Posted on 01/12/2005 10:14:48 AM PST by ejdrapes
WASHINGTON - The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has quietly concluded without any evidence of the banned weapons that President Bush cited as justification for going to war, the White House said Wednesday. The Iraq Survey Group, made up of some 1,200 military and intelligence specialists and support staff, spent nearly two years searching military installations, factories and laboratories whose equipment and products might be converted quickly to making weapons. White House press secretary Scott McClellan said there no longer is an active search for weapons. "There may be a couple, a few people, that are focused on that" but that it has largely concluded, he said. "If they have any reports of (weapons of mass destruction) obviously they'll continue to follow up on those reports," McClellan said. "A lot of their mission is focused elsewhere now." Chief U.S. weapons hunter Charles Duelfer is to deliver his final report on the search next month. "It's not going to fundamentally alter the findings of his earlier report," McClellan said, referring to preliminary findings from last September. Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either. Bush unapologetically defended his decision to invade Iraq. Bush has appointed a panel to investigate why the intelligence about Iraq's weapons was wrong. White House Says Iraq Weapons Search Over
Also, why do you deny the report put out by Bush's appointed team?
This is not the Democrats saying so but a team that directly answers to Bush and the results are accepted by Bush. The results being that: "Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either."
Now what?
I am not against us having fought the war with Iraq - but we can no longer hold up the fantasy that the WMD existed and that they went to Syria or are still hidden in the sands somewhere. Saying WMD are in Syria is like saying UN balck helicopters fly over Michigan farms at night.
I guess it's a shame that hanoi john didn't win, then maybe we could have asked him where did he get his information that Hussein had wmds.
Uhhh ... I thought that Delfour reported last fall that Saddam's weapons programs could be reconstituted very quickly.
Also ... I'm still puzzled as to why our forces found traces of pesticides ... in Iraqi WARHEADS ...
The whole WMD issue is just screwey.
In the area of weapons of mass destruction, we know that:
Saddam Hussein in the far and recent past had an active chemical and biological weapons program.
Saddam had as recently as 1998 significant stockpiles of these weapons, according to both U.S. intelligence and U.N. weapons inspectors, who had seen and catalogued this stockpile.
The Baathist regime used these chemical and biological weapons on at least half a dozen instances.
Saddam provided no significant evidence to inspectors in 2002-2003 that he had destroyed any of this stockpile.
In 1998, the Clinton administration launched an intensive, though short, preemptive air war against Iraq because it was convinced that Saddam’s WMD program was unchecked.
The Iraqi dictatorship was reasonably close to obtaining nuclear weapons on two occasions in the past, and was prevented from doing so only by military force. In 1981, an Israeli air strike crippled the Osirik nuclear reactor which had been producing nuclear material for bomb use. In 1991, Operation Desert Storm again crippled Iraq’s nuclear program, which experts later estimated had been within one year of developing a bomb.
The Iraqi dictatorship retained the scientific know-how and the services of many of the scientists who had been active in its previous nuclear efforts. It also coordinated the concealment of equipment necessary for a nuclear program. Recently, an Iraqi nuclear scientist led allied forces to a key piece of equipment that he had been instructed to bury under a rose bush at his home.
Likewise, in late April, an Iraqi scientist involved in the biological and chemical weapons program led Americans to a site in the desert where chemical components for chemical weapons had been buried by the regime immediately prior to the onset of war.
In both the nuclear and chemical/biological arenas, Iraq possessed many “dual use” facilities that had been used for weapons programs and could have been again with little difficulty. For example, early in the war U.S. forces stumbled across a giant buried complex which seemed well-suited for chemical weapons production. As it turned out, the facility had been a chemical weapons plant until 1998, when it had been converted to civilian production. A vast underground facility was also discovered beneath Iraq’s main civilian atomic research center, filled with sealed barrels of uranium. Upon investigation, the site was known to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which had sealed the uranium. In neither case was there any significant barrier to the reconversion of those facilities for WMD purposes on short notice.
As was widely reported, two mobile laboratories have been captured, and many (though not all) weapons analysts consider it either probable or possible that they were used for biological weapons development.
Along the route to Baghdad, large numbers of Iraqi troops were killed or captured in possession of gas masks. Military headquarters and bases were consistently found stocked with chemical warfare suits and large stockpiles of nerve gas antidote.
DUELFER REPORT SUMMARY
Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities to that which previously existed.
Iran was the pre-eminent motivator of this policy. All senior level Iraqi officials considered Iran to be Iraq’s principal enemy in the region. The wish to balance Israel and acquire status and influence in the Arab world
were also considerations, but secondary.
ISG uncovered Iraqi plans or designs for three long-range ballistic missiles with ranges from 400 to 1,000 km and for a 1,000-km-range cruise missile, although none of these systems progressed to production and only one reportedly passed the design phase.
Iraq Survey Group (ISG) discovered further evidence of the maturity and significance of the pre-1991 Iraqi Nuclear Program but found that Iraq’s ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively decayed after that date.
While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991.
In practical terms, with the destruction of the Al Hakam facility, Iraq abandoned its ambition to obtain advanced BW weapons quickly. ISG found no direct evidence that Iraq, after 1996, had plans for a new BW program or was conducting BW-specific work for military purposes. Indeed, from the mid-1990s, despite evidence of continuing interest in nuclear and chemical weapons, there appears to be a complete absence of discussion or even interest in BW at the Presidential level.
Aw, c'mon. Nobody likes to have bugs in their warheads...
PER POST #26 - That and other facts you posted are now shown to be false.
Well ... for
And....
And
Strange. I would have sworn they found sarin gas and ricin.
I'm not convinced. Chemical weapons were found in small quantities. Yellow cake was found all over the place and it was poo pooed since it is not weapons grade (but is a raw material). The Niger allegation was found to be true (Wilson false). Centrifuge parts found buried. Alleged bioweapons vans said to be for making hydrogen (yea right). This man was a threat, if not immediate, then in the future when the next wimp president would loosen the noose more than Clinton did. Bush did the right thing. They are disarmed and disassembled as a military machine.
I do believe that some weapons stuff was sent to other countries. That needs to be tracked down.
PER POST #26 - That and other facts you posted are now shown to be false. Destro
UN inspectors had seen and cataloged them.
How is it possible that they saw and cataloged stockpiles and then filed a false report? I missed that.
How was that possibly false?
Well we imposed said rules on Iraq - before Gulf War 1 Saddam was polite enough to ask our permission to invade Kuwait - unfortunately there was a miscommunication over America's position should such an invasion take place.
By now this comes as no surprise. And like it or not, it is gonna hurt U.S. credibility. That may or may not be fair but that's reality. The only way that can be overcome is for Iraq to be made stable and free. We have a lot on the line in making Iraq work.
Dude, this is not me talking - I mean there is some kind of disconnect happening - the official - Bush Admin appointed - team of experts says that NO SUCH WEAPONS or WEAPON PROGRAMS EXIST OR EXISTED since 1991.
That is the official written in ink and published conclusion endorsed by the Bush admin.
That is not in any way saying as you mischaracterized my words that an American government official said it was OK to invade Kuwait to Saddam.
Agreed - the only way the war can now be justified is if Iraq is made a free and stable nation - a democratic example to the region.
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