appelle le lobby saoudien qui est le plus puissant des lobbies étrangers à Washington et ce sont les gens que le président Bush a hérités en particulier de son père qui gardent une certaine influence dans l’administration, en particulier au département d’Etat dont le chef Colin Powell fait lui aussi partie de ce lobby saoudien. voice over : Why? Because within the White House and gravitating around it are people who belong to what I call the Saudi lobby, the most powerful foreign lobby in Washington and they are the people that President Bush has inherited, in particular, from his father and who continue to wield a certain amount of influence within the administration, in particular at the State Department whose head, Colin Powell, is also part of the Saudi lobby. Stills archives: Bush holding Saudi Crown Prince's hand narration: George W. hurriedly apologized to the Saudi Crown Prince: "This report does not represent views held by myself, the Secretary of Defense or the Vice-President." MURAWIEC Bush a appelé le prince héritier Abdallah et j’ai perdu mon boulot. On m’a rapporté que Carlucci avait en gros exigé ma tête. voice over : Bush called Crown Prince Abdallah, I lost my job. I was told that, basically, Carlucci had demanded my head. CARLUCCI I did speak to the President of Rand corporation, but the Rand corporation conducted its own investigation and made its own determination narration: After an inquiry lasting 2 years, the report into intelligence failures and 9/11 was published by Congress. It included scathing criticisms of the administration, but the report was truncated of anything that touched on the links between the attackers and Saudi Arabia. Around 30 pages, classified as Top Secret, were lost. Stills archive : Ashcroft points finger to "most wanted" poster, Bush with Abdallah James WOOLSEY, former director of the CIA Well it wasn’t lost it was withheld by the executive branch and I think probably because it would have revealed some things that were very embarrassing about Saudi Arabia MURAWIEC Les 28 pages du rapport du Congrès sur le renseignement et le 11 septembre ont été enlevés du rapport ou blanchis dans le rapport, à la demande de l’exécutif voice over :The 28 pages of the Congress report on intelligence and September 11 were removed from the report or laundered within the report at the request of the executive Joseph TRENTO, historian I mean, I think the American public has pretty much figured out the Saudis president Bush has defended them. What he’s saying is,” They are our allies, and that everything’s fine. They’re helping the war against terrorism”. The fact is he invaded the wrong country. If he wanted to fight the war on terrorism, he should have invaded Saudi Arabia, not Iraq. That’s not where the war is and that’s not who funded terrorists. It’s taking the attentions away from what really is the cause of these events and put them on Saddam Hussein –it was a diversion. Everything has been a diversion Images: front page of newspapers announce Saddam Hussein's arrest narration: A week before Christmas, George Bush received the gift he had almost given up on. All the media in America, radio, TV and press, toed the Bush administration's line. The PR companies working for the Pentagon and the White House had earned their fees. The machine was up and running. A very rare exception was a radio station in Los Angeles, which mused, "If information is the oxygen of democracy, the United States has just been gassed." POWELL, Secretary of State that was the right thing to do. Hussein is gone. A dictator is gone Robert BAER, CIA, covert operations Where's the anthrax? Where are the nuclear bunkers? Where are all these stuffs? They were wrong. But they can't admit it. TRENTO The reality is he fooled us. He suckered us into a war in the Middle East based on very poor intelligence, there was no intelligence showing that they had weapons of mass destruction. Sam GWYNNE, journalist all these things that the CIA, that Collin Powell sighted in his UN speech, these giant trucks moving around to these huge mobile weapon facilities but no one found them. TRENTO if you ask the neo cons, who said that there was WDM, that Saddam was about to launch a nuclear and all the rest of the stuff they will tell you that it doesn’t matter, it was the morally right thing to do to go in. it was a bad guy. Richard PERLE, advisor to the President Does anyone believe that we would never have seen weapons of mass destruction in the hands of Saddam Hussein if we had left him in place? I certainly don't. BAER this war was stupid. They wrote articles about it. You have the generals from the first Gulf war who wrote articles about it. You have other generals. The Pentagon hates the wars the generals do, soldiers do. It was all driven by the hawks who were incapable of telling the truth. PERLE But nobody would ask us to stand there and accept a strike that we knew was coming, particularly if it involved a nuclear weapon or a chemical or a biological weapon Arnaud de BORCHGRAVE, Washington Times I don’t think he realizes how unpopular America has become around the world. I really don’t PERLE I realized better than most people what this war would involve. I think most people thought there would be tens of thousands of people killed and there would be a long and very bloody war. I thought it would be over in three weeks with very few people killed and who was right? Images: Arlington National Cemetery narration: 700 dead and Over 3,000 wounded. But the American media has followed instructions and no longer mentions the casualties. The press have been banned from the airbases where the body bags arrive every day. The soldiers' funerals are no longer covered by television. Joseph TRENTO, historian we’re losing you know a dozen Americans a week and I’ll tell you if you drive up to Walter Reed army hospital and look at the kids who’ve lost arm legs who can’t see any more who’ve lost the lowest party of their body, you’ll understand what George Bush’s war means. BAER is that price worth? Is Pain higher than under Saddam? And I say no. As bad as he was. My heart says let the Iraqi find somebody else to replace them, somebody they can leave with POWELL Now there are some who say: ‘Turn sovereignty over right away’. Well, to whom? What power? Who would I turn it over to if I were to go to Baghdad today and say: ‘I’m turning over all sovereignty?’ Norman MAILER, writer that is where the greatest folly was in the war Democracy comes out of an inner impulse in a majority of people in that country, to change the way they live and have a more open and more dignified… You cannot bring it into them from the outside BAER the Hawks will say: "If you turn the table over, it's good. You have democracy, you have civil societies. Everybody'll be happy and they'll accept Israel." There are pessimists like me saying: "You turn the table over and you'll get something much worse." Robert STEELE CIA, covert operations neither Cheney, nor Perle, nor Wolfowitz nor Rumsfeld understood that 80% of that country is lined with Iran. And if we allow free and democratic election we would get an Islamic republic. TRENTO the abysmal ignorance in this administration of the region is one of the most frightening things I’ve ever seen. MAILER they don’t deserve democracy by their own light and they don’t. They haven’t fought for democracy. In the case of Iraq, The only way democracy could come to that country is through a basic war against Saddam Hussein that they were able to win. Which they had not been able to. BAER the way they looked at it and the way they look at it today is this war is unjustified. It was unjustified in their eyes. It was a war against their acting as Muslims. And so that will be as huge pool of recruits for Ben Laden. STEELE if they don’t know that going into it you have to ask yourselves: are these people qualified to manage the American republic TRENTO I think we will probably be looking at this history on a very dark way 4 or 5 year down the road. Images : Crawford top narration: Crawford, Texas, is where George W has his family ranch. Crawford is a village with a population of 500. It has one street, like in the western movies. George W's arrival here marked the beginning of a renaissance. The stores in the village, less than a dozen in all, are now souvenir shops selling presidential memorabilia, alongside Bibles and shotguns and all sorts of gadgets with his picture on, which it is hoped will pave the way for the president's re-election . STEELE Bush truly did not realize the magnitude of his mistake, he has been completely captured by his base, the neo-conservatives, the evangelicals Christians and this big buisiness campaigns contributors Charles LEWIS, Center for public integrity This president has more money than God. We are seeing more money by one political process by one candidate than any time in US history. TRENTO he’s gonna have 200 millions $ to spend on the election cycle. His closest democrat now has raised about 15 million $. So you can see the disparity. Arnaud de BORCHGRAVE, Washington Times On the other hand if casualties amounted, if we’ve a mini Têt offensive in Baghdad, in the middle of the presidential campaign, then it could look very bad for president Bush. Jim HOAGLAND , The Washington Post defeat in Iraq would be a terrible historical and political defeat for George W Bush personally. BAER if the persistence (?) gets much worse which is expected to get much worse, what we should be doing is counting the number of body bags how many dead Americans are coming back David CORN, Washington editor, the Nation several hundreds of Americans have lost their life’s there and it doesn’t look like Iraq is turning around. The Americans public is going to be skeptical about giving Bush another four years. Richard PERLE, advisor to the President Every president is at risk in the United States. If you loose the confidence of the public, you go home. BAER Yeah. He could loose. He could loose. Let's hope! Archives: George Bush heads for the White House narration: In early January 2004, the edifice carefully constructed by the White House began to crack. Faced with a tenacious reporter, George W. Bush finally admitted what he had always denied. Archives : cabinet meeting George W Bush: we have no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involve with September 11th Archives: publication of Paul O'Neill's book, Bush and O’Neill walk together narration: In mid-January, Paul O'Neill, the president's former Treasury Secretary, published a book in which he revealed that the war had been planned well before 9/11. In his book, he describes George W as a "a blind man in a roomful of deaf people". O'Neill is to be charged with leaking a document, dated February 2001, to the press: "Plan for Post-Saddam Iraq". Images: maison blanche narration: A few days later, David Kay, who had headed the team looking for WMD in Iraq, returned to Washington empty-handed. Along with 1,400 weapons inspectors, he had spent 8 months searching vast tracts of Iraqi desert in vain. There was no sign the WMD ever existed. David KAY, CIA, Chief weapons inspector I wanted to call them and their estimate and to tell me exactly where they were since they seems much more sure about their existence than those of us who research them. I was wondering if they were reading my reports. Archives:State of the Union address - 2004 narration: On January 20, 2004, Bush gave his state of the union address, relying on David Kay's findings to lend weight to his assertions. George W Bush: Already, the Kay report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities. Had we failed to act, the dictator's weapons of mass destruction programs would continue to this day. For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein's regime is a better and safer place. David KAY I resigned essentially one day after the state of the union address. I thought the politicians should be for more than caution about they were saying. He should have said in my view: “ we were wrong “, he didn’t. There is an obligation to frankly acknowledge errors. Archives: Kay get out of the Senate hearings David KAY all the Iraqis were talking to despite the fact that I had millions of dollars I could bribe them with. I could have provided them a palatial leaving place in the United States if they had taken us to weapons of mass destruction. In spite of all these incense, no Iraqi had a story to say they had weapons or they ever had weapons. we were all manipulated by Saddam Hussein and I include myself during during my days as inspector. I think he was bluffing. It turned out we are almost all wrong in terms of he’s actually having weapons. Most of his weapons stockpiles of the pre-91 have been destroyed during the 90s…. There is no evidence that he recreated large stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and his nuclear program was a very pale shadow of a large program in the 1980s, it almost didn’t exist. Archives: inspections in Iraq David KAY the April first speech of Secretary Powell really looks a bit ridiculous now in terms of what we found. Archives: Colin Powell, Tenet testifies before the special committee narration : David Kay's resignation, just as the election campaign was gearing up, came as a bombshell. In late January, Colin Powell said, "If I had known what David Kay told the Senate, my advice to the president would not have been to engage hostilities." On February 5, the Director of the CIA, George Tenet, commented publicly for the first time: "We may have overestimated the progress Saddam was making. Our officers never said there was an imminent threat." David KAY The worst thing for democracy is to suppress the truth in the interest of the election. the idea of pre-emptive military action every time you have a threat is a genuinely crazy idea. We went to war for the wrong reasons on a basis of serious deceptions and errors Stills archives: Bush face on with a US flag behind him, the oval office narration : George W. eventually agreed to set up an independent commission of inquiry into the existence of WMDs, which had been the backbone of Washington's justification of the war against Iraq. The commission is due to report in 2005, after November's presidential elections.