WASHINGTON - September 13 – Leaders of Americans for Democratic Action condemn the consistent and unmitigated misdirection that our nation’s Executive Branch has used in discussing terror threats, national security, and military engagement.

An ADA resolution on the subject was passed at a recent meeting that calls for an end to “President Bush’s continued shameful attempt to keep the American people in fear,” and for “elected officials and candidates for office to address the Administration’s ongoing deception and tell Americans the truth.”

The full ADA resolution is below:

PRESIDENT BUSH SHOULD TELL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE TRUTH

ADA condemns President Bush’s misdirection of the American people for the sole purpose of political expediency.

In the interest of national security, Americans deserve an honest discourse on the issue of terrorism. ADA calls upon elected officials and candidates for office to address the Administration’s ongoing deception and tell Americans the truth.

The September 8th Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s report found that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qa’ida. The report stated explicitly that: “Postwar findings identified only one meeting between representatives of al-Qa’ida and Saddam Hussein’s regime reported in prewar intelligence assessments. Postwar findings have identified two occasions, not reported prior to the war, in which Saddam Hussein rebuffed meeting requests from an al-Qa’ida operative. The Intelligence Community had not found any other evidence of meetings between al-Qa’ida and Iraq.”

This Committee report directly refutes the claims made by President Bush, Colin Powell, Richard Cheney and Condoleezza Rice as reasons for invading Iraq.

Yet, President Bush repeatedly has asserted both shortly after September 11, 2001 and as recently as August 21, that Saddam Hussein had relations with al-Qa'ida.

The Senate Committee Report, however, concluded that Mr. Hussein actually, “…was distrustful of al-Qa’ida and viewed Islamic extremists as a threat to his regime, refusing all requests from al-Qa’ida to provide material or operational support.”

The Senate Committee’s report stated that: “Postwar findings do not support the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) judgment that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Information obtained after the war supports the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research’s (INR) assessment in the NIE that the Intelligence Community lacked persuasive evidence that Baghdad had launched a coherent effort to reconstitute its nuclear weapons program.”

The Senate Committee’s report said: “…The ISG found no evidence that Saddam Hussein attempted to restart the nuclear program, and found that Iraq’s ability to restart a nuclear program had, progressively decayed after its destruction in 1991.”

ADA continues to find outrageous President Bush’s persistent attempt to mislead and misdirect the American people into believing there was a connection that would justify his preemptive war. President Bush’s continued shameful attempt to keep the American people in fear, as a way to keep Republicans in control the House and Senate, is equally outrageous.

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