[JCB]

Sure hope I don't get banned for this...

Despite the Hutton report, I think some questions remain. Namely, where are the WMD? Where did the 45 minute claim come from? If the US/UK was wrong or uninformed then let's find out why instead of sweeping it under the rug by questioning a BBC reporter.

I fear this report will simply be used to whitewash all the questions that still remain - ones that us pro-war folks should be asking every bit as much as the anti-war crowd.

Going to war on false premises (of "imminent" threat) is no small matter or one that can be easily dismissed - regardless of all the good that came from the toppling of Saddam.

[Keith]

you won't get banned...you are asking a legitimate question in a civil manner.

I think David Kay gave a really good answer on this today...it seems a lot of the info on WMD was based on reports from his underlings that they were spending their money on his pet weapons programs when they were actually pocketing the cash in some good old fashioned Arab graft...

We took them as seriously as Saddam did...they lied to both of us...

[syriacus]

I fear this report will simply be used to whitewash all the questions that still remain

You needn't worry. Plenty of opinion molders are worried about Iraq whitewashes.

Do a Google search and you'll see that it's quite popular lately to place the word "whitewash" near the word "Iraq."

Sept 2003, Britain: Another whitewash over Iraq

July, 2003: Parliamentary whitewash of Blair’s lies on Iraq falls flat

Aug, 2003 Journalists accuse US of "cynical whitewash" over report into Baghdad Hotel media killings

Aug, 2003 No whitewash on Whitehall

Dec, 2002 White House Whitewash

Dec, 2002, The Whitewash Commission

Jan, 2004Address coated with Teflon whitewash

Google says there are about 17900 results for "whitewash" and "iraq."

I know that it's likely that, in many of the google results, there is a more tenuous relationship between the terms "whitewash" and "Iraq."

[syriacus]

Where did the 45 minute claim come from

It might have come from al-Dabbagh, though maybe he is lying about his having been the liar who spoke with the British.

Iraqi who gave MI6 45-minute claim says it was untrue,David Leigh and Richard Norton-Taylor, Tuesday January 27.

[Neophyte]

Namely, where are the WMD?

The Japanese have recently discovered a storage of mustard gas munitions dated at the days of WWII. Mind you, it's the country which was for years under American occupation, which was thoroughly searched by the occupying power and by the Japanese themselves exactly for such things... and yet.

So WMD can be or can be not found. Or be found years later... This doesn't change the simple truth that Saddam Hussein should be gone. There was a UN resolution to this end, if you wish.