fake photos led to vote authorizing Iraq War

this is a source quoting Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski (D-11th/PA), excuse me, but folks are always saying what can we impeach on, if these photos were shown to Congressman to get them to vote for the Iraq War & they were fakes, isn't that an impeachable offense.

Add faked photos to the list of lies told by the Bush–Cheney Administration before its invasion of Iraq. In a town hall meeting in Bloomsburg, Pa., this week, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a 12-term congressman, said that shortly before Congress was scheduled to vote on authorizing military force against Iraq, top officials of the CIA showed select members of Congress three photographs it alleged were Iraqi Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), better known as drones. Kanjorski said he was told that the drones were capable of carrying nuclear, biological, or chemical agents, and could strike 1,000 miles inland of east coast or west coast cities.

Kanjorski said he and four or five other congressmen in the room were told there may be drones on freighters headed to the U.S. Both secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and President Bush wandered into and out of the briefing room, Kanjorski said. Kanjorski said it was the second time he was called to the White House for a briefing. He had opposed giving the President the powers to go to war, and said that he hadn’t changed his mind after a first meeting. Until he saw the pictures, Kanjorski said, “I hadn’t thought that Iraq was a threat.” That second meeting changed everything. After he left that meeting, said Kanjorski, he was willing to give the President the authorization he wanted since the drones “represented an imminent danger.”

http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_walter_b_070901_fake_photos_helped_l.htm

this was a war of convenience.....and they lied to get the authority!! Can we impeach and prosecute for Treason....can we?

this wasn't just bad intelligence or Curve Ball or an Iraqi nationalist, this was a deliberate fake.

and I will ask that this be investigated.

I'm not interested in anybody's bullshit excuse as to why they voted for this abortion.

But this man has served 12 terms in Congress, why would he lie, if he's telling the
truth, this could be the smoking gun we need because it is an obvious fabrication
that was used to get the Congress to approve the War.

they probably saved the pics for those who represented a large Dem constituency in the Northeast,
then, if things went askew, they could use it as a weapon to divide the Democratic Party, which
they did in 2004. I don't think everybody got this hard sell, he mentions only 5 other
congressman in the room, while Bush and Sec. Rice drift in and out, that would give a
touch of authenticity to the whole thing while giving them plausible denial ability, again,
if things didn't go their way.

:think:

and hubris, and although I believed there was some tweaking of the intelligence, I thought it was driven by
neocon fanatics at the Pentagon, but now I see that there was an obvious faking of information that
occurred at a much higher level, that is different.

I am going to start trying to buy more made in USA, just put together a great puzzle from the Great American
Puzzle Factory company.

This story doesn't suprise me one bit! The 'drones from freighters with nukes' story didn't write itself...

This is not the same as the Niger forgeries, these fakes were in the hands of our high level
CIA people, where did they come from?

....... Kanjorski said he went to see Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), a retired Marine colonel. Murtha, said Kanjorski, “turned white” when told about the drones; Murtha, a former intelligence officer, believed that such information was classified.


Several years later, Kanjorski said he learned that the pictures were “a god-damned lie,” apparently taken by CIA photographers in the desert in the southwest of the U.S. The drone story itself had already been disproved, although not many major media carried that story.


In October 2002, President Bush said in Cincinnati that Iraq had the ability to deliver weapons of mass destruction to eastern U.S. cities. He specifically referred to the drones as the delivery mechanisms that were ready to deliver weapons of mass destruction within 1,000 miles of the east or west coasts. In that same speech, he claimed, “Iraq possesses ballistic missiles with a likely range of hundreds of miles—far enough to strike Saudi Arabia, Israel, Turkey, and other nations—in a region where more than 135,000 American civilians and service members live and work.” Bush further claimed, “Surveillance photos reveal that the regime is rebuilding facilities that it had used to produce chemical and biological weapons.” Those claims were later proven false.


Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) said that at the time the President made his speech, intelligence analysts had already discounted that threat. Nelson had told Florida Today in December 2003 that no analysts had “found anything that resembles an UAV that has that capability.” Any drones that Iraq did have, John Pike, director of Global Security, a major military and intelligence “think tank,” told Florida Today, had limited range, and would not be able to target Tel Aviv, let alone the U.S.


Nelson, on the floor of the Senate in January 2004, said that the information presented by the Administration was crucial in getting him and others to authorize a pre-emptive strike.

it needs to come out and be said, this lie was the reason we went to war, not Curve Ball, not Iraqi nationals,
not the Niger forgeries, this needs investigated, we need to know: what did the president know and when
did he know it.

Bush himself was saying there were photos of these drones in an Ohio speech but the photos
were photos of US weapons, where did they come from and who lied about them.

Both secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and President Bush wandered into and out of the briefing room, Kanjorski said.

:sarcasm:

questions regarding his statements which were given to approximately 40 people at a townhall meeting.
But if this is true and there was a congressional investigation then the truth would come out. This is easier
to prove than Curve Ball or the Niger documents. Afterdowningstreet.org has it up now, so maybe there will
be pressure to get to the bottom of this.

Here's the author's bio, that I copied from afterdowningstreet.org

Authors Bio: Walter Brasch is an award-winning journalist and university professor. His current books are America's Unpatriotic Acts: The Federal Government's Violation of Constitutional and Civil Rights, and 'Unacceptable': The Federal response to Hurricane Katrina, both available at amazon.com, borders.com and most major on-line bookstores

I remember everyone talking about the duct tape, and laughing at how unbelievable it was.

It's no different than WMD's, the mobile weapons labs, the aluminum tubes, the Niger Yellowcake, etc.

When this stuff resurfaces, I just am reminded at how much has been forgotten. How much lying this administration did.

I guess if we had a real media this would not have been forgotten.

I honestly never recalled hearing that the drones photos were photos of our own weapons, I know about the
fake UN presentation, I heard it on Frontline.

It's easy to confuse me sometimes. I guess I'm so used to being right by reading this forum that having to go back and review it is like doing a doubletake.

I see the part about the photos being taken here was new. Doh. I guess I'm very worn out from 100 miles of biking in the last few days. :)

Thanks. I really appreciate being on this forum. I'm slow, but I've learned so much here because of you all.

let's hope it bears fruit, anyone that bikes 100 miles has my vote, thanks for the update.

Miss Waverly

I hope our leadership starts asking questions to uncover who ordered this. Not that these people are any stranger to committing felonies but this is a smoking gun the public can digest.

This story passes the "Brian Williams" principle. You can explain it and have it understood and get a visceral reaction in 15 seconds on the evening news. (I know, I know, whether Brian Williams will choose to cover it is another matter)

becuz this was an obvious fabrication by someone in the US government to lie us into war, it can't be explained away
by bogus agents, forged documents mysteriously surfacing at Italian embassies, enemies of Saddam, etc. Nobody
but authorized personnel could get access to take pictures of our weapons and then they were passed along
to use as Attack Iraq PR.

sway his vote to authorize war, then goddamnit, he needs to say so, loudly and publicly--this would not be "faulty intelligence", the way they try to classify all the other trumped-up bullshit, this is genuine forgery to mislead Congress--why is he not calling press conferences? Where are the other Reps and Senators to whom these photos were shown? Why is there no outcry?

they were certainly steamed up about firing the US attorneys, this makes that look like a
walk in the park, they know the drill, they are supposed to take action to protect
the American people, lying us into war should be dealt with.