i have a friend that came from Africa. He has learned 7 languages fluently. In his estimation English is the language of thieves. He felt the way it was structured is such that it can be interpreted in multiple ways leaving room for such deceptions as you have listed here.

I've come to see it as a way for a politicians to look you in the eye and mean what they say, but not what you interpret it as. In this way they avoid 'lying' because that is a more difficult thing to do, but to tell the truth just not in the way you can understand it.