Click here for a searchable database of 237 specific misleading statements about the threat posed by Iraq made by President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice in 125 public appearances in the time leading up to and after the commencement of hostilities in Iraq. The 237 statements exclude any that turned out to be incorrect only in hindsight but were accurate assessments of then-current intelligence.
The database was compiled by the United States House of Representatives Committee on Government Reform, Minority Staff Special Investigations Division, at the request of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California), who is the ranking minority member of that committee.
I think a few statements are included in the database that should not be there. For instance, the committee faults a July 2003 statement by Bush, "I believe he was trying to reconstitute his nuclear weapons program," because it fails to acknowledge known intelligence to the contrary. However, Bush did not say that the intelligence showed that Saddam Hussein was trying to reconstituted a nuclear program; Bush said he believed that was what was going on. If he believed that, the statement is true. Beliefs can be factually wrong. People believe a lot of things in spite of the facts.
Even with a few of those thrown in, the database is an interesting read.
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