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 ...
Resume looking in Syria.
Hey, CIA: they're in Syria and Lebanon's Bekka Valley, geniuses...
What lie? Those weapsons existed--we actually have videos and stills of all the people he gassed to death. Looks like you're just another troll who signed up today to dis Powell.
Wow! I had several of those but nothing that matches yours. That's awesome!
Why should we offer a "warm welcome" to a troll? Did you read the post? It's been removed, so it's possible you didn't. There was no "lie."
DLR: Good list. Useful resource. Have copied it and put it in my files.
Sadly, that info may silence Saddam apologists in the US but it isn't going to help Tony here in the UK. The problem we have here is that most folk accept that Saddam had used WMDs in the 1980s without mercy, that he played Cat and Mouse with the UN inspectors, that there were probably some remanents of programmes out there that would include amounts of nasty stuff, and that if the world turned a blind eye he would go back to making them, and god knows who he may pass them on to.
The problem for those of us who support the war in the UK is the infamous 'sexing up' document sanctioned by Tony B. which gave the country the impression he was sitting on a huge arsenal presenting a clear and present danger (45 minutes). Without the sexing up - there would be less of a problem. The argument would be between those who thought 'containment' would continue to work (while Iraqi children starve to death and Al Qeida regrouped), and those who think we toppled a monster and set an example to other monsters in the world.
Personally I would rather be focussing on the later point of view, and checking that from where we are now we don't loose the plot or wobble and allow Iraq to become an Islamic regime. Instead, as one of a dwindling number of vocal war supporters in the UK I know the emails I'm going to get tommorow in response to this story..... All down to our government's presentation...
Americans should hope the current Brown/Blair fued playing out over here doesn't tip too far Brown's way. He would be a far less reliable friend.
What is the statements about the WMD coming from the Whitehouse?
In the UK our Government admit/claim the coalition not finding any?
Your reference to weapons inspector David Kelly, is this the former British Ministry of Defence official who committed suicide?
If we find something now, does it count? Or do the Dems go, nananananananana.... too late.
Many thanks. First, I completely agree with you that what is confirmed and known about Saddam's WMD program is little known by the general public, mainly because the mainstream media has not been interested in getting the truth out since they collectively belong to the "Bush lied!" camp, and have an ideological reason to not go after the truth. Secondly, I place major fault for the public's ignorance on the Bush White House itself. It was frustrating watching Bush take hits from everyone from Joe Wilson to Richard Clarke to Dan Rather to Chris Matthews to Ed Asner (sometimes on a nightly basis in regard to the media types), and not defend himself. I agree with you that certain Freepers who have made it their cause to get to the truth of the WMD issue have done a better job articulating a defense for Bush's decision to go to war than Bush has made himself.
Now, in regard to combining our lists, I'm all for that. Over the past two years I've compiled a large file of news items which discuss Saddam's WMD program -- things that have been out there in the media, on the Internet, and in things such as official UN reports and reports of the Iraq Survey Group. I've been meaning for some time to combine all of this information into one comprehensive document intended to refute the "Bush lied!" charge. Coincidentally, I finally moved myself to start with this project yesterday, and continued working on it last evening. I don't mind making this document a joint-effort; the more information the better. There are others here on FR who have also independently collected stories that give evidence of Saddam's WMD program prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. Freeper "Peach" has done an outstanding job posting links to news stories and other FR discussion threads on this topic. I'd like to get her involved in this as well, if she's willing. I think through email exchanges (I'll be Freepmailing you my email address shortly), we can put together something significant.
As to the demise of David Kelly, I saw the rantings of a leftwing blogger yesterday who believes that Kelly was iced by order of Tony Blair himself. I suspect this guy has invested in tinfoil manufacturers.
BTW, welcome to FR.
Hi, My2Cents. I haven't seen you around in a while.
Thanks for the comments; I will comb through my file and find what I can. My file mostly pertains to the links between Iraq and Al Qaeda, but there are some articles about WMD in general that should be useful for this worthy endeavor you have embarked on.
Shall I just add links as I find them with a brief description to this thread?
Washington Post, 2002
Speculation that Iraq was behind anthrax attack grows
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A28334-2002Oct27¬Found=true
MSNBC
Castor beans found in Iraq
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/935695/posts
No compilation about WMD would be complete without a stunning list of Democrats who believe Iraq has WMD.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/931783/posts
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