March 21, 2007 - America went to war against Iraq based upon false premises. There was no fearsome Iraqi arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. There was no Iraqi program to develop nuclear weapons, clandestine or otherwise. There was no significant connection between Ba?athist Iraq and Al Qaeda. Whether the Bush administration?s pre-invasion claims resulted from a calculated program of intentional misstatement or from a negligent reliance on inadequate or massaged intelligence those provocative administration claims were false, even the President of the United States has publicly acknowledged that the facts did not support his administration?s partisan rhetoric in the run up to the invasion of Iraq.

That the administration was aware as early as May 2003 that its case for war against Iraq was seriously flawed was illustrated by its frantic campaign to discredit the critical revelations of Ambassador Joseph Wilson. That campaign, including the effort to cloak the facts in darkness, took a heavy toll on the administration?s credibility despite the President?s public pledge to get at the truth and that any White House personnel found to be involved in the leak of Ms. Plame?s identity would no longer work at the White House. Scooter Libby?s perjured testimony to the grand jury demonstrated the Bush Administration?s lack of regard for speaking the truth.


Now there is a new demonstration of the administration?s devotion to candor and truth. A purge of United States District Attorneys who were perceived to be less willing to marshal the system of justice to support Bush Administration political agendas was hatched at the highest levels of the White House and executed at the highest levels of the Department of Justice.  Some of the fired prosecutors did not slip quietly into oblivion and the matter became a public embarrassment. The immediate reaction from the White House was to unequivocally declare that all of the purged prosecutors had performance deficiencies. That explanation did not sell. Almost immediately it emerged that the US Attorney for Arkansas was purged to make room for a Karl Rove prot‚g‚ with no appreciable prosecutorial experience. Kyle Sampson, first a staffer at the White House and more recently Attorney General Gonzales? Chief of Staff, fell on his sword as the author of the purge.

Learning the wrong lesson from the Scooter Libby episode the White House is refusing to permit its minions to testify in open hearings, to have any transcription of their remarks or to appear under oath. The Administration has thus escalated a minor political embarrassment that would have blown over in a week into a continuing blot upon the White House reputation for truthfulness and candor. With the continuing wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; with the continuing crises with Iran and North Korea; the administration?s credibility needs rehabilitation not further erosion.

There was a time that Americans could rely upon their government speaking the truth. That time is gone.