Bush lied again?

WASHINGTON: US President George W. Bush charged Monday that Iran has openly declared that it seeks nuclear weapons -- an inaccurate accusation at a time of sharp tensions between Washington and Tehran.

"It's up to Iran to prove to the world that they're a stabilizing force as opposed to a destabilizing force. After all, this is a government that has proclaimed its desire to build a nuclear weapon," he said during a joint press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
(The News)

Oh, really?
It's at least true that Iran has tended to deny that it is seeking nuclear weapons--but occasionally they let their intentions slip.

The clerics in Iran have more power than President Ahmadinejad.

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Iran's hardline spiritual leaders have issued an unprecedented new fatwa, or holy order, sanctioning the use of atomic weapons against its enemies. In yet another sign of Teheran's stiffening resolve on the nuclear issue, influential Muslim clerics have for the first time questioned the theocracy's traditional stance that Sharia law forbade the use of nuclear weapons. Missiles beside a portrait of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei One senior mullah has now said it is "only natural" to have nuclear bombs as a "countermeasure" against other nuclear powers, thought to be a reference to America and Israel.

The News reported that the White House said that Bush was talking about Iran's actions. If that's the case, then he could pick a better word than "proclaimed"--or at least modify it by adding "by its actions" afterward.

I can't say I trust the press. Nor am I completely confident in the Administration's explanations of the president's statements after the ridiculous response they made during the "16 words" brouhaha.