Prevaricators

For anyone still not sure about this, the Center for Public Integrity and the Fund for Independence in Journalism released a study on January 23 that reveals President Bush and other top administration officials made 935 false statements about Iraq during the 19 months from September 11, 2001 until the U.S. invasion of that country.

"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. "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."

The study concludes, "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."

Read the full study here.