When The President Lies

Your are left to ponder a few issues.

A couple of days ago Bush came out and admitted that the CIA was controlling a few black hole prisons around the world, but that the fourteen captives we had been housing and torturing there were now being moved to Cuba.

He defended the use of these black holes, and of torture by claiming that they have been a useful tool in the fight against a battle tactic.

The trouble is, much of what he said was not true.

President Bush said the detention system had used lawful interrogation techniques, was fully described to select members of Congress and led directly to the capture of a string of terrorists over the past four years.

A review of public documents and interviews with American officials raises questions about Mr. Bush's claims on all three fronts

{snip}

Mr. Bush described the interrogation techniques used on the C.I.A. prisoners as having been "safe, lawful and effective," ................ Congressional officials said on Thursday that they had not received documents from the administration explaining the legal underpinnings of the program.

{snip}

Mr. Bush's claims that his administration fully briefed some members of Congress on details of the secret detention program.

Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said on Wednesday that the Bush administration had "withheld details of the C.I.A. detention and interrogation program from the Congressional intelligence committees."

{snip}

Mr. Bush said it was Mr. Zubaydah who disclosed to C.I.A. interrogators that Mr. Mohammed was the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks and often used the alias Mukhtar, sometimes spelled Muktar.

"This was a vital piece of intelligence that helped our intelligence community pursue K.S.M.,"Mr. Bush said, referring to the terror suspect by his initials.

The report of the Sept. 11 commission said that the C.I.A. knew of the moniker for Mr. Mohammed months before the capture of Mr. Zubaydah.

Now we consider these questions. Did the President know he was lying to the American public? Did he think he was telling the truth, but it was his staff who created these lies? Did his staff think that these details were the truth, and various departments have lied to the White House?

Or, do they just not care about the truth?

It is a sad day when our own government has to be fact checked about almost every claim they make. It is an even sadder day when those checks prove that out government is incapable of telling the truth, and instead spreads political fantasy.

I now wonder what lies will be told Monday night.

Tags
War on Terror