Sejanus was a liar, but so fine a general of lies that he knew how to marshal them into an alert and disciplined formation... which would come off best in any skirmish with suspicions or any general engagement with truth.
-- Robert Graves, from "I, Claudius"
"The United States does not permit, tolerate or condone torture under any circumstances.... The United States does not transport, and has not transported, detainees from one country to another for the purpose of interrogation using torture. The United States does not use the airspace or the airports of any country for the purpose of transporting a detainee to a country where he or she will be tortured." - Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, 5 Dec 2005
"[W]e comply with U.S. law. We respect the sovereignty of the countries with which we deal. And we do not move people around the world so that they can be tortured." - Stephen Hadley, U.S. National Security Advisor, 4 Dec 2005.
"More than 100 Democrats in the House and the Senate, who had access to the same intelligence, voted to support removing Saddam Hussein from power." - President George W. Bush, 11 Nov 2005.
"We do not torture." - President George W. Bush, 7 Nov 2005.
"[A]ny time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution". - President George W. Bush, 20 Apr 2004.
"I do not remember any reports to us, a kind of strategic warning, that planes might be used as weapons." - Condoleezza Rice, 8 Apr 2004.
"But make no mistake -- as I said earlier -- we have high confidence that they have weapons of mass destruction. That is what this war was about and it is about. And we have high confidence it will be found". - Ari Fleischer, White House Press Secretary, 10 Apr 2003.
"[T]he area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat". - Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 30 Mar 2003.
"There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And . . . as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them". - General Tommy Franks, 22 Mar 2003.
"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised". - President George W. Bush, 17 Mar 2003.
"Let's talk about the nuclear proposition for a minute. … We know that based on intelligence, that [Saddam] has been very, very good at hiding these kinds of efforts. He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons". - Vice President Dick Cheney, 16 Mar 2003.
"If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct". - former Secretary of State Colin Powell, 28 Feb 2003.
"[The conflict with Iraq] has nothing to do with oil, literally nothing to do with oil." - Donald Rumsfeld, 15 Nov 2002.
"We estimate that once Iraq acquires fissile material -- whether from a foreign source or by securing the materials to build an indigenous fissile material capability -- it could fabricate a nuclear weapon within one year. It has rebuilt its civilian chemical infrastructure and renewed production of chemical warfare agents, probably including mustard, sarin, and VX. It actively maintains all key aspects of its offensive BW [biological weapons] program. And in terms of its support for terrorism, we have established that Iraq has permitted Al-Qaeda to operate within its territory." - John Bolton, former Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, 1 Nov 2002.
"[Saddam] is a man that we know has had connections with al-Qaeda. This is a man who would like to use al-Qaeda as a forward army". - President George W. Bush, 14 Oct 2002.
"Iraq could decide on any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group or individual terrorists". - President George W. Bush, 7 Oct 2002.
"You can't distinguish between Al Qaeda and Saddam when you talk about the war on terror." President George W. Bush, 25 Sept 2002.
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us". - Vice President Dick Cheney, 26 Aug 2002.
"[I]t's pretty well confirmed that [Atta] did go to Prague and he did meet with a senior official of the Iraqi intelligence service in [the Czech Republic] last April, several months before the attack." - Vice President Dick Cheney, 9 Dec 2001.
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