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To: conservativecorner
If this is the vaunted WMD proof, I think it's time to give up.

Why do right-wing news sources continue to claim WMD when the Bush administration has disavowed such claims? How exactly do website operators get so much intel?

Just produce a thimble of sarin, a vial of anthrax, a marble of weapons-grade uranium, then we'll have something to talk about.
7 posted on 11/15/2005 6:08:05 AM PST by George W. Bush
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To: George W. Bush

Start here for a clue, and then I can find you more.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1521674/posts


11 posted on 11/15/2005 6:13:22 AM PST by conservativecorner
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To: George W. Bush

Something else to help you get a clue:

http://www.iraqwatch.org/wmd/iraqarticle2pg2.pdf


14 posted on 11/15/2005 6:16:04 AM PST by conservativecorner
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To: George W. Bush
I believe those amounts have been found.... If anyone is so blind that they can't connect the dots between WMD and Saddam and his intentions...they need a new dot connector. Anyone who has ever commanded troops in combat knows the first lesson is to error on the side of caution.
15 posted on 11/15/2005 6:16:30 AM PST by RVN Airplane Driver (Freedom isn't Free....never has been...never will be)
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To: George W. Bush

From 1999:

DEPT. OF MASS DESTRUCTION:
Saddam's nuclear shopping spree.
by Gary Milhollin

The New Yorker
The Talk of the Town
December 13, 1999, p. 44.

Ever since the United Nations weapons inspectors were shut out of Iraq, a year ago, the world has been left to wonder what Saddam Hussein is up to. Well, now it can be told: he has been secretly trying to transform his desert dictatorship into a world-class center for the treatment of kidney stones.

Or so it would seem, to judge from his latest purchases on the international medical-equipment market. Although Iraq remains under a strict United Nations embargo, the embargo does not cover medical supplies. Last year, the Iraqi government ordered half a dozen lithotripters, which are state-of-the-art machines for getting rid of kidney stones. (The word "lithotripter" comes from the Greek for "stone breaker.") A lithotripter uses a shock wave to pulverize these painful objects without surgery. Machines like the ones Iraq bought require a high-precision electronic switch that triggers a powerful burst of electricity. In addition to the lithotripters, Iraq wanted to buy a hundred and twenty extra switches. That is at least a hundred more than the machines would ever need.

Iraq's strange hankering for this particular "spare part" becomes less mysterious when one reflects that the switch in question has another use: it can trigger an atomic bomb. According to a knowledgeable U.N. inspector, each bomb of the type that Iraq is trying to build requires thirty-two switches. Thus, a hundred of them would outfit three bombs. It is hardly a coincidence that, as the former U.N. inspector Scott Ritter testified at a Senate hearing last year, the inspectors had "intelligence information which indicates that components necessary for three nuclear weapons exist" in Iraq. Saddam Hussein has been shopping for what he needs to make sure they work.

Iraq went to Siemens, the German electronics giant, to place the order. Before the Gulf War, Iraq acquired Siemens computers and other equipment useful for processing uranium to nuclear-weapons grade, and the company provided electrical equipment for one of Iraq's main missile sites. (Siemens has denied helping Iraq advance its nuclear program.) In this instance, Siemens forwarded the switches order to its supplier, Thomson-C.S.F., a French military-electronics company. The French government promptly barred the sale. Stephen Cooney, a Siemens spokesman, refuses to say whether Siemens nevertheless filled the switch order, or even whether the order was placed. If Siemens made the deal, Iraq got a powerful nuclear boost.

The Clinton Administration has been relatively quiet on Iraq lately. Although it maintains that it remains suspicious of Saddam, it claims to have no specific evidence that he has resumed his efforts to build weapons of mass destruction. The kidney-stone affair suggests otherwise.

The U.N. inspectors have learned that Iraq's first bomb design, which weighed a ton and was just over a yard in diameter, has been replaced by a smaller, more efficient model. The inspectors have deduced that the new design weighs only about one thousand three hundred pounds and measures about twenty-five inches in diameter. That makes it small enough to fit on a Scud-type missile. The inspectors believe that Iraq may still have nine such missiles hidden somewhere.

The inspectors have also concluded that Iraq's bomb design will work. Iraq, they believe, has mastered the key technique of creating an implosive shock wave, which squeezes a bomb's nuclear material enough to trigger a chain reaction. The new design also uses a "flying tamper," a refinement that “hammers" the nuclear material to squeeze it even harder, so bombs can be made smaller without diminishing their explosive force.

How did Iraq progress so far so quickly? The inspectors found an Iraqi document describing an offer of design help—in exchange for money—from an agent of Pakistan. Iraq says it didn't accept the offer, but the inspectors think it did. Pakistan's latest design also uses a flying tamper. Regardless of how the Iraqis managed to do it, Saddam Hussein now possesses an efficient nuclear-bomb design. And, if he did succeed in getting hold of the necessary switches, then the only thing he lacks is enough weapons-grade uranium to fuel the warheads.

The fuel, unfortunately, is getting easier to find. United States officials report that on May 29th Bulgaria seized approximately a third of an ounce of weapons-grade uranium at its border. The hot cargo, accompanied by documents in Russian, was concealed in a lead container in a pump stowed in a car. A third of an ounce is not enough for a bomb (Iraq's design, for example, needs thirty-five pounds), but this seizure and others like it show that weapons-grade fuel is beginning to circulate in the black market. Unless the U.N. Security Council can agree on a plan to reinstate meaningful inspections, Saddam may be able to complete his nuclear shopping sooner rather than later.


18 posted on 11/15/2005 6:18:08 AM PST by conservativecorner
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To: George W. Bush

You figuring it was the 67 Mustang?


19 posted on 11/15/2005 6:19:30 AM PST by conservativecorner
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To: George W. Bush
Just produce a thimble of sarin, a vial of anthrax, a marble of weapons-grade uranium, then we'll have something to talk about.

Well, actually there *was* Sarin and VX found. Just not in enough quantity to call a "stockpile". But 500 tons of yellowcake sounds like a lot to me.

But even given the stuff we've found, the most important part is the facilities and the programs and Saddam's willness to pursue them and inevitably distribute them to terrorists.

That's the part that is confirmed to no longer be there. Suits me.

20 posted on 11/15/2005 6:21:45 AM PST by Ramius (Buy blades for war fighters: freeper.the-hobbit-hole.net --> 1000 knives and counting!)
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To: George W. Bush
Document Reveals 1987 Bomb Test by Iraq

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

The New York Times

April 29, 2001, p. A8

here:

21 posted on 11/15/2005 6:22:54 AM PST by conservativecorner
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To: George W. Bush
Why do right-wing news sources continue to claim WMD when the Bush administration has disavowed such claims? How exactly do website operators get so much intel?

Well they're invisible see....only visible to World Nut Daily and a select few true believers...

I think it's also important to note that even the most ardent talking heads like Hannity and Limbaugh have dropped the pretense, let alone the administration

26 posted on 11/15/2005 6:28:12 AM PST by billbears (Deo Vindice)
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To: George W. Bush
"Why do right-wing news sources continue to claim WMD when the Bush administration has disavowed such claims?"

The Bush administration has stated they didn't find WMD's.
I still believe they were moved out.

27 posted on 11/15/2005 6:28:20 AM PST by #1CTYankee (That's right, I have no proof. So what of it??)
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To: George W. Bush

First you should understand that News Max is covering an article that appeared in the NY Times. They aren't making it up out of thin air. Since you won't believe a "right wing site", will you at least believe the NY Times?

N.Y. Times: Iraq Had WMD 'Stockpiles' in 2003 [Well What Do You Know Alert]
News Max ^ | March 13, 2005 | Carl Limbacher


In a stunning about-face, the New York Times reported Sunday that when the U.S. attacked Iraq in March 2003, Saddam Hussein possessed "stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials," as well as sophisticated equipment to manufacture nuclear and biological weapons, which was removed to "a neighboring state" before the U.S. could secure the weapons sites.

The U.N.'s Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission [UNMOVIC] "has filed regular reports to the Security Council since last May," the paper said, "about the dismantlement of important weapons installations and the export of dangerous materials to foreign states."

Story Continues Below

"Officials of the commission and the [International] Atomic Energy Agency have repeatedly called on the Iraqi government to report on what it knows of the fate of the thousands of pieces of monitored equipment and stockpiles of monitored chemicals and materials." Last fall, IAEA director Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei confirmed that "nuclear-related materials" had gone missing from monitored sites, calling on Iraqi officials to start the process of accounting for the missing stockpiles still ostensibly under the agency's supervision.

Quoting Sami al-Araji, Iraq's deputy minister of industry since the 1980s, the Times said:

"It appeared that a highly organized operation had pinpointed specific plants in search of valuable equipment, some of which could be used for both military and civilian applications, and carted the machinery away."

Calling the operation "sophisticated," Dr. Araji said the removal effort featured "cranes and the lorries, and they depleted the whole sites," adding, "They knew what they were doing."

The top Iraqi defense official said equipment capable of making parts for missiles as well as chemical, biological and nuclear arms was missing from 8 or 10 sites that were the heart of Iraq's WMD program.

Dr. Araji said that if the equipment had left the country, its most likely destination was a neighboring state.

The United Nations, worried that the nuclear material and equipment could be used in clandestine bomb production, has been hunting for it throughout the Middle East, largely unsuccessfully, the Times said.


28 posted on 11/15/2005 6:29:31 AM PST by conservativecorner
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To: George W. Bush; conservativecorner

I'm waiting for the DEBKA confirmation.


31 posted on 11/15/2005 6:39:49 AM PST by sam_paine (X .................................)
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To: George W. Bush
Why do right-wing news sources continue to claim WMD when the Bush administration has disavowed such claims?

Where did you get that? The Bush Administration has not disavowed these claims, they just don't rush to publicize the information (as they should).
33 posted on 11/15/2005 6:58:24 AM PST by DustyMoment (FloriDUH - proud inventors of pregnant/hanging chads and judicide!!)
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To: George W. Bush

"WMD proof"?I know that artillery shells were found with chemical warheads.That certainly qualifies as a "thimble" full.


34 posted on 11/15/2005 7:00:07 AM PST by Thombo2
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To: George W. Bush
How about 500 tons of uranium?
39 posted on 11/15/2005 7:59:21 AM PST by <1/1,000,000th%
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To: George W. Bush
Do you remember the sarin filled shells which were found? The biological strains found in a scientist's home? Nuclear components and plans dug from a researcher's yard? And why we're on the topic of WMDs, I'm wondering why there were so very many 55 gallon drums of commercial strength organophosphates in military arms depots, buried underground, hidden in bunkers and covered with camouflage throughout Iraq. Iraq didn't have a booming agricultural industry, as Saddam ruined it long ago. Even if it were for legitimate reasons, why try so hard to hide it? Why keep it at military installations with, in some instances, SAM batteries, boxes of bio/chem suits and vials of atropine nearby? Iraq did, however, have a mad dictator at the helm who doggedly worked to obtain, and has historically possessed, WMDs of all stripes, including nerve gas, the base component of which happens to be......organophosphates. But, I guess we're just supposed to accept that it was used for something else, huh? Just because these things weren't marked with a skull and crossbones and big red letters underneath saying, "WARNING! WMDs! For Use on Americans and Jews Only!" does not mean they weren't WMDs.
68 posted on 11/15/2005 10:58:58 AM PST by Conservatish
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