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"THE" Reason We Went Into Iraq
Inside Scoop - Fox News Channel ^ | Sunday, 5-23-2004 | Eric Shawn & John Loftus

Posted on 05/23/2004 3:53:42 PM PDT by Matchett-PI

Edited on 05/23/2004 5:21:43 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]

Host Eric Shawn

Guest: John Loftus (the author of four histories about Intelligence operations, a consultant for CBS 60 MINUTES and ABC - PRIME TIME, among others. He was a prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department Nazi hunting unit with unprecedented access to top secret C.I.A. and NATO archives)

Under discussion is this story in the NY Times today:

Evidence Is Cited Linking Koreans to Libya Uranium New York Times ^ | 5/23/04 | DAVID E. SANGER and WILLIAM J. BROAD

Excerpt transcribed by me from my videotape:

Eric Shawn: "John Loftus told us about it months ago right here on Inside Scoop. John, that's why we call it, 'Inside Scoop' - you beat the New York Times again. Congratulations!"

John Loftus: "Thank you very much."

Eric: "How do you do it?"

John: "Well, ummm, this little country lawyer used to have a Q clearance for nuclear weapons secrets and I was told about this amazing wiretap where British Intelligence overheard a call from North Korea to Libya saying, 'My god, if the Americans ever go into Iraq, they're going to find out about our nuclear program. And who's going to pay all the Iraqi nuclear scientists in Libya if Saddam falls?''"

Eric: "You're saying before the war there were Iraqi nuclear scientists working on a potential bomb in Libya before we launched this [war in Iraq]?

John: "Yeah. This was a treaty signed by a man called Ali Sobree (sp?). He was the foreign minister of Iraq. And he went to Khadafy and they worked out a whole protocol. Khadafy would donate a hollowed out mountain in Libya; Iraq would provide the nuclear scientists, and North Korea would provide the uranium. And they would literally make a factory for nuclear weapons. And once that factory was complete, we had lost the war on terrorism. People don't realize that even a small nuclear weapon can kill 300,000 people. That's one hundred 9-11's. So that's why we put [garbled] bin Laden on the back burner -- we were really focusing on getting the Ali Sobree protocol - we had to smash that ring."

Eric: "Now when you talk about Saddam and the war on terror - we've had conversations - your indication is that President Bush understood this after 9-11 and he was mostly concerned about a nuclear bomb from Libya or Iraq or Iran."

John: "Eric, that's EXACTLY it. Within a month after 9-11, British wiretaps showed that we had a MAJOR risk. Nuclear weapons in terrorist's hands would be devastating. And that's why the president said, 'OK, we're gonna shift the emphasis from Afghanistan and Osama bin Laden. We're gonna go into Iraq - that's where the evidence is - we have to capture Ali Sobree."

Eric: "Yeah, but critics say, 'Oh the war is about oil' - ' The war is about democracy'. You say there's someting else going on. ..."

John: "This is absolutely necessary, Eric. Had we not smashed the program, within the next 3 or 4 months - on the schedule they were on - Libya would have finished the nuclear factory - we couldn't touch it. We were designing nuclear bunker-busters to try and get into the mountain [but] even that wouldn't work. Once the Islamic bomb was finished - America - the rest of the western nations were finished. We couldn't stand city after city evaporating by nuclear weapons."

Eric: "In other words, going into Iraq, in your view, having Khadafy now basically give up and surrender everything to us, getting the connection to North Korea and Iran - was a major strategy in the war on terror?"

John: "It was THE major strategy. Khadafy has now confirmed he is going to hand the Ali Sobree protocols over to the United States. Sobree, himself, is now in US custody and he is already scheduled as one of the first three witnesses in the trial of Saddam Hussein.

Sadam's biggest crime? While he was starving his own people to death, his money and his scientists were hiding in Libya to make a factory for nuclear weapons to attack any major power in the world." ...

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alisobree; ericshawn; fox; insidescoop; iran; iraq; johnloftus; khadafy; loftus; northkorea; prewarintelligence; proliferation; saddam; sobree; uranium; wmd; wot
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To: Matchett-PI

Thanks for the work on the transcript. Heard some of this a few weeks ago on WMAL in DC. Nice to get more details.


21 posted on 05/23/2004 4:18:10 PM PDT by pieces of time (Support Rumsfeld!)
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To: GOP_Initiative

I am interested in following it!


22 posted on 05/23/2004 4:21:27 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: Publius

"This adds a whole new dimension to that "railroad accident" in North Korea."

That's what I was thinking. And haven't the Japs said that there were Syrians on the train? How they came to know that I have no clue.

Maybe Bush didn't just throw Korea into the Axis of Evil to be multi-culti about it.


23 posted on 05/23/2004 4:21:46 PM PDT by jocon307 (The dems don't get it, the American people do.)
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To: Admin Moderator

You have "trimmed" a transcription of a broadcast that is NOT available at the link you provided.


24 posted on 05/23/2004 4:21:59 PM PDT by DefCon
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To: Admin Moderator; Jim Robinson


This is *MY* transcript from my personal videotape. There is no transcript of that program on the Fox web site that I know of, so this is not an "excerpt". Are you able to
restore my *personal* transcript since I taped it from my own TV and not from their web site?


25 posted on 05/23/2004 4:22:24 PM PDT by Matchett-PI (Entrenched DemocRAT union-backed bureaucrats quietly sabotage President Bush every day.)
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To: JOE6PAK
AKA "O.J."part 2!

You've had bit too much beer.

26 posted on 05/23/2004 4:22:41 PM PDT by tbpiper
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To: Matchett-PI

I missed that one!


27 posted on 05/23/2004 4:25:40 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: Admin Moderator

BTTT for an answer to my question in #25.


28 posted on 05/23/2004 4:29:44 PM PDT by Matchett-PI (Entrenched DemocRAT union-backed bureaucrats quietly sabotage President Bush every day.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Hmmmmm. Uranium.....Africa.....Libya.....Africa......


29 posted on 05/23/2004 4:29:47 PM PDT by McGavin999 (If Kerry can't deal with the "Republican Attack Machine" how is he going to deal with Al Qaeda)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach
I hope this is true. But I also heard John Loftus on WABC radio Friday night with the breaking story that Sadam's former vice president was discovered by the White House to be hiding in the palace of a high profile prince in Saudi Arabia (I think he said it was King Saud's son?), but I looked around Saturday morning and couldn't find anything on it.

I'm just not certain about John Loftus' credibility.

Can anybody speak to whether he is a reliable source?

30 posted on 05/23/2004 4:30:41 PM PDT by True Capitalist
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To: bitt

We may not hear everything Monday night.

President Bush is still playing Poker and may not have filled his hand yet.


31 posted on 05/23/2004 4:31:22 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: Matchett-PI

I wasn't aware that Fox News needed trimming in any event.


32 posted on 05/23/2004 4:33:19 PM PDT by Dog Gone
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To: Matchett-PI
Here's another reason we went into Iraq, I'll post it large so the libs who lurk here can read it while tracing the words with their fingers:

Clinton appointed U.S. District Court judge Harold Baer has made a legal finding that Iraq was behind the 9-11 attacks. His ruling was upheld by the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals.

33 posted on 05/23/2004 4:33:30 PM PDT by HighWheeler (def.- Democrats: n. from Greek; “democ” - many; “rats” - ugly, filthy, bloodsucking parasites.)
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To: True Capitalist

Someone said on a thread, I think, that Al Douri was thought to be hiding in Saudi Arabia!


34 posted on 05/23/2004 4:34:00 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: My2Cents; Admin Moderator
"Sorry, but I don't see a link to the full transcript on the Fox News site.

There isn't one there. This was something I transcribed from my own personal videotape of that 5-minute segment of the program. I've asked the Admin.Moderator to PLEASE restore my full transcript.

35 posted on 05/23/2004 4:37:15 PM PDT by Matchett-PI (Entrenched DemocRAT union-backed bureaucrats quietly sabotage President Bush every day.)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Waaahhhh...I'm moving next week and was packing all day- missed Eric's interview and in reading this thread and trying to get some info at FOX - I'm lost. Will someone be kind enough to UNtrim, DEtrim or REtrim the original script? I've read some of Loftus before- he's a mixed bag from what I can see he tried to tie GWB and UBL with Saudis...oil...etc. But it does seem pretty remarkable he'd go on record making a statement like this without being certain of his sourcing...
Back to packing...UGH..


36 posted on 05/23/2004 4:38:21 PM PDT by SE Mom
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To: Dog Gone
If this is correct, why isn't the administration touting it?

I believe the strategy of the Administration dealing with the Democrats has something to do with "rope" and "hang". Just wait until Kerry is the "official" nominee.

37 posted on 05/23/2004 4:38:59 PM PDT by Lunatic Fringe (John F-ing Kerry??? NO... F-ING... WAY!!!)
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To: Matchett-PI

I'd asked him in #20, but have yet to hear anything either.


38 posted on 05/23/2004 4:39:34 PM PDT by pookie18
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To: HighWheeler

Have we got some source for that?


39 posted on 05/23/2004 4:40:12 PM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach (The terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States - and war is what they got!!!!)
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To: Ernest_at_the_Beach

Yes, John Loftus reported this on the John Batchelor Show on thursday night.


40 posted on 05/23/2004 4:41:23 PM PDT by magua
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