Today, Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) and Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-MI) held a press conference and announced “we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” Santorum and Hoekstra are hyping a document that describes degraded, pre-1991 munitions that were already acknowledged by the White House’s Iraq Survey Group and dismissed.

Fox News’ Jim Angle contacted the Defense Department who quickly disavowed Santorum and Hoekstra’s claims. A Defense Department official told Angle flatly that the munitions hyped by Santorum and Hoekstra are “not the WMD’s for which this country went to war.”

Fox’s Alan Colmes broke the news to Santorum. Watch it:

Transcript: Read more

Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) took to the microphone today to announce a shocking discovery — that WMD have been found in Iraq:

Congressman Hoekstra and I are here today to say that we have found weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, chemical weapons. “¦ Since 2003, coalition forces have recovered approximately 500 weapons munitions which contain degraded mustard or sarin nerve agent. Despite many efforts to locate and destroy Iraq’s pre-Gulf War chemical munitions, filled and unfilled pre-Gulf War chemical munitions are assessed to still exist.

The Bush administration commissioned the Iraq Survey Group to determine whether in fact any WMD existed in Iraq. After a year and half of meticulously combing through the country, here’s what the administration’s own inspectors reported:

While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that Iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991. There are no credible Indications that Baghdad resumed production of chemical munitions thereafter, a policy ISG attributes to Baghdad’s desire to see sanctions lifted, or rendered ineffectual, or its fear of force against it should WMD be discovered.

The White House should immediately announce whether it stands with Santorum or whether it stands behind the review conducted by Charles Duelfer and the Iraq Survey Group. Recall, in October 2004, Bush said of Duelfer’s analysis:

The chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer, has now issued a comprehensive report that confirms the earlier conclusion of David Kay that Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there.

Fox News isn’t waiting for an administration statement. Their right wing pundits are already peddling the story as truth. Host John Gibson: “Sen. Rick Santorum announcing a startling find … In fact, WMDs were found in Iraq.”

Last night, PBS’s Frontline aired a new documentary entitled “The Dark Side” which tells the story of how Vice President Cheney seized on 9/11 to expand executive power and exert control over the nation’s intelligence functions.

One of the many examples the show cites of the administration’s successful manipulation of Iraq intelligence was the use of National Intelligence Estimate to propagate some of the most misleading claims.

After the congressional vote in October 2002, the Bush administration published a “white paper” unclassified version of the NIE. That “white paper” changed many of the official judgments of intelligence professionals by turning qualified conclusions into blunt assertions of fact. One of the primary authors of the “white paper,” former CIA staffer Paul Pillar, told Frontline the paper was “clearly requested and published for policy advocacy purposes,” rather than its intended function as a fact-intensive, comprehensive judgment of the intelligence community. He added, “I regret having a role in that.” Watch it.

Full transcript of Pillar’s interview HERE. Beginning on Thursday evening, you can watch the entire documentary here.

The Corner is reporting that President Bush plans to nominate Warren Bell, television producer and National Review writer, to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The CPB is designed to provide a buffer between independent public broadcast networks and partisan politics.

But instead of being a nonpartisan advocate of public broadcasting, Bell will likely be another advocate of Bush’s agenda. (Under Bush, the CPB has steadily pushed right-wing priorities, trying to put a conservative slant on programming.)

In his writings for the National Review, Bell has been clear about his agenda:

“I could reach across the aisle and hug Nancy Pelosi, and I would, except this is a new shirt, and that sort of thing leaves a stain.” [5/11/05]

“I am thoroughly conservative in ways that strike horror into the hearts of my Hollywood colleagues. I support a woman’s right to choose what movie we should see, but not that other one.” [5/11/05]

“I have met President Bush twice. I have no powerful political connections “” both times were the result of sizable checks written by me to support his campaign.” [3/31/05]

Looks like to get to Sesame Street, you have to take a turn to the right.

Associated Press: “The Republican-controlled Senate refused Wednesday to raise the minimum wage, rejecting an election-year proposal from Democrats for the first increase in nearly a decade. The vote was 52-46, eight short of the 60 needed.”

in Vienna, Austria today?

On Sunday, Chevron CEO David O’Reilly appeared on Meet the Press and emphasized the importance of “promoting alternatives” to fossil fuels. “Most of our companies are involved in this. I know we are.” Shell CEO John Hofmeister agreed: “There’s so much we can do in this country” on “the alternatives of wind, solar, biofuels, hydrogen.”

Chevron has a strange way of getting “involved.”

Californians will vote this November on a landmark ballot initiative, called the Clean Alternative Energy Initiative, which would “impose a wellhead tax on oil companies operating in California” to finance $4 billion towards alternative-fuel vehicles and renewable energy and conservation research.

The #1 donor to the group opposing the clean energy initiative: Chevron, which has given a whopping $3,740,000, more than three times the amount of the next 14 donors combined. Help fight back — join Kick the Oil Habit today.