U.S. didn't interview tipster on mobile labs

Washington Post ^ | 3/5/2004 | Walter Pincus

[JohnGalt]

U.S. didn't interview tipster on mobile labs Friday, March 05, 2004

By Walter Pincus, The Washington Post

WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration's prewar assertion that Saddam Hussein had a fleet of mobile labs that could produce bioweapons rested largely on information from an Iraqi defector working with another government who was never interviewed by U.S. intelligence officers, according to current and former senior intelligence officials and congressional experts who have studied classified documents.

In his presentation before the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5, 2003, Secretary of State Colin Powell said "firsthand descriptions" of the mobile bioweapons fleet had come from an Iraqi chemical engineer who had defected and is "currently hiding in another country with the certain knowledge that Saddam Hussein will kill him if he finds him."

The claims about the mobile facilities remain unverified, however, and now U.S. officials are trying to get access to the Iraqi engineer to verify his story, the sources said, particularly because intelligence officials have discovered that he is related to a senior official in Ahmed Chalabi's Iraqi National Congress, a group of Iraqi exiles who actively encouraged the United States to invade Iraq.

[pttttt]

An interesting link on this subject - still on the CIA's web site as of just now.

[optimistically_conservative]

and since this time around it is my friends, classmates, and teammates that are in harms way I find your stance anti-patriotic and cynical beyond belief.

Anti-patriotic? Strong words from an arm chair patriot that has perform no service except in his own interest. Your understanding of patriotism and cynicism is representative of a 24 year old's immaturity and self-indulgence. I find it difficult to believe you have friends, much less classmates or "teammates" that share your view or value your concern.

Your damn right; I don't give a crap about the military; I do care about my countrymen.

It speaks volumes that first you responded to Pincus' retreat with a cynical reference to death, and now separate your concern for your countrymen and the military.

Your ideology shreds with the slightest pull of a thread.

[JohnGalt]

Your critique of "my ideology" does not make sense. I posted this article to show another instance when the criminal Chalabi duped the administration. That is not a question of ideology unless you believe truth is determined by ideology, but if you want to go on believing that maybe in this one instance Chalabi delivered, than you are suffering from some Republican version of battered wife syndrome.

You are right about one thing, we cannot both be patriots.

I have two friends in the frontlines; one wants to be there, the other most certainly does not. Played football with both, drank heavily with both.

[JohnGalt]

Umm, did you read the article?

[justshutupandtakeit]

More attempts to discredit the Administration from John Galt.

They found at least one of the labs.

Of course, the Lying RATmedia which you so love pretends they were to make hydrogen.

How many articles from the RATmedia supporting RAT lies are you going to post? Is posting RATmedia lies and propaganda a full time job?

Are you the Kerry Campaign Manager in your state?

Keep George Washington out of your RAT lie boosting. His Farewell Address was NOT a call for Isolationism nor to not protect this Nation. It was a warning against secession and against undue French influence through the Jeffersonian party. He feared increased French influence would led to civil war.

Only an idiot would believe the US was led into war by Chalabi.

[justshutupandtakeit]

How about his dishonesty in everything else? Is there a more transparent, disingenuous, deceptive poster on FR?

[optimistically_conservative]

I posted this article to show another instance when the criminal Chalabi duped the administration.

I haven't questioned whether or not this should have been posted.

That is not a question of ideology unless you believe truth is determined by ideology ...

Your perception of truth is driven by ideology. It's a common illness among the confident youth.

You are right about one thing, we cannot both be patriots.

Careful stud. I have not questioned your patriotism, you called me anti-patriotic. I pointed out your sudden and narrowly scoped concern for loss of life when you cynically asked how many died as a result of Pincus' duping.

I have two friends in the frontlines; one wants to be there, the other most certainly does not. Played football with both, drank heavily with both.

I had a number of "friends" who decided to speak for me when I was around your age and went to the first Gulf War. I disabused them of their misconception. Some actually felt that sharing a beer at party or having played on the same team gave them some authority on my behalf.

[JohnGalt]

Real patriots who may resist the intrigues of the favorite are liable to become suspected and odious, while its tools and dupes usurp the applause and confidence of the people, to surrender their interests.
George Washington

[JohnGalt]

I guess Celts are just a little tighter then.

[optimistically_conservative]

You may be disappointed.

[justshutupandtakeit]

George Washington would be on the side of those who want to protect the nation from its enemies rather than support you in your crusade to undermine the Administration's efforts to do just that. He was very familiar with treacherous and insidious attempts to undermine an Administration such as those by his own Sec of State.

[JohnGalt]

It is far more reflective on you that you sided with the abstraction of your nation-state over the organic relationships of those you called friend. Choosing nationalism over patriotism is a rational enough choice, but the nation is an 'innovation' from the late 17th century French philosophers who saw in 'nationalism' not only a means to rival the king in the 'ancien regime' but to challenge the church. This was the basis of what liberals, which includes radical liberals like Karl Marx, down to present day "neoconservatives" like Irving Kristol, would call the "ideological nation."

You are more than welcome to your point of view, it just leans left. As to placing everything in an Rs and Ds box when the parties are virtually the same, its akin to the Blues and Greens of late period Rome.