Another Dean Arises to Give the Bush Administration Fits

As all political eyes are glued to the all-news television channels today to witness the appearance of Condoleezza Rice before the 9/11 Commission, keep in mind the observations made yesterday by Sheldon Rampton, co-author of the book, Weapons of Mass Deception: The Uses of Propaganda in Bush's War on Iraq, and editor of PR Watch.

In comments released in a missive from the Institute for Public Accuracy, Rampton notes: "Like other top officials in the Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice has repeatedly made statements about war in Iraq that are demonstrably false and that she had to know were false at the time she said them."

The following examples were cited:

• "We know that he (Saddam) has the infrastructure, nuclear scientists to make a nuclear weapon...He is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon," she told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Sept. 8, 2002. Rampton said, "In reality, she didn't `know' any such thing, because the U.S. intelligence community was deeply divided on this question."

• In the same interview, Rice told CNN, "We do know that there have been shipments going...into Iraq...of aluminum tubes that really are only suited to...nuclear weapons programs, centrifuge programs." Rampton said, "Rice had to know this statement was false, because the government's most experienced technical experts at the U.S. Department of Energy had concluded that the tubes were `poorly suited' for this purpose, and intelligence officials at the State Department concurred."

• "There is plenty to indict Saddam Hussein without a direct link to 9/11. He clearly has links to terrorism...Links to terrorism would include al Qaeda," she told Fox News (Sept. 15, 2002). Rampton said, "The intelligence community's doubts also didn't stop her from going on Larry King Live (Feb. 5, 2003) to say, `There is no question in my mind about the al Qaeda connection' and that Saddam Hussein had even given al Qaeda 'assistance in chemical and biological weapons.'"

Let's see how well Ms. Rice is made to stand up these "inconsistencies" in her testimony today.

Meanwhile, Bush administration cheerleaders like Sean Hannity on Fox News are chewing on rugs over former Nixon counsel John Dean's new book, Worse Than Watergate, which indicts the administration for "obsessive secrecy and the dire and dangerous consequences resulting from a return to Nixonian governing."

Coming from Dean, evoking the worst executive abuses of the Watergate era from a man who would know, this is powerful stuff. Appearing briefly on the Hannity and Colmes segment of Fox News Tuesday, Dean accused President Bush and Vice President Cheney of "misrepresentations to Congress."

In negotiations with Congress, Dean said that Congress made it clear that an invasion of Iraq would be acceptable based on two conditions: 1. that there is no diplomatic alternative and 2. that an invasion is consistent with the war on terrorism.

"President Bush agreed to those terms," Dean said, "But what he sent as a `determination' to Congress after he invaded Iraq was a sick joke."

"In my book, I make a prima facie case that we've got a problem with this presidency," he said, "a serious problem with secrecy that runs across the handling of Iraq, of the economy and of the environment."

It was amusing to see Hannity drop any pretense to composure or reasonableness with, first, a flimsy attempt to discredit Dean and then a whiney complaint that even if Dean insists he did not write from a partisan standpoint, "You know this book is going to hurt him (Bush)."

"When does it ever hurt to have a good open debate about what's happening in government?," Dean retorted. "When can you not be critical of a president? This is sad if you've taken the attitude that anything that tries to enlighten a presidency is wrong."

Dean noted that even many conservatives are "upset" with the secrecy of the Bush administration, citing Dick Armey and Dan Burton. "They don't like all the secrecy, either," he said.

"This is not a partisan issue, it is a good government issue" he said. "It is an effort to draw attention to a very crucial issue." Turning to Hannity, Dean said, "I can't imagine you would advocate secrecy as the norm for any democracy."

"But you knew this would hurt the president," Hannity sputtered. "That's the point."