Weapons of mass deception is pejorative expression used by some people to describe U.S. President George W. Bush

George W. Bush

George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

's claim that Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein

Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...

 possessed weapons of mass destruction

Weapons of mass destruction

A weapon of mass destruction is a weapon that can kill and bring significant harm to a large number of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures , natural structures , or the biosphere in general...

 as justification for the war on Iraq

2003 invasion of Iraq

The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...

.

The variation weapons of mass distraction has also been used by pundits and satirists. This punning alteration accuses the Bush administration of using the war in Iraq to draw the nation's attention away from other problems, such as the economic recession of 2002. The meaning was later inverted to describe Bush's alleged attempts to divert attention away from the war following a drop in public support for the war.

Book

Weapons of Mass Deception was used as the title of a nonfiction book by Sheldon Rampton

Sheldon Rampton

Sheldon Rampton was the American editor of PR Watch, and is the author of several books that criticize the public relations industry and what he sees as other forms of corporate and government propaganda....

 and John Stauber

John Stauber

John Stauber is an American writer and political activist who has co-authored five books about propaganda by governments, private interests and the PR industry...

. This book focused specifically on the PR

Public relations

Public relations is the actions of a corporation, store, government, individual, etc., in promoting goodwill between itself and the public, the community, employees, customers, etc....

 tactics and techniques of the Bush administration after the September 11th terrorist attacks.

• Publisher: Tarcher (July 28, 2003)
• ISBN 978-1585422760

Other media

Weapons of Mass Deception was also used as the title of a documentary produced by Danny Schechter

Danny Schechter

Danny Schechteris a television producer, independent filmmaker, blogger, and media critic who writes and lectures frequently about the media in the United States and worldwide. He specializes in investigative journalism and producing programming about the interfaces among human rights, journalism,...

 which originally aired on HBO.

Also, a popular NPR

NPR

NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...

 commentator Connie Rice read her Top Ten Weapons of Mass Distraction on The Tavis Smiley Show

The Tavis Smiley Show

The Tavis Smiley Show is an American public broadcasting radio talk show. A television show, simply titled Tavis Smiley, is a late night television program on Public Broadcasting Service . Both shows feature Tavis Smiley as host....

, July 14, 2004.

Sources

• http://www.amazon.com/Weapons-Mass-Deception-Propaganda-Bushs/dp/1585422762
• http://www.utne.com/2003-06-01/WeaponsofMassDeception.aspx
• Top Ten Weapons of Mass Distraction