We already knew that

Today the Associated Press published a story by Douglas K. Daniel that begins, “A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.”

Everybody knows this already, so why is it news? Because this study quantifies those lies. They found 935 false statements, including “at least 532 [false statements] that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both,” according to the AP story.

The story goes on to name the Bush Administration officials who were studied. “Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.” It's now become a matter of speculation whether Powell actually knew he was lying, or whether he was passing on the lies generated by others, but which he believed to be true.

By studying this administration's false statements, which led directly to the Iraq war and occupation, this study has unveiled the Bushies' disinformation campaign for the public record. And it also shows part of the reason why we can't believe anything this administration says.