Weapons Deceptions,     Page 1, Go to Page 2

"During the weeks last fall before critical votes in Congress and the United Nations on going to war in President Bush, expressed certainty in public that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons," Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writers 6/7/03

Read all of W's claims about Weapons of Mass Destruction and Rebuttals WMD Facts

Iraq Slack

 What Bush Said Evidence Otherwise

Regime Change or WMDs?

It appears that there was no way short of war to create an environment where a finding of Iraq's compliance with its obligation to disarm could be embraced by the US and British governments. The main reason for this was that the issue wasn't WMD per se, but Saddam. The true goal wasn't disarmament, but regime change. This, of course, clashed with the principles of international law set forth in the Security Council resolutions, voted on by the US and UK, and to which Saddam was ostensibly held to account. Economic sanctions, put in place by the UN in 1990 after Saddam's invasion of Iraq and continued in 1991, linked to Saddam's obligation to disarm, were designed to compel Iraq to comply with the Security Council's requirements. Saddam did disarm, but since two members of that Security Council . . .were implementing unilateral policies of regime change as opposed to disarmament, this compliance could never be recognised. Scott Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq (1991-1998) , Independent, UK, 10/10/04 MORE

 

 

Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction Found (and They are Ours)*

Welcome to the big city where all the Pentagon suits lie about uranium oxide! I don’t expect them to stop now. This practice of using uranium oxide is flat out wrong and they all, from President Bush on down, richly deserve a long term in Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.  Did you know the uranium penetrator bombs are patented? Private contractors make a buck every time the 2,000-pound penetrator bombs, containing 1,100 pounds of radioactive uranium, explode. The explosion forms poisonous uranium oxide gas. . . famed former Lawrence Livermore Nuclear Weapons Lab scientist Leuren Moret stated, “The answer is that there is no protection possible to prevent exposure to DU* from the battlefield - and that means the global pollution also is now spread around the world.”  Bob Nicols, SF Bayview, 9/22/04  MORE

Letter to Congress on D.U.

 

Kay Says Bush had Bad Intel on WMDs, BUT . . .

"a Defense Intelligence Agency report on chemical weapons, widely distributed to administration policymakers around the time of the president's speech, stated there was "no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing or stockpiling chemical weapons or whether Iraq has or will establish its chemical agent production" Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writers 6/7/03   AND

"Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz invited heightened cynicism with the flippant admission that the administration's pre-war warnings about Saddam's dangerous stashes were used to sell the war because the weapons were "the one issue that everyone could agree on."   USA Today Editorial 6/3/03 

DoD and Iran-Contra II 

Boiled down to its essentials, the Iran-Contra affair was about a small group of officials based in the National Security Agency (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) that ran an "off-the-books" operation to secretly sell arms to Iran in exchange for hostages held in Tehran after the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran.. . The picture emerging from the latest reports about the manipulation of intelligence in the drive to war with Iraq, as well as efforts by administration hawks to deliberately aggravate tensions with Syria, Iran, and North Korea in defiance of official State Department and US policy, suggest a similar but much more ambitious scheme at work.  Jim Lobe, syndicated columnist, 8/11/03  Jim Lobe writes for Inter Press Service, an international newswire, and for Foreign Policy in Focus, a joint project of the Washington-based Institute for Policy Studies and the New Mexico-based Interhemispheric Resource Center.

 

The Truth was Known

[re Iraq's purchase of African uranium] The CIA arranged to have a similar allegation deleted from a speech that John D. Negroponte, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was to give Dec. 20 before the U.N. Security Council.  Yet in the days before and after the president's State of the Union address, the allegation was repeated by national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul D. Wolfowitz and in at least two documents sent out by the White House. Walter Pincus, The Washington Post 8/8/03

Can we Believe the National Security Advisor?  Two CIA memos, along with a phone call from CIA Director George Tenet, persuaded White House officials to remove the allegation from an earlier speech that President Bush made on October 7.. .Mr Hadley said the second of the two CIA memos, dated October 6, was sent to Dr Rice as well as to him. . . "No one knew at the time in our circles - maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency, but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery," Dr Rice said in an interview on on June 8.  Ken Fireman, TheAge.com 7/24/03 Australia

 

Documented Account of Rumsfeld and Bechtel promotion of a pipeline with Saddam in the mid-80's  :

Picture from Giovanni di Stefano in Lo Spettro.

 

In "Crude Vision: How Oil Interests Obscured US Government Focus On Chemical Weapons Use by Saddam Hussein" the Institute for Policy Studies reveals that the diplomatic pressure from Rumsfeld and the Reagan administration happened during and despite Hussein's use of chemical weapons. Behind the scenes, these officials worked for two years attempting to secure the billion dollar pipeline scheme for the Bechtel corporation. The Bush/Cheney administration now eyes Bechtel as a primary contractor for the rebuilding of Iraq's infrastructure.  Institute of Policy Studies, March 2003

What say you? 

 

As Greg Thielmann, a former State Department intelligence official, said last week, U.S. intelligence analysts have consistently agreed that Saddam did not have a "meaningful connection" to Al Qaeda. Yet administration officials continually asserted such a connection, even as they suppressed evidence showing real links between Al Qaeda and Saudi Arabia. PAUL KRUGMAN, NY Times, 7/15/03

Statement from Congressman Waxman, 6/12/03

What Intelligence Officials Knew about the
Forged Iraq Nuclear Evidence

 

 

 

The following quotes are taken from Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense? By JOHN W. DEAN at FindLaw.com

"Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons." United Nations Address
September 12, 2002

"Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons."

"We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have."  Radio Address
October 5, 2002

"The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons."

"We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas."

"We've also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We're concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States."

"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his "nuclear mujahideen" - his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons."

Cincinnati, Ohio Speech
October 7, 2002

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent."

State of the Union Address
January 28, 2003

"Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised."

Address to the Nation
March 17, 2003

BUT . . .

CIA Director George Tenet told members of Congress a White House official insisted that President Bush's State of the Union address include an assertion about Saddam Hussein's nuclear intentions that had not been verified. . . . Tenet named the official. But [Dick Durban] the Illinois Democrat said that person's identity could not be revealed because of the confidentiality of the proceedings.

 Associated Press, NY Times 7/15/03

 

and 

"a Defense Intelligence Agency report on chemical weapons, widely distributed to administration policymakers around the time of the president's speech, stated there was "no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing or stockpiling chemical weapons or whether Iraq has or will establish its chemical agent production" Dana Priest and Walter Pincus, Washington Post Staff Writers 6/7/03

and  . .

"American and British intelligence analysts with direct access to the evidence are disputing claims that the mysterious trailers found in Iraq were for making deadly germs. In interviews over the last week, they said the mobile units were more likely intended for other purposes and charged that the evaluation process had been damaged by a rush to judgment.   JUDITH MILLER and WILLIAM J. BROAD   NY Times, 6/6/03

and

“Last week, U.S. Marine Lt. Gen. James Conway said U.S. intelligence was "simply wrong" in leading the military to believe the invading troops were likely to be attacked with chemical weapons.” Fri June 6, 2003 By Sue Pleming, Reuters 

and

“Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, said news reports in recent months have inaccurately portrayed the role of a small group of analysts he assembled in October 2001. . . . other defense officials said the team's task quickly turned to gleaning details that may have collectively pointed to Iraq's wider connections to terrorism.”  SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER NEWS SERVICES  Thursday, June 5, 2003

and

 “This team, self-mockingly called the Cabal, "cherry-picked the intelligence stream" in a bid to portray Iraq as an imminent threat, said Patrick Lang, a former head of worldwide human intelligence gathering for the Defense Intelligence Agency, which coordinates military intelligence.”  May 30, 2003 07:15 PM ET
By Jim Wolf, Reuters   

 and

"Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz invited heightened cynicism with the flippant admission that the administration's pre-war warnings about Saddam's dangerous stashes were used to sell the war because the weapons were "the one issue that everyone could agree on."   USA Today Editorial 6/3/03 

and

"Some documents used by the United States and British governments to make a case against Iraq proved to be flawed — papers showing that Iraq sought to import uranium from Niger, for example, were revealed as forgeries.. . .Hans Blix, revived the issue today by saying that much of the American intelligence on Iraqi weapons was not "solid" and that he had felt pressure from lower-level Bush administration officials to exaggerate his inspectors' findings. "  BRIAN KNOWLTON,
International Herald Tribune as reported in NY Times 6/11/03


 
Bush's Statement The Washington Post says...
"A report came out of the... [International Atomic Energy Agency], that [the Iraqis] were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need." Camp David, 9/7/02 "There was no new IAEA report... Bush cast as present evidence the contents of a report from 1996, updated in 1998 and 1999. In those accounts, the IAEA described the history of an Iraqi nuclear weapons program that arms inspectors had systematically destroyed."
Bush's Statement The Washington Post says...
"Iraq has made several attempts to buy high-strength aluminum tubes used to enrich uranium for a nuclear weapon." United Nations, 9/12/02 "Gas centrifuge experts consulted by the U.S. government said repeatedly for more than a year that the aluminum tubes were not suitable or intended for uranium enrichment. By December 2002, the experts said new evidence had further undermined the government's assertion. The Bush administration portrayed the scientists as a minority and emphasized that the experts did not describe the centrifuge theory as impossible."
Bush's Statement The Washington Post says...
"Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof, the smoking gun that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Cincinnati OH, 10/7/02 "What Hussein did not have was the principal requirement for a nuclear weapon, a sufficient quantity of highly enriched uranium or plutonium. And the U.S. government, authoritative intelligence officials said, had only circumstantial evidence that Iraq was trying to obtain those materials."
Bush's Statement The Washington Post says...
"The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group of his 'nuclear mujahedeen,' his nuclear holy warriors." Cincinnati OH, 10/7/02 "Bush and others often alleged that President Hussein held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, but did not disclose that the known work of the scientists was largely benign. Iraq's three top gas centrifuge experts, for example, ran a copper factory, an operation to extract graphite from oil and a mechanical engineering design center."