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Democracy Now!
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8:00-8:01 Billboard:
Lies, Lies and More Lies: Intelligence Agents from the U.S.
and Australia and a Top U.K. Researcher Outline the Falsehoods
that Led to War
INTRO: Democracy Now! speaks to former Australian intelligence
analyst Andrew Wilkie, Cambridge University's Glen Rangwala
and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
The Greatest Hits of Ari Fleischer
INTRO: White House Press Secretary steps down after his
300th press briefing. We look back on his warning Americans
to “watch what they do and what they say,” his
memorable exchange with Helen Thomas over whether President
Bush valued the lives of Iraqi children and his interactions
with Russell Mokhiber, of “Ari & I” fame.
8:01-8:06 Headlines
8:06-8:07 One Minute Music Break
8:07-8:30 Lies, Lies and More Lies: Intelligence Agents from
the U.S. and Australia and a Top U.K. Researcher Outline the
Falsehoods that Led to War
INTRO: Democracy Now! speaks to former Australian intelligence
analyst Andrew Wilkie, Cambridge University's Glen Rangwala
and former CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
The White House is doing everything it can to crush a potentially
disastrous political firestorm.
The Democratic party is calling for a public inquiry as a
new CBS poll reveals that 56% of the public say Bush administration
officials were hiding important elements of what they knew
regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq or were outright
lying.
President Bush yesterday defended the "darn good"
intelligence he receives as The White House came under increasing
scrutiny over why Bush told Congress and the nation in January
that Iraq was attempting to purchase uranium from the African
nation of Niger to rebuild its nuclear program.
Bush said the CIA's doubts about the charge were “subsequent”
to the State of the Union speech in which Bush made the allegation.
Bush's position is at odds with those of his own aides, who
acknowledged over the weekend that the CIA raised doubts about
the claim more than four months before the speech.
Meanwhile the White House had been blaming the CIA for failing
to remove the statement from drafts of the speech. On Friday
CIA Director George Tenet took blame for the statement in
an unusual public apology.
Yet according to the Washington Post, Tenet had personally
argued the language not be included in Bush’s October
address in Cincinnati.
Defending the broader decision to go to war yesterday, Bush
said the decision was made after he gave Saddam Hussein "a
chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them
in."
This contradicts the events leading up to war when Saddam
Hussein admitted the inspectors into Iraq and Bush subsequently
opposed extending their work because he did not believe them
effective.
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services
Committee last week that the U.S. had no new evidence that
Iraq was pursuing weapons of mass destruction prior to the
attack in March. He insisted the invasion was still justified.
Departing press secretary, Ari Fleischer, used a briefing
yesterday to castigate the press for a "media feeding
frenzy that misinterprets why America went to war."
Meanwhile in Britain, responding to the controversy over
the claim that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Niger, Foreign
Secretary Jack Straw cited evidence that Saddam Hussein was
trying to build a nuclear bomb. He failed to mention the evidence
was 12 years old.
In an interview with BBC Radio 4's Today program, Straw referred
to Mahdi Obeidi, an Iraqi scientist, who has handed parts
and documents needed to build a gas centrifuge system that
enriches uranium to American officials. What Straw did not
say was that Obeidi had buried the evidence in his garden
as long ago as 1991.
Labor MPs claimed the Foreign Secretary had resorted to desperate
tactics and accused him of misleading the public.
The discovery of the parts and documents is the only success
announced to date of the Iraqi Survey Group, which is searching
for Saddam's alleged weapons of mass destruction.
And a new poll released in the British newspaper The Daily
Mirror yesterday concluded that two-thirds of people in Britain
think Prime Minister Tony Blair misled them when he made his
argument for attacking Iraq.
And finally Australian Prime Minister John Howard has come
under intense pressure to explain exactly when he learned
of doubts about the accuracy of claims that Iraq tried to
buy uranium from Africa.
Three Australian intelligence agencies have said they became
aware of the doubts early this year. But all three claim they
did not pass them to Howard before he made a key speech to
parliament in February outlining his reasons for joining the
United States-led invasion.
Asked if he should apologize yesterday, Howard told a Melbourne
radio station: "Apologize? I apologize if I mislead people.
I don't accept that I knowingly misled people."
- Andrew Wilkie, senior intelligence analyst for Australia's
intelligence agency, the Office of National Assessments.
He resigned on March 11, 2003 to protest the way intelligence
was used to justify Australia's support for war on Iraq.
He is speaking at a press conference later today with Congressman
and Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich and former CIA
analyst Ray McGovern.
- Glen Rangwala, lecturer in politics at Cambridge University
in
Britain. He discovered Britain’s latest intelligence
report on Iraq was
stolen from a doctoral student’s thesis. He has also
written a report: "A First
Response to Secretary Colin Powell's Presentation Concerning
Iraq"
Link: news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=424008
- Ray McGovern, former CIA analyst.
8:20-8:21 One Minute Music Break
8:21-8:30 Intelligence Cont’d
8:30-8:50 The Greatest Hits of Ari Fleischer
INTRO: White House Press Secretary steps down after his
300th press briefing. We look back on his warning Americans
to “watch what they do and what they say,” his
memorable exchange with Helen Thomas over whether President
Bush valued the lives of Iraqi children and his interactions
with Russell Mokhiber, of “Ari & I” fame.
“Ari Fleischer's ability to repeat a lie even after
it's been shown, repeatedly, to be false is what separates
him from the amateurs.”
That was how the website Slate.com described White House
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer last year.
Well yesterday Fleischer left his post after two and a half
years as the chief mouthpiece of the White House.
The New York Times reports he is now going to sign up with
the prestigious Washington Speaker s Bureau to go on the lucrative
lecture circuit.
He will also work on fundraising for Bush’s 2004 campaign
and he plans to open Ari Fleischer Communications, a private
consulting firm to give advice to corporate executives on
dealing wit h the media.
Fleischer is being replaced by a deputy, Scott McClellan,
whose first briefing is scheduled for today. McClellan comes
from a political family in Texas with long ties to the Bush
clan. His mother, Carole Keeton Strayhorn, is the comptroller
of Texas. His brother, Mark McClellan, is commissioner of
the Food and Drug Administration.
Well today we are joined by Russell Mokhiber, editor of the
Corporate Crime Reporter and a regular attendee of White House
press conferences. For the past two years the website commondreams.org
has run a feature titled “Ari and I” that chronicled
the back and forth between Mokhiber and Fleischer.
We’ll play clips of “Ari and I” as well
as questioning by veteran White House correspondent Helen
Thomas and questions from his last press conference on the
Iraq-Niger controversy.
- Russell Mokhiber, editor of the Corporate Crime Reporter.
He is a regular at White House press briefings. For the
past two years the website commondreams.org has run a feature
titled “Ari and I” that chronicled the back
and forth between Mokhiber and Fleischer.
Link: www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0714-10.htm
- Russell Mokhiber questioning Ari Fleischer about whether
he resigned for moral reasons. Recorded at White House press
briefing, May 19, 2003
- Ari Fleischer, warning Americans to “watch what
they say, watch what they do.” Recorded at White House
press briefing, Sept. 26, 2001.
- Ari Fleischer defending the Bush administration’s
use of intelligence on Iraq. Recorded at White House press
briefing, July 14, 2003.
- Helen Thomas questioning Ari Fleischer on how much President
Bush values the lives of Iraqi children. Recorded at White
House press briefing, January 6, 2003
8:58-8:59 Outro and Credits
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
Our email address is mail@democracynow.org.
Democracy Now! is produced by Kris Abrams, Mike Burke, Angie
Karran, Sharif Abdul Kouddous, Lenina Nadal, Ana Nogueira,
and Elizabeth Press. Mike Di Filippo is our music maestro
and engineer.
[Thanks also to Uri Galed, Angela Alston, Orlando Richards,
Simba Russeau, Rafael delaUz, Gabriel Weiss, Johnny Sender,
Rich Kim, Chris Zucker, Karen Ranucci, Denis Moynihan, Jenny
Filipazzo and Ionnis Mookas.
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