http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9962149/Road to war
How the Bush administration sold the Iraq War to American people updated 11/8/2005 1:56:34 PM ET 2005-11-08T18:56:34
It was September of 2002, just three days before the emotional one-year anniversary of 9/11 and the giant wound of the al Qaeda attack on New York was still open.
The Bush administration had assembled a media strategy team known as the White House Iraq Group. It consisted of top officials, including those in the vice president’s office whose goals starting after Labor Day was to sell a war on Iraq, which had no detectable role on 9/11.
On September 7, 2002, White House chief of staff Andy Card referred to the effort in an interview with The New York Times and said, “From a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August.”
The next day, the White House marketers delivered their product, a New York Times front-page story. U.S. says Hussein intensifies quest for A-Bomb parts. Judy Miller attributing the story to Bush administration officials reported, “Iraq has stepped up it’s quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb. In the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to buy thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes meant for Iraq’s nuclear program.
Vice President Dick Cheney referred to that article in a speech and again later in a scheduled appearance on “Meet the Press” that same day. He pointed out, “That he is in fact actively and aggressively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.”
Cheney was not the only scheduled guest that day pushing The New York Times story and hammering the nuclear argument. In a unique media blitz, the White House dispatched five A-list administration officials to the television airwaves, one to each of the Sunday talk shows.
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