The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq is the comprehensive source on the administration's campaign of disinformation before, during, and after the second Gulf War. From the careful linking of Saddam Hussein with Al Qaeda, to the WMD canard, to the September 2003 damage-control sideshow, AlterNet.org's Christopher Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry team up with renowned journalist Robert Scheer to take the full measure of official deception.

They not only lied, the authors conclude; the pattern of obfuscation, misstatement, and half-retraction amounted to a devious entrapment of the American people. The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq offers the first analysis of this pattern, underscoring that the lying was highly managed. The public did not commit troops, and dollars, to the invasion acting on the best information its government could provide. Instead, we fell victim to a marketing campaign conducted by a small group of influential radicals inside the Bush administration, who were pursuing their own narrow, hubristic agenda.

With U.S. soldiers still losing their lives, Bush's ongoing doublespeak is outrageous. In the authors' words, "The Bush administration continues to stand firm on the bodies of its own soldiers, who are paying a high price for its lack of reason....The soldiers themselves are simply exhausted, homesick, and disillusioned with both their generals who sold them the shining lie of a quick war of liberation and the nation that seems unwilling to be rescued."

"[T]his broadside (more akin to a long article than a short book) reviews the evidence (or lack thereof) for linking Iraq to al-Qaida and 9/11....The concise account...deftly incorporates dozens of other media sources..." Publishers Weekly

"Highly readable and tightly argued, The Five Biggest Lies does more than devastatingly refute the mendacity of the Bush Administration's Iraq policy. Christopher Scheer and his cohorts present a chilling portrait of the cabal of neo-cons who have commandeered American foreign policy, revealing the arrogance, assumptions, and contradictions that have had such disastrous consequences for our nation — and the world." Arianna Huffington, author of Pigs at the Trough: How Corporate Greed and Political Corruption are Undermining America

"If you ever doubted that George W's push for war in Iraq was anything but bushwa — this book will eliminate your doubts." Jim Hightower, author of Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country and It's Time to Take It Back

"Christopher Scheer and Robert Scheer have documented the depth of deception of all the president's henchmen who misled America into war against Iraq. This book will become the required text for the coming wave of campus teach-ins and mass protests over US policy in Iraq. The Scheers have written the truth and the truth sets us free to reclaim our nation." United States Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)

A disturbing analysis of the disparity between what Bush said, and what he knew about Iraq. Unlike recent books on this subject that have targeted the media or tilted after the entire George W Bush presidency, 'The Five Biggest Lies' focuses strictly on what Bush and his team said, versus what they actually knew.

A Copublication of Seven Stories Press and Akashic Books

The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraqis the first book to hold the president and his team accountable for the government's campaign of disinformation leading up to the war in Iraq. The administration repeatedly attested that Saddam Hussein had developed weapons of mass destruction and was close to using them; downplayed the cost and risk of the proposed invasion and occupation; shamelessly evoked the atrocious abuse of power of Hussein and his family while brooking no commitment to rebuild the country after the terrifying "shock and awe" campaign, or to do anything to improve the lot of the Iraqi people; and, most outrageously, provided substanceless theory linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks of September 11, thereby cynically manipulating the anger and sorrow of the American citizenry. The charade has culminated in the slow bloodletting of U.S. forces still stationed in Iraq, held there because it would not be politically expedient to admit the failure of "democratization."

While Bush II appears intent on conducting an unending global war against "evildoers," little public debate has gone into assessing the aims and strategies of such a broad campaign. In The Five Biggest Lies Bush Told Us About Iraq, coauthors Christopher and Robert Scheer and Lakshmi Chaudhry of the influential web magazine AlterNet.org have aggregated the hard questions that the purported leadership of the U.S. must answer.

Christopher Scheer is managing editor of AlterNet.org, the popular news and commentary website. Scheer has written screenplays for Oliver Stone and previously worked for the San Francisco Examiner. Robert Scheer is the author of six books, the host of NPR affiliate KCRW's "Left, Right, and Center," and a contributing editor to both the Los Angeles Timesand The Nation. Lakshmi Chaudhry is an editor at Alternet.org.

Chistopher Scheer is the managing editor of AlterNet.org.