Rediff

Washington, Jan 24: United States President George Bush and his top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the threat posed by Iraq in the two years following the 9/11 terror attack, according to a study by the Center for Public Integrity, a non-profit journalism organisation.

The study counted 935 false statements made by eight top Bush administration officials in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues which, "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanised public opinion in the run-up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq."

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-Qaeda or both, according to the study titled "Iraq- The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War".

"It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to al-Qaeda," according to Centre founder Charles Lewis.

The false statements included in the analysis were made by Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Colin Powell, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleisher and Scott McClellan, the Center said in a statement.

Bush, with 260 false statements, led the scorecard, followed by Powell with 254.

"These false statements dramatically increased in August 2002, just prior to the Congressional consideration of a war resolution and during the critical weeks in early 2003 when the president delivered his State of the Union address and Powell delivered his memorable presentation to the United Nations Security Council," it said.