News In Brief 15 December 2005

President Stays Firm On Call For War But Admits Intel Errors

White House Looking Into If President, VP Were Reading Lincoln Group Paid Propaganda During War Build-up

In a stunning development, President Bush, giving his fourth speech in less than a week to lay out his new "National Strategy For Victory In Iraq", took full responsibility for going to war in Iraq and admitted that some of the intelligence he based his decisions on was faulty.

In his address yesterday, at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, the President was atypically candid in taking responsibility for taking the United States into the Iraqi War.

"As president, I'm responsible for the decision to go into Iraq, and I'm also responsible for fixing what went wrong by reforming our intelligence capabilities."

However, as quickly as he admitted possible mistakes, the President returned to his defiant theme.

"Saddam was a threat and the American people and the world is better off because he is no longer in power,"

At the White House, Press Secretary Scott McClellan told reporters that the internal investigation as to the faulty intelligence may show that "the President and Vice President may have received the paid information" that was contracted by the Pentagon

"We're trying to confirm if the information President Bush and Vice President Cheney read, to evauluate the deadly threats, was actually the paid propaganda that was contracted for from the Lincoln Group."

A spokesperson for the Lincoln Group declined comment, citing the terms of the contract with the U.S. Military.

This would be the second case known at this time of the White House confusing materials, and using paid content. Earlier this month, it was leaked that the President's first speech in his "National Strategy For Victory In Iraq" was also written by the Lincoln Group.