Congressional Liars...Fibbers of a generation.

We all accept that for a state to operate efficiently people often have to lie. Things have to be fabricated, credible and true stories have to be thwarted and made to look untrue and things have to be covered up.

However, some people go the extra mile to fabricate, discredit or blatantly lie about things they know are incorrect. All geared towards a selfish end or some private wet dream.

In all areas of society there are people like this. Here are some of my favourites: 

Going back to the Iraq war;

First and foremost the whole war itself was a lie. So I am sorry for calling it "the Iraq war". But for now we just have to go with that due to obvious reasons. 

Now topping this list is Mohammed Saeed Al-Sahhaf The Iraqi Information minister who kept lying during the war. He lied about virtually everything. At a point he appeared on State television saying there were no American troops in Baghdad but two American tanks could be seen in the background. 

Al-Sahhaf

His was a whole new dimension in war propaganda. Nicknamed Baghdad Bob and Ali il Comico by the Italians, He was a one man state sponsored agency solely specializing in spreading bull-shit. (my apologies). The Only truth of this guys story was the fact he said that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction which leads us to our next candidate Gen. Colin Powell.

Personally I view Colin Powell as a disgrace to anything in Uniform closely behind the Nigerian Generals who were shown weeping for their lives at the feet of  Gen. Sani Abacha who had a look of confusion and disgust on his face.

Colin Powell

I mean there is a limit one can be pushed to say "I resign". Colin Powell was the General who lied because he was told to do so without checking the story. The thing is he had all the resources to do so if he wanted to. I can understand Al-Sahhaf lying, he did it under pain of death. For Colin Powell I really do not understand why he didn't just get up and leave. 

Then we have Tony Blair. A master at what he does. The thing with Tony Blair is that he never really had to lie blatantly. He just fed out the truth in tiny drips and different shades of grey and in varying levels of concentration. 

Tony Blair

The resulting mixture was a potent story. Always more misleading than an outright lie with the truth within touching distance. This he delivered in the classic Blair manner with a flurry of gestures, head tilts  and direct eye contact. Most important to note about Blair stories, there were always suits and bodies between him and anything that could resemble a false story.Talk about the master puppeteer. 

The list goes on and on but then lets turn our attention to athletes of our generation. 

Andre Agassi; he lied about doping and a few days after the window within which he could be held accountable closed he came out with the true story. 

Agassi

If only there was a phrase such as "disgusting honesty" this would be a good time to use it. 

Then there was our dear super woman. Marion Jones. She fibbed and fibbed and fibbed some more. She even fibbed about the fibs she told. To everyone. To the IAAF, to WADA, to the FBI, to her parents, to herself, to the guy she bought the drugs off. She even went to church got on her knees and fervently fibbed. I mean how bad could it get. 

Marion Jones

All this while she believed she could not be tested positive. But like all things, there is only as much as you can fib. Eventually she came clean with the little words. I am sorry. I made a mistake. Which was in itself one last fib. You make a mistake when you unknowingly go down the wrong route and not when you "KNOWINGLY" go down that route in other to gain an advantage. 

Now we have some new guy on the list. 7 time Tour de France Champion and Mega star. Lance Armstrong.    In a battle that has lasted a few years he has constantly maintained his innocence. Meanwhile one after the other his team mates have come clean and have accepted their  fate. Mr Armstrong  has decided to give in, still maintaining his innocence and citing a one sided battle as his reasons for conceding.

Armstrong

He would be stripped of all his 7 titles including all Moneys and Trophies won in that time. a bit of a heart wrench. In all this though, he still does maintain his innocence. Good old Armstrong.