In books and articles, Richard Miniter has also outlined the WMD found in Iraq.
Is the David Kay report available to us mortals?
CNN has this, though, that says Kay said there were not WMDs:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/meast/01/25/sprj.nirq.kay/
The last few years have been a find demonstration of the continuing power of the "big lie" when used as a propaganda tool. The same technique is being applied to global warming.
"War is peace!"
"Hot is cool!"
1984+25
I would like to add, though, that I DO believe that they had WMDs as we gave them to Saddam in the 80’s. They are probably in the Bekaa (sp?) Valley.
U.S. State Department Admits - Saddam Hussein Was Developing Nuclear Bomb
Saddam's Terror Links (He Had Links to al Qaeda)
On June 9th [2004], the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council about the export of Iraqi WMD, missile and nuclear components shipped out of Iraq before, during and after the invasion. As reported by MENL news service, UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos told the Council, "The removal of these materials from Iraq raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks," and said inspectors found Iraqi WMD and missile components shipped abroad that still contained UN inspection tags.
The World Tribune reported on Perricos's briefing. "He said the Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent both to Europe and around the Middle East at the rate of about 1,000 tons of metal a month... The Baghdad missile site contained a range of WMD and dual-use components, UN officials said. They included missile components, reactor vessel and fermenters ... required for the production of chemical and biological warheads. 'It raises the question of what happened to the dual-use equipment, where is it now and what is it being used for,' Perricos's spokesman, said. 'You can make all kinds of pharmaceutical and medicinal products with a fermenter. You can also use it to breed anthrax.'"
Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said vehicle traffic photographed by U.S. spy satellites indicated that material and documents related to the arms programs were shipped to Syria."
"Last month Moshe Yaalon, who was Israel's top general at the time, said Iraq transported WMD to Syria six weeks before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.
Last March, John A. Shaw, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said Russian Spetsnaz units moved WMD to Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.
"While in Iraq I received information from several sources naming the exact Russian units, what they took and where they took both WMD materials and conventional explosives," Mr. Shaw told NewsMax reporter Charles Smith.
Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong was deputy commander of Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In September 2004, he told WABC radio that "I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon and Iran."
In January 2004, David Kay, the first head of the Iraq Survey Group which conducted the search for Saddam's WMD, told a British newspaper there was evidence unspecified materials had been moved to Syria from Iraq shortly before the war.
"We know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD program," Mr. Kay told the Sunday Telegraph.
Also that month, Nizar Nayuf, a Syrian journalist who defected to an undisclosed European country, told a Dutch newspaper he knew of three sites where Iraq's WMD was being kept. They were the town of al Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria; the Syrian air force base near the village of Tal Snan, and the city of Sjinsar on the border with Lebanon.
In an addendum to his final report last April, Charles Duelfer, who succeeded David Kay as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said he couldn't rule out a transfer of WMD from Iraq to Syria.
"There was evidence of a discussion of possible WMD collaboration initiated by a Syrian security officer, and ISG received information about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that WMD was involved. In the judgment of the working group, these reports were sufficiently credible to merit further investigation," Mr. Duelfer said."
"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw told an audience Saturday at a privately sponsored "Intelligence Summit" in Alexandria, Va. (www.intelligencesummit.org).
"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."
"Two days before the war, on March 17th, we saw through multiple intelligence channels - both human intelligence and techinical (satellite,eavesdrop) intelligence - large caravans of people and things, including some of the top 55 Iraqis, going to Syria."
See also: What Charles Duelfer Missed
Any thinking person knows Saddam had WMD, and moved it prior to the war. I think there is a legitimate reason that the Administration has not made that case.
I am sure there are quite a lot of things that the Administration has done in the interest of our safety, which cannot be talked about publicly in the interest of protecting informers and other people — including political figures from nations unfriendly to us who may have helped us here and there.
It must have been hell for President Bush and his team to have to take all the insults and out-and-out lies from the media and the Democrats when exculpatory evidence had to be kept secret.
Even President Bush repeated this today, saying no weapon were found. I will never, ever understand this administration unwillingness to defend itself.
The correct answer, no spin, is that we identified a very active weapons program and many laboratories, small scale weapons, etc. We unfortunately, did not uncover a huge arsenal ready to be deployed as the intelligence had predicted, but the programs were in place to expand the production in a short period of time.
This is a perfectly acceptable answer...it would have satisfied a lot of people.
Even if one were to produce a dated photograph of Saddam sitting astride a chemical missile shell waving a beaker full of anthrax in each hand, our liberals would still say that George Bush took the country to war for a lie and there were never any WMD's and there was no connection between Iraq and terrorism, period, end of story, hands-over-ears-yah-yah-yah-I-can't-hear-you!!! like the three year-olds they are. Except that they've won and the adults lost.
Both the Kay report and the Deulfer (sp?) report detailed the broad extent of chemical and biological weapons facilities, equipment, personnel and records that were found after the invasion. The programs were intact. The facilities were intact. The only thing not found in great quantity were the storehouses of ready-made weapons. They’d been cleaned out. It is all but certain that some stockpiles were evacuated to Syria. Tommy Franks was sure of it.
Saddam’s WMD programs were the problem, and now they’re not. Taking him out was absolutely the right thing to do.
Saddam Hussein had 14 months while the USA was presenting their case to the UN attempting to persuade the UN into upholding international law.
During this time, Saddam was able to move his WMD programs into the nations of his neighboring allies.
Israel destroyed Syria’s nuclear program in ‘08. Where did the matterial for Syria’s destroyed programs come from?
By the time President Bush concluded that if international law was going to be upheld and enforced he would have to do it with the American military, Russian trucks had helped to move Saddam’s WMD programs across the desert.
I will never understand the mindset of this president.
Yes there were weapons of mass destruction found along with plans to reconstitute previous plans for WMD.
Further, there was NO reason on earth for him to take back his yellow cake statement in his SOTU.
One wonders if we will ever know the truth.
I believe that is incorrect.
Though Goebbels is often given credit for that line, it was Lenin who should be credited. The exact quote is;
"A lie told often enough becomes truth" - - Vladimir Lenin.
best book of 2008....
All conservatives are aware of this.
Few moderates are and most Democrats couldn’t care less.
Bush II simply could not connect the dots for the benefit of the unwashed masses. Unfortunately they could vote however.
For whatever reasons, the Bush administration just refused to emphasize this. They could have had a home run some many times and they let it go right by. Confusion, Alzheimer’s, or whatever I just have always found it odd.
For some reason that escapes me President Bush and others high in our government did not seem to want the public to know the truth about WMDs in Iraq or the extent Sadaam was involved with encouraging/supporting terrorism against the U.S. It makes no sense to me, might have been a failure to communicate the truth or unwillingness to stand up to the media and critics of the war- or a real desire to sweep it all under the rug- but for what reason??