Slam dunk

From Raw Story: Howard Dean does a slam dunk on Bush's ass.

Dean: Bush should declassify info about 'weapons' trailers

The following statement was issued by the Democratic National Committee to RAW STORY.

The Washington Post reported today that President Bush detailed the alleged existence of mobile biological weapons laboratories and claimed that "We have found the weapons of mass destruction," two days after a "Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington" in a May 27, 2003 field report that directly contradicted the President's statements. The final version of that report remains classified to this day. [Washington Post, 4/12/06]

This week, President Bush stated that he declassified and authorized the leak of cherry-picked portions of the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate because he "wanted people to see the truth," and "to see what some of those statements were based on." [President Bush, 4/10/06] In a breakfast discussion this morning with a couple dozen journalists hosted by the American Prospect, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean called on President Bush to release or declassify the final Defense Intelligence Agency report on the trailers so that the American people can learn whether they were misled about the claims of Iraqi biological weapons:

"Given that the President has been willing to declassify information for his own political purposes, he should declassify this report so that the American people can know if they were misled. The onus is clearly on the President to clarify the situation surrounding this report. Was this incompetence, meaning that he did not know something that he clearly should have known, or is this an instance of dishonesty where information was misused or withheld to support a political agenda?"

Ouch.

Thank you, Chairman Dean.