George Soros Funded Study Says Bush Lied

The AP reports, and the New York Times expands, on a new study by a supposedly "independent" organization that claims to have assembled hundred of "false statements" by the Bush administration in the course of the Iraq war. However, the Center for Public Integrity hardly qualifies as "independent". It gets much of its funding from George Soros, who has thrown millions of dollars behind Democratic political candidates, and explicitly campaigned to defeat George Bush in 2004:

Nowhere in these articles do either news organization bother to inform their reader of the partisan nature of the CPI. Besides Soros, it gets financing from the Streisand Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Los Angeles Times Foundation. The FIJ shares most of its board members with the CPI, which hardly makes it a separate entity in terms of its political direction.

Dafydd at Big Lizards does a good job of pulling apart the supposed quotes that CPI used to blow some hot air into the limp "Bush lied" meme, but even the New York Times wasn't impressed:

In fact, there is nothing new in this site that hasn't already been picked apart by the blogosphere, and some of it discredited. It includes the debunked charge that Bush lied in the "sixteen words" of the 2003 State of the Union address. Joe Wilson's own report to the CIA and to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence confirmed that, at least according to Niger's Prime Minister, Iraq had sought to trade for uranium in 1999. The CPI site has the sixteen words posted as one of their false statements.

Let's boil this down. An organization funded by known political activists puts up a website with shopworn quotes taken mostly out of context and misrepresented -- and this somehow qualifies as news?

Hey, AP. I'll be posting a couple of essays today. I'll be sure to look for your breathless report on the wires later this afternoon.

Soros is in Davos, Switzerland today. He has enough money and power to affect the current instability in our economy...sort of the butterfly effect. The Big Money People are all collaborating on what to do about global markets and the subprime/credit losses, banks in trouble, etc. Soros said something about mortgage defaults and foreclosures on TV, something else about banks who are big enough will not close. He and some former treasury secretary were saying that all these bundled funds are "in the dark", because no one knows where the really bad, worthless components are in these bundles, and someone needs to "turn on the light". Soros blamed banks and ratings agencies for not understanding what can and can't be done in the market.

I suspect he wants to keep fears of recessions and meltdowns and bank runs going until there's a Democrat in the WH, at which point the seas will calm.

And in other (equally credible) news:

A study funded by NORMAAL shows that heavy marijuana use increases alertness and cognitive ability.

A study funded by NAMBLA shows that preadolescence males sexually molested by adult males grow up to experience fewer mental problems than those that were not molested.

A study funded by the National Tobacco Institute shows that smoking not only gives you fresher breath, but that it increases lung capacity and gives you more endurance.

A study funded by the National Distillers Association says they have a study that shows that the health benefits of moderate drinking increase with the amount of alcohol consumed.

A study financed by the DNC shows that voters that vote for Democrats are saner than those that vote for Republicans.

A study financed by the RNC shows that voters that vote for Republicans are saner than those that vote for Democrats.

A study funded by Al Gore claims anthropomorphic global warming is real.

A study funded by the National Grindstone Manufacturers Association shows that individuals and organizations with an axe to grind are likely to fund studies that reinforce and underscore the positions they espouse.

CHECK OUT THE YAHOO PAGE RIGHT NOW!

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080123/ap_on_go_pr_wh/misinformation_study

Study: False statements preceded war By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 35 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.

The study concluded that the statements “were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.”

The study was posted Tuesday on the Web site of the Center for Public Integrity, which worked with the Fund for Independence in Journalism.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel did not comment on the merits of the study Tuesday night but reiterated the administration’s position that the world community viewed Iraq’s leader, Saddam Hussein, as a threat.

“The actions taken in 2003 were based on the collective judgment of intelligence agencies around the world,” Stanzel said.

The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.

“It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaida,” according to Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the Fund for Independence in Journalism staff members, writing an overview of the study. “In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003.”

Named in the study along with Bush were top officials of the administration during the period studied: Vice President Dick Cheney, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan.

Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq’s links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell’s 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.

The center said the study was based on a database created with public statements over the two years beginning on Sept. 11, 2001, and information from more than 25 government reports, books, articles, speeches and interviews.

“The cumulative effect of these false statements — amplified by thousands of news stories and broadcasts — was massive, with the media coverage creating an almost impenetrable din for several critical months in the run-up to war,” the study concluded.

“Some journalists — indeed, even some entire news organizations — have since acknowledged that their coverage during those prewar months was far too deferential and uncritical. These mea culpas notwithstanding, much of the wall-to-wall media coverage provided additional, ‘independent’ validation of the Bush administration’s false statements about Iraq,” it said.

___

On the Net:

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.