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By John Kelley (about the author)
Become a Fan (3 fans) -- Page 2 of 4 page(s)
January 9, 2003 White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer in his daily press briefing "We know for a fact that there are weapons (of mass destruction) there (in Iraq). "
March 16, 2003 Vice President Richard Cheney on "Meet The Press " "We believe he (Saddam Hussein) has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. El Baradei (head of the U.N. International Commission on Nuclear Weapons) frankly is wrong. "
March 17, 2003 President Bush in his weekly address to the nation "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves not doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. "
March 21, 2003 White House Secretary Ari Fleischer in his daily briefing "Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly ... all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for what ever duration it takes. "
March 24, 2003 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on "Face The Nation " "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they 're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established. "
March 30, 2003 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on ABC 's "This Week " - "We know where they (weapons of mass destruction) are, they are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad. "
This does not include the now infamous 16 words in the President 's State of the Union message or numerous statements made by other members of the administration such as Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell and others. In addition the President made fourteen statements that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction while campaigning in 2002 and eleven statements that Saddam was connected to Al Quedda between October 10th and November 4th, 2002. No accusation of a tie between Saddam and Al Quedda has ever been substantiated. What is clear, is that there was a full court press by the administration to convince the American people to support going to war in Iraq.
Evidence to the Contrary
Lets look at some specific accusations and the truth behind them in the now infamous State of the Union message urging war.
Statement from the President 's State of theUnion Address
The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough doses to kill several million people. He hasn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hadn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them -- despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
This a serious distortion of the United Nations information. The United Nations concluded that Saddam could have produced the above quantities of weapons by 1991 if he had been allowed to continue to manufacture chemical and biological weapons at full capacity (doubtful given the lack of facilities and materials). This was presented by the President as if it were a current threat.
The reason we knew that Saddam had these weapons was that we sold them to him during the Reagan Administration to use against Iran, a deal sealed by Donald Rumsfeld. The old joke is that we know they have them, because we have the receipts! The reality is that most of these were used (in violation of international law) at our urging to contain the Iranians, destroyed in the 1991 war or deteriorated because of their instability to a point they were no longer viable. Saddam 's inability to produce proof of their destruction was not a surprise to arms inspectors.
A UNSCOM paper from 1998, cited by former inspector Scott Ritter, declared: "Taking into consideration the conditions and the quality of CW-agents and munitions produced by Iraq at threat time, there is no possibility of weapons remaining from the Mid-1980 's " The same is true of biological toxins produced in the 1980 's. Botulism has a shelf life of about a year, while wet anthrax, the principal form produced by Iraq, has a relatively short life span as well.
A pentagon report by the Persian Gulf War Illnesses Task Force, April 2002 concluded that Iraqi production techniques were poor and the resulting toxins too diluted to be militarily effective. It declared: "We believe Iraq was largely cooperative in its latest declarations because many of its residual munitions were of little use- other than bolstering the credibility of Iraq 's declaration because of chemical agent degradation and leakage problems. "
Bush 's figures all refer to information about Iraq prior to 1991. Neither the U.S. or Britain ever made the claim that Iraq had continued production of chemical or biological weapons in the period from 1991-98. Sites visited by U.N. Inspectors after November 2002 were consistent with Iraqi claims of production of agricultural chemicals or oil processing.
Two other reports by the Pentagon 's intelligence arm, the Defense Intelligence Agency, (DIA) concluded in 2002 made the following statements about Iraq 's weapons of mass destruction:
1. "There is no reliable evidence on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or whether Iraq has or will- establish its chemcial warfare agent production facilities "
2. "Iraq is assessed to possess biological agent stockpiles that may be weaponized and ready for use " but "The size of those stockpiles is uncertain and is subject to debate. The nature and condition of those stockpiles are unknown. "
In fact on June 6, 2003 Vice-Admiral Lowell Jacopy, the DIA Director confirmed that the DIA had no hard information on weapons, stockpiles or locations.
Statement from the President 's State of theUnion Address
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.
It is now clear that claims that yellow cake uranium was being sought was known to be bogus for over a year before the President 's address after being investigated by Ambassador Donald Wilson at the request of Vice President Cheney. The claims about the high-strength aluminum tubes have never been taken seriously by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which Chairman El Baradei reported to the U.N. Security Council in January 2003 "to be consistent with reverse engineering of rockets " used for short range battlefield rocket launchers allowed under the U.N. rules. In spite of repeated statements by the administration about the presence of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons U.N. inspector Hans Blix 's requests for the location of those sites were refused.
Tony Blair is in deep trouble at home in Britain because of his inability to support claims he made about Iraq including the seeming out and out fabrication that Iraq would be able to use weapons of mass destruction on forty five minutes notice and the basing of some claims sourced from a graduate student 's thesis that was over 12 years old. The reality is that Saddam was the head of a nation that had it 's infrastructure and military largely destroyed in the first gulf war and ten years of sanctions. It had no air force and lacked control over large parts of its own territory including Kurdish areas and no-fly zones. He certainly lacked the ability to be a threat to even his neighbors let alone the U.S.
The Options
The administration expects us to believe one of three options. One, we have the most expensive, most incompetent intelligence system in the world. The CIA, DIA and the National Security Administration blew it, they just made a mistake over-amped the intelligence and gave it to an unwitting President. Two, Saddam was so sneaky that he hid all of the weapons before and during the invasion rather than use them against the invading Americans or; Three, Saddam was able to sneak them all out to Syria either of which would be proof of a totally incompetent American military and intelligence community.
The problem with these arguments is that forty years ago President John F. Kennedy was able to present U-2 photos that clearly demonstrated the Soviets were building missile silos in Cuba. The leaps in development of satellite photographic and listening capabilities have improved to the point where we can read a license plate number on a car and listen in on cell phone conversations anywhere in the world. Certainly Mossad, who has the best human intelligence in the world had agents in Iraq that could have pinpointed these weapons. Does anyone really believe that Saddam made the American Intelligence Agencies believe they had weapons they didn 't have for over 10 years? What would be his purpose for such a deception? Or maybe he was a brilliant strategist playing a shell game that fooled the best intelligence in the world.
There is a fourth option and the only rational one is that the President and his Neo Conservative and Military Industrial supporters lied to get support for a war of aggression. Hitler was identified as a megalomaniac because he believed he had a calling that was above the understanding of other men. Bush believes the same thing. In a statement to the new Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas reported in the June 25, 2003 Haaretz.com News Updates he said "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, ... "
The Costs
Become a Fan (3 fans) -- Page 2 of 4 page(s)
March 16, 2003 Vice President Richard Cheney on "Meet The Press " "We believe he (Saddam Hussein) has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons. I think Mr. El Baradei (head of the U.N. International Commission on Nuclear Weapons) frankly is wrong. "
March 17, 2003 President Bush in his weekly address to the nation "Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves not doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. "
March 21, 2003 White House Secretary Ari Fleischer in his daily briefing "Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly ... all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for what ever duration it takes. "
March 24, 2003 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on "Face The Nation " "We have seen intelligence over many months that they have chemical and biological weapons, and that they have dispersed them and that they 're weaponized and that, in one case at least, the command and control arrangements have been established. "
March 30, 2003 Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on ABC 's "This Week " - "We know where they (weapons of mass destruction) are, they are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad. "
This does not include the now infamous 16 words in the President 's State of the Union message or numerous statements made by other members of the administration such as Condoleeza Rice, Colin Powell and others. In addition the President made fourteen statements that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction while campaigning in 2002 and eleven statements that Saddam was connected to Al Quedda between October 10th and November 4th, 2002. No accusation of a tie between Saddam and Al Quedda has ever been substantiated. What is clear, is that there was a full court press by the administration to convince the American people to support going to war in Iraq.
Evidence to the Contrary
Lets look at some specific accusations and the truth behind them in the now infamous State of the Union message urging war.
Statement from the President 's State of theUnion Address
The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax -- enough doses to kill several million people. He hasn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin -- enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. He hadn't accounted for that material. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed it.
Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands. He's not accounted for these materials. He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them -- despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions. He's given no evidence that he has destroyed them.
This a serious distortion of the United Nations information. The United Nations concluded that Saddam could have produced the above quantities of weapons by 1991 if he had been allowed to continue to manufacture chemical and biological weapons at full capacity (doubtful given the lack of facilities and materials). This was presented by the President as if it were a current threat.
The reason we knew that Saddam had these weapons was that we sold them to him during the Reagan Administration to use against Iran, a deal sealed by Donald Rumsfeld. The old joke is that we know they have them, because we have the receipts! The reality is that most of these were used (in violation of international law) at our urging to contain the Iranians, destroyed in the 1991 war or deteriorated because of their instability to a point they were no longer viable. Saddam 's inability to produce proof of their destruction was not a surprise to arms inspectors.
A UNSCOM paper from 1998, cited by former inspector Scott Ritter, declared: "Taking into consideration the conditions and the quality of CW-agents and munitions produced by Iraq at threat time, there is no possibility of weapons remaining from the Mid-1980 's " The same is true of biological toxins produced in the 1980 's. Botulism has a shelf life of about a year, while wet anthrax, the principal form produced by Iraq, has a relatively short life span as well.
A pentagon report by the Persian Gulf War Illnesses Task Force, April 2002 concluded that Iraqi production techniques were poor and the resulting toxins too diluted to be militarily effective. It declared: "We believe Iraq was largely cooperative in its latest declarations because many of its residual munitions were of little use- other than bolstering the credibility of Iraq 's declaration because of chemical agent degradation and leakage problems. "
Bush 's figures all refer to information about Iraq prior to 1991. Neither the U.S. or Britain ever made the claim that Iraq had continued production of chemical or biological weapons in the period from 1991-98. Sites visited by U.N. Inspectors after November 2002 were consistent with Iraqi claims of production of agricultural chemicals or oil processing.
Two other reports by the Pentagon 's intelligence arm, the Defense Intelligence Agency, (DIA) concluded in 2002 made the following statements about Iraq 's weapons of mass destruction:
1. "There is no reliable evidence on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons, or whether Iraq has or will- establish its chemcial warfare agent production facilities "
2. "Iraq is assessed to possess biological agent stockpiles that may be weaponized and ready for use " but "The size of those stockpiles is uncertain and is subject to debate. The nature and condition of those stockpiles are unknown. "
In fact on June 6, 2003 Vice-Admiral Lowell Jacopy, the DIA Director confirmed that the DIA had no hard information on weapons, stockpiles or locations.
Statement from the President 's State of theUnion Address
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities. He clearly has much to hide.
It is now clear that claims that yellow cake uranium was being sought was known to be bogus for over a year before the President 's address after being investigated by Ambassador Donald Wilson at the request of Vice President Cheney. The claims about the high-strength aluminum tubes have never been taken seriously by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which Chairman El Baradei reported to the U.N. Security Council in January 2003 "to be consistent with reverse engineering of rockets " used for short range battlefield rocket launchers allowed under the U.N. rules. In spite of repeated statements by the administration about the presence of chemical, biological and nuclear weapons U.N. inspector Hans Blix 's requests for the location of those sites were refused.
Tony Blair is in deep trouble at home in Britain because of his inability to support claims he made about Iraq including the seeming out and out fabrication that Iraq would be able to use weapons of mass destruction on forty five minutes notice and the basing of some claims sourced from a graduate student 's thesis that was over 12 years old. The reality is that Saddam was the head of a nation that had it 's infrastructure and military largely destroyed in the first gulf war and ten years of sanctions. It had no air force and lacked control over large parts of its own territory including Kurdish areas and no-fly zones. He certainly lacked the ability to be a threat to even his neighbors let alone the U.S.
The Options
The administration expects us to believe one of three options. One, we have the most expensive, most incompetent intelligence system in the world. The CIA, DIA and the National Security Administration blew it, they just made a mistake over-amped the intelligence and gave it to an unwitting President. Two, Saddam was so sneaky that he hid all of the weapons before and during the invasion rather than use them against the invading Americans or; Three, Saddam was able to sneak them all out to Syria either of which would be proof of a totally incompetent American military and intelligence community.
The problem with these arguments is that forty years ago President John F. Kennedy was able to present U-2 photos that clearly demonstrated the Soviets were building missile silos in Cuba. The leaps in development of satellite photographic and listening capabilities have improved to the point where we can read a license plate number on a car and listen in on cell phone conversations anywhere in the world. Certainly Mossad, who has the best human intelligence in the world had agents in Iraq that could have pinpointed these weapons. Does anyone really believe that Saddam made the American Intelligence Agencies believe they had weapons they didn 't have for over 10 years? What would be his purpose for such a deception? Or maybe he was a brilliant strategist playing a shell game that fooled the best intelligence in the world.
There is a fourth option and the only rational one is that the President and his Neo Conservative and Military Industrial supporters lied to get support for a war of aggression. Hitler was identified as a megalomaniac because he believed he had a calling that was above the understanding of other men. Bush believes the same thing. In a statement to the new Palestinian Prime Minister Abbas reported in the June 25, 2003 Haaretz.com News Updates he said "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them, and then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, ... "
The Costs
www.wethepeoplenews.org
John Kelley is the Managing Editor of a monthly progressive newsmagazine, "We the People News", in Corpus Christi, Texas
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
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