I'm awarding your willingness to help by posting a pic of Miss Beazley --
Posted on 01/12/2005 9:23:01 AM PST by Sunshine55
The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley.
In interviews, officials who served with the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas.
Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG's final conclusions and will be published this spring.
President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials asserted before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, had chemical and biological weapons, and maintained links to al Qaeda affiliates to whom it might give such weapons to use against the United States.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Nuclear Semantics
The Washington Dispatch
2003
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/948605/posts
The congressional resolution that gave Bush authority to launch the war, that so many Dems voted for, stated that Iraq had "the capacity to possess" WMD, a little fact that the media and Dem'Rats leave out of their rhetoric. So, ask her to prove that Bush ever said they actually had them. He and Powell, Cheney, etc., all talked about BW and CW that Iraq possessed in the past and remained unaccounted for, as U.N. mandates and the cease-fire resolution from the first Gulf War required.
Also, remind her that Bush never said that the WMD were an imminent threat, but rather that we were acting in a pre-eminent manner in order to prevent them from becoming as such.
Then we have the findings of the Iraq Survey Group; the quotes below are all taken from the "Statement On The Interim Progress Report On The Activities Of The Iraq Survey Group, 10/2/03," by David Kay:
“We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002.”
“A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW [Chemical and Biological Weapons] research.”
“A prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of BW [Biological Weapons] agents, that Iraqi officials working to prepare for UN inspections were explicitly ordered not to declare to the UN.”
“Reference strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist’s home, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.”
“New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.”
“Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists’ homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).”
“A line of UAV’s [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] not fully declared at an undeclared production facility and an admission that they had tested one of their declared UAVs out to a range of 500 km, 350 km beyond the permissible limit.”
“Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited SCUD variant missiles, a capability that was maintained at least until the end of 2001 and that cooperating Iraqi scientists have said they were told to conceal from the UN.”
“Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km - well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the UN. Missiles of a 1000 km range would have allowed Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East, including Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.”
“Clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles --probably the No Dong -- 300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles, and other prohibited military equipment.”
“With regard to Iraq’s nuclear program, the testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and senior government officials should clear up any doubts about whether Saddam still wanted to obtain nuclear weapons. They have told ISG [Iraq Survey Group] that Saddam [Hussein] remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons.”
“In addition to the discovery of extensive concealment efforts, we have been faced with a systematic sanitization of documentary and computer evidence in a wide range of offices, laboratories, and companies suspected of WMD work.”
Post #9 has Unscom WMD information.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1056108/posts
The UN says that Saddam smuggled WMD out of Iraq.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1159171/posts
Frankly, as I've begun this project, I'm finding that I was sloppy about making sure I had references to the sources of some of the info I've collected. I would simply highlight, copy, and paste info to an email I'd send to the Bush2004 Yahoo Discussion group I ran last year, and failed (at times) to give proper attribution. So, part of my work will be to retrace my steps to find the source of the information. I also need some help with fact-checking. When, for instance, I reference comments by David Kay to Congress last January, I actually don't have his testimony, but gleaned his comments from another source that I didn't keep the reference to. Sloppy, I know. His testimony should be easy to find, but I may need some help shoring up such references. I'm going to attempt to recruit members of the "GWB Rapid Response Team" here on FR to help verify some of my material, if they're willing, since they're all aces at research.
Bottom-line: it's way past the time for someone to put all of this information together. Maybe someone like Richard Miniter is doing just this at the moment; he would be perfect. I don't know if we can eventually get it published somewhere, other than here on FR, but depending on the quality of our effort, that's something I'd like to shoot for.
1997: Unscom confirms Iraq imported yellowcake
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/993245/posts
What David Kay found:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/998187/posts
What the UN inspectors found re WMD:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/31/1075340890868.html?oneclick=true
See, Dave, I told you Peach was good! :-)
LOL.
I have a few more but have to run. Let's talk later. It may be tomorrow before I can give any substantive help beyond these links.
Great project!
Oh, I ran back to remind you...the keyword search on FR using "wmd" will result in some good articles too!
Frankly, what finally me off my rear was Chris Matthews' comment the other night as he was discussing Dan Rather's bogus documents on "Snotball" that "Four CBS employees have been fired over this, and yet not one person over at the White House has been let go for taking us into Iraq with no justification." That was the straw which broke my back. Matthews is a liar, and it's high time he and the rest of the naysayers who have been hoping for a US defeat in Iraq got exposed for what they are.
Thanks. I tried "saddamwmd" and came up empty. :-)
Well, Mr. Peach patiently brought the car back around when I remembered this important link below.
It is a link that takes you to TONS of other links.
Most of the stuff I've gathered is on the Saddam/OBL connection, but I did bookmark this link and now that ya'll are working on this project, I'm glad.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/925044/posts
1) We did not go to war over WMD - read the Congressional War Resolution; there is not one mention of Hussein possessing WMD at the time of its signing, or as a basis for removing his regime. His "capability to possess" WMD was one of the criteria that the Senators had to contemplate before voting on it, but not actual possession.
2) According to the two reports issued by the Iraq Survey Group, we've already recovered 41 rockets armed with sarin and/or cyclosarin, biological weapon seed stocks, rockets that violate U.N.-imposed range-limits, and WMD-related programs.
3) Apparently the U.S. government has evidence that the Russians (and probably the Syrians, as well), helped Hussein remove any WMD he had from Iraq. Therefore, we should be looking elsewhere.
That Saddam/UBL connection story needs to be hammered too. Stephen Hayes' book was good, but it got about zero attention from the usual suspects (other than from Fox, of course).
But that's not the perspective the news media is conveying. They are trying to convey (successfully, I'm sure) that the search for WMDs has completely turned up empty, and that we're giving up. All of which reflects badly upon the US' decision to go to war (regardless of your other comment about the Congressional resolution, which is an excellent point).
In regard to looking elsewhear, I would very suprised if we don't have Special Forces in the Baaka Valley even as we speak.
Greg, tell me what you need help researching, and I'll do my best.
Pat
Perhaps the greatest weakness of the Bush administration is its unwillingness to use the bully pulpit to get its message out. Scott McClellan and the other press handlers should frame the Q&A sessions on their terms, not the media's. They should force the issue of WMD-related programs, and actual rockets filled with cyclosarin, into the public debate since we know that the Dems and "journalists" won't do it.
I'm awarding your willingness to help by posting a pic of Miss Beazley --
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