Open-Ended Issue

Secret propaganda by the USA government is illegal >>

Bush spent public dollars on a secret propaganda program ...
to manufacture a false cause for war against Iraq >>

In the USA, the WHIG (White House Iraq Group) is formed
The WHIG is a White House task-force of 10 persons is formed to market an invasion of Iraq to the American people. Chaired by Karl Rove, its members were trusted partisans and communications experts skilled in perception management. Their role was explicitly to market the need to invade Iraq. The group operated in strict secrecy, sifting intelligence, writing position papers and speeches, creating "talking points," planning strategy and timing, and feeding information to the media. This was the nerve center, where the campaign of propaganda was orchestrated and promulgated. The group chose to trumpet nearly exclusively the most frightening threat-nuclear weapons. Rice soon introduced the litany of the smoking gun and the mushroom cloud, Cheney said hundreds of thousands of Americans might die, and Bush claimed Saddam was "six months away from developing a weapon." The group included Karl Rove (chairman), I. Lewis Libby, Condoleezza Rice, Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, Stephen Hadley, Nicholas E. Calio, and James R. Wilkinson. >>

Saddam Hussein has attempted to purchase YellowCake from Niger: Bush
The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. -- George W. Bush, President of the US, State of the Union speech >>

Saddam Hussein has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes: Bush
Our intelligence sources tell us that he [Saddam Hussein] has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. -- George W. Bush, President of the US, State of the Union speech >>

We don't what the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud: Rice
The problem here is that there will always be some uncertainty about how quickly he [= Saddam Hussein / Iraq] can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't what the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud. -- Condoleezza Rice, interviewed by Wolf Blitzer, CNN Late Edition >>

The Pentagon military analyst propaganda program
The Department of Defense (DOD) has engaged in a years-long secret domestic propaganda campaign to promote the invasion and occupation of Iraq. The program illegally involved "covert attempts to mold opinion through the undisclosed use of third parties." >>

The Pentagon's military analyst program was covert
The 75 retired military officers who were recruited by Donald Rumsfeld and given talking points to deliver on Fox, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and MSNBC were given extraordinary access to White House and Pentagon officials. However, "The access came with a condition. Participants were instructed not to quote their briefers directly or otherwise describe their contacts with the Pentagon." >>

The Pentagon's military analyst program was an attempt to mold opinion
According to the Pentagon's own internal documents (which can be downloaded and viewed from the New York Times website), the military analysts were considered "message force multipliers" or "surrogates" who would deliver administration "themes and messages" to millions of Americans "in the form of their own opinions." According to one participating military analyst, it was "psyops on steroids." >>

The Pentagon's military analyst program was done through the undisclosed use of third parties
In their television appearances, the military analysts did not disclose their ties to the White House, let alone that they were its surrogates. The military analysts were used as puppets for the Pentagon. In the words of Robert S. Bevelacqua, a retired Green Beret and for Fox News military analyst, "It was them saying, 'We need to stick our hands up your back and move your mouth for you." >>

President Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war: McClellan
Scott McClellan, former White House Press Secretary, in his book “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” >>