Timeline: The Bush Administration's Justification for War

• March 17, 2002
  
  "We know they have biological and chemical weapons." - Vice President Richard Cheney
  
  The Statement was misleading because it professed certainty when the intelligence community provided only an "estimate." According to CIA Director George Tenet, "it is important to underline the word estimate. Because not everything we analyze can be known to a standard of absolute proof." In addition, the statement failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." Source: Press Conference by Vice President Cheney and his Highness Salam bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince of Bahrain, White House
  
  
• November 14, 2002
  
  "a week, or a month" Saddam Hussein could give his weapons of mass destruction to al Qaeda, which could use them to attack the United States and killed "30,000, or 100,000 . . . human beings." - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
  
  The Statement was misleading because, by evoking the specter of thousands of deaths in a time frame as short as "a week, or a month," it suggested that Iraq posed an urgent threat. The U.S. intelligence community, however, had deep divisions and divergent points of view regarding Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Further, according to the National Intelligence Estimate, the intelligence community had "low confidence" regarding whether Iraq would provide al Qaeda with weapons of mass destruction. Source: Secretary Rumsfeld Live Interview with Infinity CBS Radio, Infinity-CBS Radio
  
  
• January 29, 2003
  
  "His regime has the design for a nuclear weapon, was working on several different methods of enriching uranium, and recently was discovered seeking significant quantities of uranium from Africa." - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
  
  The Statement was misleading because it asserted that Iraq sought uranium from Africa despite the fact that the CIA had expressed doubts about the credibility of this claim in two memos to the White House, including one addressed to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet also had warned against using the claim in a telephone call to Ms. Rice's deputy. In addition, the statement failed to mention that State Department intelligence officials had concluded that this claim was "highly dubious." Source: Donald Rumsfeld and Richard Myers Hold Regular Defense Department Briefing, Defense Department
  
  
• May 1, 2003
  
  "The liberation of Iraq is a crucial advance in the campaign against terror. We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding. And this much is certain: No terrorist network will gain weapons of mass destruction from the Iraqi regime, because the regime is no more." - President George W. Bush
  
  The Statement was misleading because it suggested that Iraq was linked to al Qaeda. In fact, the U.S. intelligence community had conflicting evidence on this issue and was divided regarding whether there was an operational relationship. Source: President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended, White House
  
  
• May 1, 2003
  
  "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001 -- and still goes on. That terrible morning, 19 evil men -- the shock troops of a hateful ideology -- gave America and the civilized world a glimpse of their ambitions. They imagined, in the words of one terrorist, that September the 11th would be the 'beginning of the end of America.' By seeking to turn our cities into killing fields, terrorists and their allies believed that they could destroy this nation's resolve, and force our retreat from the world. They have failed." - President George W. Bush
  
  The Statement was misleading because by referencing the September 11 attacks in conjunction with discussion of the war on terror in Iraq, it left the impression that Iraq was connected to September 11. In fact, President Bush himself in September 2003 acknowledged that "We've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th." Source: President Bush Announces Major Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended, White House
  
  
• May 16, 2003
  
  "QUESTION: Do you think they will find any (WMDs)? SECRETARY POWELL: Yes, I am quite sure. And, in fact, we have found a couple of items of equipment, some mobile vans, so that with each passing day the evidence is clearer to us that they were used for biological weapons purposes." - Secretary of State Colin Powell
  
  The Statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Source: Interview with ZDF Morgenmagazin, ZDF German Television
  
  
• May 22, 2003
  
  "There is no doubt in our minds now that those vans were designed for only one purpose, and that was to make biological weapons." - Secretary of State Colin Powell
  
  The Statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Source: Interview with French Television 1, TF-1
  
  
• May 29, 2003
  
  "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them."- President George W. Bush
  
  The Statement was misleading because it claimed the purpose of the trailers was to produce biological weapons without disclosing that engineers from the Defense Intelligence Agency who examined the trailers concluded that they were most likely used to produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Source: Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, White House
  
  
• July 2, 2003
  
  "Anybody who wants to harm American troops will be found and brought to justice… There are some that feel like if they attack us that we may decide to leave prematurely. They don't understand what they are talking about if that is the case. Let me finish. There are some who feel like the conditions are such that they can attack us there. My answer is, bring 'em on."
  - President George W. Bush
  
  Bush's tough talk was criticized by Democratic presidential candidate Dick Gephardt who said the president should stop with the "phony, macho rhetoric…. I have a message for the president. We should be focused on a long-term security plan that reduces the danger to our military personnel."
  
  
• July 13, 2003
  
  "My only point is that, in retrospect, knowing that some of the documents underneath may have been--were, indeed, forgeries, and knowing that apparently there were concerns swirling around about this, had we known that at the time, we would not have put it in. . . . And had there been even a peep that the agency did not want that sentence in or that George Tenet did not want that sentence in, that the director of Central Intelligence did not want it in, it would have been gone." - National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
  
  Ms. Rice was responding to questions regarding how the claim that Iraq sought uranium in Africa made it into the President's January 28, 2003, State of the Union address. The statement that the Director of Central Intelligence and the CIA did not object to the claim was false. In October 2002, the CIA expressed doubts about the claim in two memos to the White House, including one addressed to Ms. Rice. Director of Central Intelligence George Tenet also warned against using the claim in a telephone call to Ms. Rice's deputy in October 2002. Source: Face the Nation, CBS
  
  
• July 31, 2003
  
  "Going into the war against Iraq, we had very strong intelligence. I've been in this business for 20 years. And some of the strongest intelligence cases that I've seen, key judgments by our intelligence community that Saddam Hussein could have a nuclear weapons by the end of the decade, if left unchecked . . . that he was trying to reconstitute his nuclear program."
  - National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
  
  The Statement was misleading because it failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities." Source: National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice Interview with ZDF German Television, ZDF German Television
  
  
• October 3, 2003
  
  "It isn't a figment of anyone's imagination that just 15 years ago they gassed and killed 5,000 people with sarin and VX at a place called Halabja I visited just a few weeks ago. They never lost that capability." - Secretary of State Colin Powell
  
  The Statement was misleading because it professed certainty when the intelligence community provided only an "estimate." According to CIA Director George Tenet, "it is important to underline the word estimate. Because not everything we analyze can be known to a standard of absolute proof." In addition, the statement failed to acknowledge the Defense Intelligence Agency position that: "There is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons or where Iraq has -- or will -- establish its chemical warfare agent production facilities.” Source: Remarks After Meeting with Hungarian Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs, State Dept
  
  
• June 16, 2004
  
  The Sept. 11 commission reported that it has found no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and al Qaeda, challenging one of the Bush administration's main justifications for the war in Iraq.
  
  
• July 6, 2004
  
  After examining available transcripts of the Vice President's public remarks, the 9-11 Commission believes it has access to the same information the Vice President has seen regarding contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq prior to the 9-11attacks. - Statement by Thomas H. Kean, Chair, and Lee H. Hamilton, Vice Chair of the 9-11 Commission

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