[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 102 (Friday, July 11, 2003)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1443-E1444]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

[[Page E1443]]


             PETITION DRIVE TARGETS BUSH ADVISOR KARL ROVE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. DENNIS J. KUCINICH

                                of ohio

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 10, 2003

  Mr. KUCINICH. Mr. Speaker, the Bush Administration led this Nation 
into war against Iraq based on false intelligence about the threat Iraq 
posed our Nation. The attached petition, from the American 
intercollegiate debate community, details the strategy of deception 
that the Bush Administration adopted to gain support for the war 
against Iraq.

             Petition Drive Targets Bush Advisor Karl Rove


    debaters oppose administration strategy for public debate on war

       The American intercollegiate debate community has been 
     dedicated to the pursuit of open deliberation on timely 
     policy issues for centuries. The basis of debate practice is 
     openness in argumentation--a willingness to allow the best 
     argument to win, rather than relying on force or power to 
     overwhelm opponents. Some members of the debate community 
     have articulated disappointment with the Bush 
     administration's strategy for convincing American and world 
     publics of the need for a preventive military first-strike on 
     Iraq, and are joining in a petition drive to highlight the 
     inadequacy of the Bush administration's approach to gaining 
     consent for war.
       Karl Rove, senior political advisor to George W. Bush, was 
     an avid high school debater in Salt Lake City, Utah. Rove's 
     tactics as a debater appear to have influenced his strategy 
     as a political advisor. James Moore and Wayne Slater have 
     detailed the roots of Rove's political strategy in their book 
     Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential 
     (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons, 2003):
       ``Debaters kept their arguments on 3 X 5 cards, which they 
     carried about in shoeboxes or metal containers. Rove had the 
     most impressive collection of debate cards at Olympus High. 
     If his teammates had a shoebox filled with the cards, Rove 
     carried two, which he plunked down on the table in an ominous 
     display of force. By his senior year, the arsenal had swelled 
     to 5 or 10 boxes. Rove figured that if two or three boxes 
     unnerved an opposing team, why not something truly 
     overwhelming? Why not a table full of cards? Why not buy them 
     by the thousands and wheel them in on hand-carts? Why not 
     throw the fear of God into the enemy before the debate even 
     began? The thing was, the thing nobody knew was, that the 
     cards were mostly fake. `We went out and bought thousands, if 
     not tens of thousands, of debate cards,' says debate partner 
     Emil Langeland, now a lawyer in Salt Lake City.
       `` `Everybody was using 3 X 5 cards. And we decided we'd 
     better have 4 X 6--a little bigger than the next guy. And we 
     had shoeboxes, a table full. We would come in and set up 
     those boxes with file cards in them, color-coded, with tabs 
     sticking up, and there were literally thousands and thousands 
     of them. And you know what? There wasn't a thing on 99 
     percent of them. If they gave us a 4 X 4 table, we'd make it 
     a 4 X 8 table and we'd stack this information--what appeared 
     to be information--on the table. We'd lay out all these 
     papers. The reality was that the core of our attack or 
     strategy was on 20 or 30 cards. We never used much more than 
     that. But we'd just hand truck them in, then go back out into 
     the hall and hand truck another set in and set them up on the 
     table almost to the point where you couldn't see us. It was 
     all psychological, to psych out your opponent.' Rove didn't 
     just want to win, he wanted his opponents destroyed. His 
     worldview was clear even then: There was his team and the 
     other team, and he would make the other team pay. He would 
     defeat them, slaughter them, and humiliate them. He would win 
     by any means, but he would win (118-119).''
       Rove's strategy of totally destroying the opposition in 
     debate competition is mirrored in the American ``win at all 
     costs'' approach to public diplomacy. The Bush administration 
     has tried to overload public spheres of deliberation with 
     evidence that links Iraq to weapons of mass destruction and 
     terrorism, yet key evidence has turned out to be fabricated, 
     plagiarized, or exaggerated in this rhetorical campaign.
       Niger forgery. Evidence used by the Bush administration to 
     demonstrate Iraq's noncompliance with the nuclear materials 
     section of UN Security Council Resolution 1441 turned out to 
     be based on forged documents. Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) 
     has asked the FBI to investigate who forged the letters and 
     why U.S. intelligence officials did not authenticate them 
     before claiming them as proof of Iraqi noncompliance. In a 
     letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller, Rockefeller wrote, 
     ``there is a possibility that the fabrication of these 
     documents may be part of a larger deception campaign aimed at 
     manipulating public opinion and foreign policy regarding 
     Iraq.''
       Plagiarized British dossier. In his February 5 speech to 
     the UN Security Council, Secretary of State Colin Powell 
     lauded a British government report as ``a fine paper.'' Yet 
     this paper turned out to be a mosaic of old open source 
     material previously published. The British dossier, entitled 
     ``Iraq: Its Infrastructure of Concealment, Deception and 
     Intimidation,'' plagiarized long stretches of a paper by 
     Ibrahim al-Marashi, a postgraduate student at the Monterey 
     Institute of International Studies in California. The 
     British report drew heavily from al-Marashi's account of 
     Mukhabarat, the Iraqi directorate of general intelligence. 
     However, where al-Marashi listed among the Mukhabarat's 
     duties ``aiding opposition groups in hostile regimes,'' 
     the British authors substituted the more incriminating 
     phrase ``supporting terrorist organizations'' in hostile 
     regimes.
       Baseless aluminum tubes charges. UN weapons inspector Hans 
     Blix and former IAEA expert adviser David Albright both 
     reject the Bush administration's claim that Iraq's attempt to 
     acquire aluminum tubes was driven by a desire to build 
     uranium enrichment centrifuges for its nuclear program, yet 
     administration officials continued to rely on such 
     discredited evidence.
       In addition to these evidentiary inadequacies, the 
     administration's broader strategy to coalesce a ``coalition 
     of the willing'' utilizes manipulative foreign policy tools 
     that rely on coercion rather than democratic processes of 
     deliberation.
       Utilizing financial leverage to induce cooperation 
     circumvents the will of citizens abroad. The United States' 
     manipulation of loans and grants to potential collaborators 
     as a way to ``buy off' other countries'' dissent by 
     leveraging power in international finance frustrates 
     democratic participation. Reliance on a business-marketing 
     model for public diplomacy rigs communicative exchanges in a 
     way that forecloses freewheeling argumentative give-and-take.
       Demonizing countries that resist the push for war polarizes 
     conflict and lessens the possibility of a united post-war 
     effort for reconstruction. High-ranking European Union 
     officials have indicated that generating support for funding 
     the reconstruction of Iraq will face difficulty because of 
     the perception that the United States has used heavy-handed 
     tactics to gain assent for preventive military intervention.
       Spying activity against United Nations delegates, 
     documented in the so-called ``Koza memo'' generates suspicion 
     about U.S. tactics to persuade Security Council members to go 
     along with resolutions advancing the cause of war. 
     Surveillance techniques could be utilized to gain unfairly 
     acquired weight in negotiations.
       These techniques are at odds with the fundamental tenets of 
     democratic deliberation that rely on transparency, honesty, 
     and public argumentation to gain assent from allies. 
     Deception in wartime has long been accepted as a legitimate 
     military strategy. However, expanded deception programs 
     designed to manipulate domestic and allied public opinion 
     raise a different set of strategic dilemmas. While deception 
     strategies may be effective as military levers deployed to 
     complicate enemy planning, they are less useful as weapons of 
     mass communications--propaganda tools designed to influence 
     public opinion in public spheres. To be truly effective, any 
     strategy to defuse terrorism in this way requires that the 
     political legitimacy of U.S. policies be established in 
     international public spheres. This process is best 
     accomplished through fair and open public debate, rather than 
     deceptive and manipulative methods exercised by the Bush 
     Administration.
       The national championships represented a culmination of the 
     season's competitive debating activity that has focused on 
     the topic of multilateralism as a foreign policy approach. In 
     pursuit of these principles, debaters organized a petition 
     campaign at the two national championship debate tournaments 
     this spring, attended by over 250 teams from across the 
     country:
       PHOENIX, Arizona, Cross Examination Debate Association 
     national championship tournament, Arizona State University, 
     March 20-25, 2003
       ATLANTA, Georgia, National Debate Tournament national 
     championship tournament, Emory University, April 3-7, 2003


                             petition text

       We object to the Bush Administration's manipulation of 
     public deliberation in the implementation of its preventive 
     military intervention policy. Worldwide political legitimacy 
     for that policy can be forged only through a process of fair 
     and honest public

[[Page E1444]]

     argument. Uncritical use of forged documents purporting to 
     link Iraq to Niger's nuclear industry, reliance on a 
     deceptive British report that plagiarized and misrepresented 
     the work of a California graduate student and intimidation 
     tactics at the UN Security Council are each part of the Bush 
     administration's `win at all costs' approach to public 
     diplomacy. These argumentative strategies must be 
     reconsidered immediately, because the alienation and mistrust 
     sown worldwide by their implementation bankrupts the 
     political legitimacy of U.S. foreign policy and polarizes 
     diplomatic conflict. This exposes U.S. soldiers to harm by 
     dividing allies, worsens the terrorist threat by 
     stimulating recruitment and undermines cooperative 
     security ventures ranging from allied intelligence sharing 
     to international peacekeeping and post war reconstruction.


                Petition signers and debate affiliations

         Abbott, Blake, Mercer University, GA; Ashe, Allison, 
           University of Georgia, GA; Bannigan, Virginia, Wake 
           Forest University, NC; Baron, Chris, Towson University, 
           MD; Barsness, Paul, University of Georgia, GA; Bates, 
           Benjamin, University of Georgia, GA; Beerman, Ruth, 
           Mercer University, GA; Bellon, Joe, Georgia State 
           University, GA; Berger, Alex, Dartmouth College, NH; 
           Blair, LoriBeth, Georgia State University, GA; Boggs, 
           Joshua, West Virginia University, WV; Branelt, 
           Caroline, Riverwood H.S., AZ; Breshears, David, 
           University of Texas, TX; Brigham, Matt, Baylor 
           University, TX; Brock, Kimberly, West Virginia 
           University, WV; Bruschke, Jon, California State 
           University-Fullerton, CA; Bsumek, Pete, James Madison 
           University, VA.
         Campbell, Peter O., Univ. of Puget Sound, WA; Carr, 
           Adrienne, University of Georgia, GA; Cashman, Bryan, 
           State University New York-Binghamton, NY; Chalus, Peg, 
           University of Pittsburgh, PA; Clark, Josh, California 
           State University-Fullerton, CA; Cole, Hayley, San Diego 
           State University, CA; Colston, Nicole, University of 
           Miami, FL; Congdon, Kelly, University of Pittsburgh, 
           PA; Crachiolo, Sarah, Georgia State University, GA; 
           Crittenden, Eli, Emporia State University, KS; Czapla, 
           Anna, University of Rochester, NY; D'Amico, Steve, 
           University of Rochester, NY; Davies, Alexis, San Diego 
           State University, CA; Davis, Alysia, University of 
           Georgia, GA; Davis, Dan, West Georgia University, GA; 
           DeButts, Jessica, Fresno City College, CA; Dillard, 
           Tiffany, University of Louisville, KY; Douglas, Lara, 
           Cornell University, NY; Drake, Brian, Mercer 
           University, GA; Dunn, Izak, Idaho State University, ID; 
           Dybvig, Kristin, Arizona State University, AZ; Eberle, 
           R.J., Georgia State University, GA; Ellis, Andy, Marist 
           College, NY; Ellis, Steven Andrew, Marist University, 
           NY.
         Galloway, Ryan, University of Georgia, GA; Garen, Adam, 
           Dartmouth College, NH; Garner, Ricky, New York 
           University, NY; Gaston, Bryan, University of Central 
           Oklahoma, OK; Gedmark, Elizabeth, Wake Forest 
           University, NC; Gorelick, Nate, New York University, 
           NY; Goss, Tiffany, Fresno City College, CA; Gossett, 
           John, University of North Texas, TX; Green, R.J., 
           University of Louisville, KY; Grindy, Matt, University 
           of Miami, FL; Haddad, Nader, California State 
           University-Fullerton, CA; Hahn, Allison, University of 
           Pittsburgh, PA; Hall, Brad, Wake Forest University, NC; 
           Hall, Brooke, San Diego State University, CA; Hamrick, 
           Kevin, Northwestern University, IL; Hanson, Jim, 
           Whitman College, WA; Harris, Sean, University of Puget 
           Sound, WA; Haskell, David, California Polytechnical-San 
           Luis Obispo, CA; Hausrath, Barry, University of 
           Richmond, VA; Hayman, Jethro, Cornell University, NY; 
           Helwich, David Cram, Macalester College, MN; Hines, 
     John, University of North Texas, TX; Hingstman, David, 
     University of Iowa, IA; Holland, Shannon, University of 
     Georgia, GA; Hovden, Jan M., Weber State University, UT; 
     Hughes, Michael, University of Pittsburgh, PA.
         Janette, David, Pace University, NY; Jenkins, Eric, James 
           Madison University, VA; Johnson, Kevin, University of 
           Texas-Austin, TX; Jones, Elizabeth, University of 
           Louisville, KY; Julian, Monica, California State 
           University-Chico, CA; Kaplan-Sham, Eana, University of 
           Rochester, NY; Keane, Tom, University of Georgia, GA; 
           Keller, David, Emporia State University, KS; Kelley, 
           Patricia, University of Georgia, GA; Kemp, Andy, Kansas 
           State University, KS; Kenemer, Ben, Mercer University, 
           GA; Kenyon, Christopher, Wichita State University, KS; 
           Kerns, Diana, Baltimore Urban Debate League, MD; 
           Ketsdever, Nathan, University of Rochester, NY; Klaff, 
           Dan, Cornell University, NY; Klein, Ronald, Binghamton 
           University, NY; Knops, Jennifer, University of Vermont, 
           VT; Knox, Corey, University of Louisville, KY; Korcok, 
           Michael, Bakersfield Community College, CA; 
           Krinrochter, Brian, San Diego State University, CA; 
           Kuswa, Kevin, University of Richmond, VA; Kwinfor, 
           Benjamin, Macalester College, MN; Lain, Brian, 
           University of North Texas, TX; Lantzy, Rob, University 
           of Pittsburgh, PA; Lee, Adam, University of Rochester, 
           NY; Lee, Ed, University of Alabama, AL; Limprevil, 
           Sheila, University of Vermont, VT Littlefield, Lindsay, 
           Wake Forest University, NC; Loghry, Chris, University 
           of Missouri-Kansas City, MO; Lundberg, Chris, 
           Northwestern University, IL.
         Mabrey III, Paul E., Fort Hays State University, KS; 
           Maldonado, Darinka, University of Pittsburgh, PA; 
           Mancuso, Steve, Catholic University of America, DC; 
           Marks, David, Dartmouth College, NH; Marples, Thomas, 
           University of Rochester, NY; Marshall, Stephen, West 
           Virginia University, WV; Martin, Josh, California State 
           University-Chico, CA; Marty, Jillian A., University of 
           Vermont, VT; Massey, Jackie, University of Vermont, VT; 
           Mathes, Eric, Georgia State University, GA; Maurer, 
           Sam, Emporia State University, KS; Melander, Lindsey, 
           University of Vermont, VT; Miller, Josh, University of 
           Vermont, VT; Miller, Nikole D., University of Alabama, 
           AL; Mitchell, Gordon, University of Pittsburgh, PA; 
           Moore, Matthew, Augustana College, IL; Moore, Stephen, 
           Emporia State University, KS; Morgan, Ainetta, West 
           Virginia University, WV; Morris, Eric, University of 
           Kansas, KS; Morrison, Catherine, James Madison 
           University, VA; Motes, Eric, University of Vermont, VT; 
           Mueller, Eric, Weber State University, UT; Munksgaard, 
           Jane, University of Pittsburgh, PA; Murray, Craig, 
           Cornell University, NY; Nelson, Sam, University of 
           Rochester, NY; Newnam, Bill, Emory University, GA; 
           Odekirk, Scott, Weber State University, UT; Patel, 
           Nirav, University of North Texas, TX; Perry, Michael 
           J., Wake Forest University, NC; Pfister, Damien, 
           University of Pittsburgh, PA; Phillips, Tameka, 
           University of Alabama, AL; Pomorski, Michael, Catholic 
           University of America, DC; Porth, Raj, North Gwinnett 
           H.S., GA; Puszczewicz, Rich, University of Louisville, 
     KY; Quijas, Richard, Kansas City Kansas Community College, 
     MO; Radford, James, Jr., Samford University, AL; Rani, 
     Reena, Pace University, NY; Rast, Lisa, Columbia 
     University, NY; Reimes, Tim, University of Vermont, VT; 
     Renegar, Valerie, San Diego State University, CA; Renken, 
     Judd, DePaul University, IL; Riepel, Christina, Loyola 
     University-Chicago, IL; Rolfe-Redding, Justin, University 
     of Chicago, IL; Rosminder, Rafael, Towson University, MD; 
     Roston, Michael, George Washington University, DC; Rufo, 
     Ken, University of Georgia, GA; Rundus, Dan, Kansas City 
     Kansas Community College, MO; Samuels, Phillip, Emporia 
     State University, KS; Schatz, Joe, State University New 
     York-Binghamton, NY; Schnurer, Maxwell, Marist University, 
     NY; Schriver, Kristina, California State University-Chico, 
     CA; Schueler, Beth, Whitman College, WA; Schwartz, Rae 
     Lynn, University of Iowa, IA; Seaver, Frank, Woodward HS, 
     GA; Sherman, Jerrod, Georgia State University; Shmerling, 
     Brian, Riverwood H.S., AZ; Siadak, John, Augustana 
     College, IL; Silva, Angela, California State University-
     Sacramento, CA; Simpson, Amanda, Florida State University, 
     FL; Skinner, Donna, Garden City HS, KS; Slusher, Eric, 
     Gonzaga University, WA; Smith, Ross K., Wake Forest 
     University, NC; Snider, A.C., University of Vermont, VT; 
     Stevens, Jeremy, University of Texas-San Antonio, TX; 
     Stevens, Monte, University of Missouri-Kansas City, MO; 
     Stokes, Candice, Towson University, MD; Sullivan, John, 
     Harvard University, MA.
         Thatcher, Elizabeth, Mercer University, GA; Thomas, 
           Nicholas A., California State University-Long Beach, 
           CA; Tinsley, Jordan, University of Kansas, KS; Todero, 
           Anthony, University of Pittsburgh, PA; Torre, 
           Stephanie, University of Miami, FL; Tribble, Nathan, 
           University of Redlands, CA; Turley, Serena, California 
           State University-Fullerton, CA; Watson, Hays, 
           University of Georgia, GA; Webster, Christy L., 
           University of Rochester, NY; Webster, Sandra, 
           University of Louisville, KY; Whalen, Shawn (Cross 
           Examination Debate Association President), San 
           Francisco State University, CA; Witte, Erin, Mercer 
           University, GA; Wright, Sarah, Mercer University, GA; 
           Zompetti, Suzette, Mercer University, GA; Zompetti, 
           Joseph, Mercer University, GA.

                          ____________________