Rockefeller: Bush Duped Public On Iraq

TUC NOTE: WATCH THE VIDEO HERE as the quotes out of context are misleading.

CBS Exclusive:

West Virginia Senator Says Invasion Unnecessary Even If Saddam Would Still Be In Power

... [A]fter 2 1/2 years of reviewing pre-war intelligence behind closed doors, the lead Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, Sen. John Rockefeller of West Virginia, who voted for the Iraq War, says the Bush administration pulled the wool over everyone's eyes.

"The absolute cynical manipulation, deliberately cynical manipulation, to shape American public opinion and 69 percent of the people, at that time, it worked, they said 'we want to go to war,'" Rockefeller told CBS News correspondent Sharyl Attkisson. "Including me. The difference is after I began to learn about some of that intelligence I went down to the Senate floor and I said 'my vote was wrong....'"

Photo credit: Senate Intelligence Committee Vice-Chairman Sen. John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., left, and Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., discuss a newly released committee report Friday, Sept. 8, 2006 on Capitol Hill in Washington. (AP)

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