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Posted on 02/16/2006 8:58:59 PM PST by infoguy
On tonight's episode of Hannity & Colmes (Thursday February 16, 2006), co-host Alan Colmes repeated the false suggestion that Iraq's WMD "were destroyed in 1998 when Bill Clinton did pinpoint bombing." This is the second time that Newsbusters has addressed this claim by Colmes.
One of tonight's guests was Bill Tierney, a former military intelligence officer and an UNSCOM inspector in Iraq from 1996-1998. As you'll see below, Tierney claims intimate knowledge of the 1998 Desert Fox strikes (to which Colmes refers).
From tonight's Hannity & Colmes (emphasis mine) (audiotape on file):
COLMES: The WMDs did not exist as far as we know when we went to war with Iraq, and David Kay said they were destroyed in 1998 when Bill Clinton did pinpoint bombing.
TIERNEY: I'm so happy you said that. I was on the targeting shop at CENTCOM. Alright? I'm gonna tell you something: Before we went in there, the Iraqis moved all their equipment out, except for a few massive machines that they couldn't move. That four days of bombing was a joke. They rebuilt everything.
COLMES: So David Kay?
TIERNEY: Well, David Kay doesn't know -- Actually, I know more about this than David Kay does.
(By the way, Tierney is also the translator of the 12 hours of audiotape of Saddam Hussein that ABC News has recently acquired. ABC News reports that they received the tapes from Tierney.)
In addition, check out what Tierney said in an eye-opening November 2005 interview for FrontPageMag:
"Operation Desert Fox was a perfect example of the uselessness of strike operations. Iraqis have told me that the WMD destruction and movement started just after Operation Desert Fox, since after all, who would be so stupid as to start a bombing campaign and just stop.
"... It was only after Saddam realized that President Clinton lacked the nerve for anything more than a temper-tantrum demonstration that he knew the doors were wide open for him to continue his weapons program. We didn’t break his will, we didn’t destroy his weapons making capability (The Iraqis simply moved most of the precision machinery out prior to the strikes, then rebuilt the buildings), but we did kill some Iraqi bystanders, just so President Clinton could say 'something must be done, so I did something'."
Finally, there was no such claim by David Kay in his reports about Bill Clinton eliminating Iraq's WMD [link to Kay text]. Although Kay has stated that he believes that the 1998 Desert Fox strikes may have played a contributing role in dismantling Saddam's chemical weapons ("Information found to date suggests that Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new CW munitions was reduced -- if not entirely destroyed -- during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections." [link to Kay text]), biological and nuclear weapons are an entirely different matter. In Kay's 2003 text, he mentions no such elimination of biological or nuclear weapons as the result of Desert Fox. (In fact, "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.")
Bottom line: Colmes' claim is baseless.
So, Clinton's bombings were successful?
Mercy me.....let me get to DU right now!!
Colmes is civil as liberals go but he can be a real fool. In case anyone does not know he has a chapter in his book proclaiming the innocense of OJ Simpson.
Alan Colmes makes me about as angry as any liberal punster out there. The Mr. knows what I'm watching when I'm yelling at the TV. He also actually said that it's ok for black commentators to disparage whites, but not the other way around....that's racist. "The pendulum swings both ways, you DUNCE!" See? Now I'm yelling at the computer!
I am with you on that. He is one of the FEW liberals I can stand. I have no problem with him with the exception I don't agree with a single thing he says, but I think that at least he is not a moonbat. I think the show Hannity and Combs is definitely one of the most equal shows on tv. This thing with WMD is crazy for Combs to state and maybe he is having an off day.
One need only look at Colmes and listen to him for 10 minutes, to conclude he's seriously imparied...
He is hopelessly lunatic left....
Semper Fi
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3872201.stm
Alan Colmes is another talking-points spouting fool.
If Clinton said they were destroyed, it would have made him out to be a hero and likely would have prevented the need to take military action against Saddam Hussein in 2003. So, why did Clinton say nothing about it before the raid on Iraq occurred?
Clearly, Colmes doesn't know what he's talking about.
I've seen more depth in potholes.
I hope we shall be hearing a lot more from Bill Tierney in the months ahead. He sure is one explosive matter of fact guy. I always thought Kay was on the fence and this guy's statements more or less confirm what I had thought. At any rate, with the huge amounts of stuff slowly becoming public such as those ABC devulged tapes of Saddam and his goons making it clear once and for all they worked hard at deceiving the weapons inpectors, there should be less crap being said about wmds and reasons to go into Iraq. Only morons or really ill informed people can hold to the fact Saddam did not have every desire to rebuild his bio/chemical/nuclear programs full hilt once the economic sanctions where lifted. They just had to much stuff sold to them by Europeans and the Russians as well as building their own manufacturing facilities etc..
A liberal perpetuating a falsehood?
Thats unpossible!
LOL --- I concur.
Colmes has to be a plant. Nobody can be that stupid.
"Colmes claim is baseless"
That's because Colmes is brainless!
Yer right! He's got allah the mental capacity of a potted artificial marijuana plant!
Smoke that one Willie, but don't inhale for one hit. (That way you can claim to have smoked once and not inhaled)
Pathetic Dumborats!--haaack spit!
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