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Don't Be So Sure There Were No WMD in Iraq [ExileStreet]
ExileStreet ^ | 7/11/07 | Rachel Neuwirth

Posted on 07/11/2007 6:12:47 AM PDT by ParsifalCA

Before America went to war to topple Saddam Hussein's regime it was widely believed that he possessed weapons of mass destruction. Today it is widely believed that there were no WMD in Iraq before the war. People of both political parties, the major media, and the intellectual community all appear in strong agreement on that point. Some even charge that the Bush Administration deliberately, and knowingly, misled the nation with false information as a pretext to justify going to war.

The Bush Administration is quietly acknowledging that they made a mistake, albeit not intentional. That admission seems to be the final confirmation that there were no WMD in Iraq. In police work when the accused confesses to making a mistake, it is then assumed that the accusation is true and people consider it to be ‘case closed'.

This widespread belief of no WMD in Iraq is seriously damaging our ability to deal with a growing nuclear threat from Iran. There are those who opposed our toppling mass murderer Saddam Hussein both in 1991 and again in 2003, even after he defied multiple U.N. resolutions and was generally believed to have WMD. Now the ‘peace at any price' crowd is exploiting the widespread belief of ‘no WMD' to undermine our war in Iraq. If we fail in Iraq it greatly weakens our ability to deal with Iran, which will become greatly emboldened and infinitely more dangerous as it eventually goes nuclear. [more]

(Excerpt) Read more at exilestreet.com ...


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: iraq; wmd
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1 posted on 07/11/2007 6:12:49 AM PDT by ParsifalCA
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To: ParsifalCA

actually there were no wmd or at least LARGE ammounts by the time we got there, its all in syria


2 posted on 07/11/2007 6:16:57 AM PDT by TheShadows (GOP & RNC NOT A DIME NOT A VOTE! (illegal lovers!)
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To: ParsifalCA
Shortly before the war, it was reported that U.S. satellites spotted truck convoys moving from Iraq to Syria at night.

Obviously the trucks were loaded with koolaid.

3 posted on 07/11/2007 6:17:05 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: ParsifalCA
From my files:

On June 9th [2004], the UN Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission briefed the Security Council about the export of Iraqi WMD, missile and nuclear components shipped out of Iraq before, during and after the invasion. As reported by MENL news service, UNMOVIC acting executive chairman Demetrius Perricos told the Council, "The removal of these materials from Iraq raises concerns with regard to proliferation risks," and said inspectors found Iraqi WMD and missile components shipped abroad that still contained UN inspection tags.

The World Tribune reported on Perricos's briefing. "He said the Iraqi facilities were dismantled and sent both to Europe and around the Middle East at the rate of about 1,000 tons of metal a month... The Baghdad missile site contained a range of WMD and dual-use components, UN officials said. They included missile components, reactor vessel and fermenters ... required for the production of chemical and biological warheads. 'It raises the question of what happened to the dual-use equipment, where is it now and what is it being used for,' Perricos's spokesman, said. 'You can make all kinds of pharmaceutical and medicinal products with a fermenter. You can also use it to breed anthrax.'"

Source

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. James Clapper, head of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, said vehicle traffic photographed by U.S. spy satellites indicated that material and documents related to the arms programs were shipped to Syria."

Source

"Last month Moshe Yaalon, who was Israel's top general at the time, said Iraq transported WMD to Syria six weeks before Operation Iraqi Freedom began.

Last March, John A. Shaw, a former U.S. deputy undersecretary of defense for international technology security, said Russian Spetsnaz units moved WMD to Syria and Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

"While in Iraq I received information from several sources naming the exact Russian units, what they took and where they took both WMD materials and conventional explosives," Mr. Shaw told NewsMax reporter Charles Smith.

Retired Marine Lt. Gen. Michael DeLong was deputy commander of Central Command during Operation Iraqi Freedom. In September 2004, he told WABC radio that "I do know for a fact that some of those weapons went into Syria, Lebanon and Iran."

In January 2004, David Kay, the first head of the Iraq Survey Group which conducted the search for Saddam's WMD, told a British newspaper there was evidence unspecified materials had been moved to Syria from Iraq shortly before the war.

"We know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD program," Mr. Kay told the Sunday Telegraph.

Also that month, Nizar Nayuf, a Syrian journalist who defected to an undisclosed European country, told a Dutch newspaper he knew of three sites where Iraq's WMD was being kept. They were the town of al Baida near the city of Hama in northern Syria; the Syrian air force base near the village of Tal Snan, and the city of Sjinsar on the border with Lebanon.

In an addendum to his final report last April, Charles Duelfer, who succeeded David Kay as head of the Iraq Survey Group, said he couldn't rule out a transfer of WMD from Iraq to Syria.

"There was evidence of a discussion of possible WMD collaboration initiated by a Syrian security officer, and ISG received information about movement of material out of Iraq, including the possibility that WMD was involved. In the judgment of the working group, these reports were sufficiently credible to merit further investigation," Mr. Duelfer said."

Source

"The short answer to the question of where the WMD Saddam bought from the Russians went was that they went to Syria and Lebanon," former Deputy Undersecretary of Defense John A. Shaw told an audience Saturday at a privately sponsored "Intelligence Summit" in Alexandria, Va. (www.intelligencesummit.org).

Source

"We are not talking about a large stockpile of weapons," he said. "But we know from some of the interrogations of former Iraqi officials that a lot of material went to Syria before the war, including some components of Saddam's WMD programme. Precisely what went to Syria, and what has happened to it, is a major issue that needs to be resolved."

Source

"Two days before the war, on March 17th, we saw through multiple intelligence channels - both human intelligence and techinical (satellite,eavesdrop) intelligence - large caravans of people and things, including some of the top 55 Iraqis, going to Syria."

Source

See also: What Charles Duelfer Missed

4 posted on 07/11/2007 6:22:13 AM PDT by ravingnutter
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To: ParsifalCA

How many people can read the six articles in the introduction and not know that our government, including the top brass, is not on the side of America and its citizens.


5 posted on 07/11/2007 6:23:25 AM PDT by David Isaac (Duncan Hunter '08)
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To: ParsifalCA

Of course, if we do find them (whether there or Syria), the leftist moonbats will be claiming we sold them to him back in the 80’s or some crap like that.


6 posted on 07/11/2007 6:24:48 AM PDT by OCCASparky (Steely-Eyed Killer of the Deep)
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To: ParsifalCA

If Saddam had no WMD’s then all he had to do was open the ENTIRE country up for the inspectors, with cameras rolling to prove he didn’t have them anymore. He would have had the paperwork with UNDENIABLE PROOF that he had destroyed them. IF they weren’t there, he could have rallied the whole world against President Bush by saying, “See! I told you I didn’t have them. This cowboy is just trying to attack me for any reason! You see that there are no weapons here!”

If he had nothing to hide, why was he acting like someone with something to hide?


7 posted on 07/11/2007 6:25:20 AM PDT by Sister_T (No Amnesty for Illegal, Lawbreaking, Criminal INVADERS!)
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To: Sister_T

There were WMD’s in Iraq until George Bush did something about them.


8 posted on 07/11/2007 6:26:26 AM PDT by massgopguy (I owe everything to George Bailey)
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To: ravingnutter
Former Iraqi Air Force General Georges Sada makes a pretty solid case for WMD. Many have never heard of this book as the MSM have largely given Sada the Gary Aldrich treatment. I consider it a must read for anyone with questions as to the existence of pre-war WMD....


9 posted on 07/11/2007 6:31:07 AM PDT by Joe 6-pack
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To: massgopguy
There were WMD’s in Iraq until George Bush did something about them.

Now we have no idea where the majority of these "huge stockpiles" went, or who controls them. And what are we prepared to do about it, if they were transported to Syria or even Iran? The answer, not much.

10 posted on 07/11/2007 6:31:19 AM PDT by corlorde (New Hampshire)
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To: ParsifalCA

While I believe most WMD ended up in Syria, I also believe that a lot of it is curied in the desert. As I recall, we did find a number of jets wrapped in plastic and buried together in the middle of nowhere... tail fins sticking out of the blown sands. If they can bury jets, can’t they bury trucks and boxes and containers?


11 posted on 07/11/2007 6:31:30 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: OCCASparky

Have been told by sources who would know that we found the WMD’s and then lost them. After that the political guru in the WH convinced everyone that it would be better to take the heat for no WMDs, then to say we found them and lost them.


12 posted on 07/11/2007 6:36:59 AM PDT by PhiKapMom ( Inhofe for Senate 08 -- Broken Glass Republican -- vote out the RATs in 2008)
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To: ParsifalCA

Saddam gassed the Kurds. And we’re supposed to believe that that’s all there was? And he gave it all up after that?

Suuurrrre....

*roll eyes*


13 posted on 07/11/2007 6:41:20 AM PDT by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: ParsifalCA

There never was a Jimmy Hoffa. While some may cite evidence that he one time DID exist and do harm, there are no traces of Jimmy Hoffa today. These notions that there ever was a Jimmy Hoffa are overblown and questionable at best.

The same is true of Osama Bin Laden. < /sarcasm >


14 posted on 07/11/2007 6:44:38 AM PDT by weegee (If the Fairness Doctrine is imposed on USA who will CNN news get to read the conservative rebuttal)
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To: metmom

The myth is that while the Clinton Administration was quite worried (in campaign mode and again in CYA-Monica-Wag-The-Dog-Mode) about Saddam’s WMD program, the Clinton Administration “got em all” with a few well targeted missiles. Oh yeah, and Saddam destroyed them all but refused to permit any auditing of his effort to destroy his inventory in spite of the “peace” agreement he was to comply with.


15 posted on 07/11/2007 6:47:13 AM PDT by weegee (If the Fairness Doctrine is imposed on USA who will CNN news get to read the conservative rebuttal)
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To: ParsifalCA
Of course he had WMD's! The 'rats told me so and they are smarter than me....

 

"One way or the other, we are determined to deny Iraq the capacity to develop weapons of mass destruction and the missiles to deliver them. That is our bottom line." President Clinton, Feb. 4, 1998

"If Saddam rejects peace and we have to use force, our purpose is clear. We want to seriously diminish the threat posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction program." President Clinton, Feb. 17, 1998

"Iraq is a long way from [here], but what happens there matters a great deal here. For the risks that the leaders of a rogue state will use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons against us or our allies is the greatest security threat we face." Madeline Albright, Feb 18, 1998

"He will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has ten times since 1983." Sandy Berger, Clinton National Security Adviser, Feb, 18, 1998

"[W]e urge you, after consulting with Congress, and consistent with the U.S. Constitution and laws, to take necessary actions (including, if appropriate, air and missile strikes on suspect Iraqi sites) to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraq's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction programs." Letter to President Clinton, signed by Sens. Carl Levin, Tom Daschle, John Kerry, and others Oct. 9, 1998

"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process." Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D, CA), Dec. 16, 1998

"Hussein has . . . chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies." Madeline Albright, Clinton Secretary of State, Nov. 10, 1999

"There is no doubt that . . . Saddam Hussein has invigorated his weapons programs. Reports indicate that biological, chemical and nuclear programs continue apace and may be back to pre-Gulf War status. In addition, Saddam continues to redefine delivery systems and is doubtless using the cover of an elicit missile program to develop longer-range missiles that will threaten the United States and our allies." Letter to President Bush, Signed by Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL,) and others, Dec, 5, 2001

"We begin with the common belief that Saddam Hussein is a tyrant and a threat to the peace and stability of the region. He has ignored the mandated of the United Nations and is building weapons of mass destruction and the means of delivering them." Sen. Carl Levin (D, MI), Sept. 19, 2002

"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"Iraq's search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002

"We have known for many years that Saddam Hussein is seeking and developing weapons of mass destruction." Sen. Ted Kennedy (D, MA), Sept. 27, 2002

"The last UN weapons inspectors left Iraq in October of 1998. We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical and biological warfare capabilities. Intelligence reports indicate that he is seeking nuclear weapons . . . ." Sen. Robert Byrd (D, WV), Oct. 3, 2002

"I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force-if necessary-to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Oct. 9, 2002

"There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years . . . . We also should remember that we have always underestimated the progress Saddam has made in development of weapons of mass destruction." Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D, WV), Oct 10, 2002

"He has systematically violated, over the course of the past 11 years, every significant UN resolution that has demanded that he disarm and destroy his chemical and biological weapons, and any nuclear capacity. This he has refused to do." Rep. Henry Waxman (D, CA), Oct. 10, 2002

"In the four years since the inspectors left, intelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability, and his nuclear program. He has also given aid, comfort, and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members . . . . It is clear, however, that if left unchecked, Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capacity to wage biological and chemical warfare, and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons." Sen. Hillary Clinton (D, NY), Oct 10, 2002

"We are in possession of what I think to be compelling evidence that Saddam Hussein has, and has had for a number of years, a developing capacity for the production and storage of weapons of mass destruction." Sen. Bob Graham (D, FL), Dec. 8, 2002

"Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator, leading an oppressive regime ... He presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation . . . . And, now. he is miscalculating America's response to his continued deceit and his consistent grasp for weapons of mass destruction . . . . So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real . . . ." Sen. John F. Kerry (D, MA), Jan. 23. 2003

 

 

.

16 posted on 07/11/2007 6:48:20 AM PDT by itsamelman (Announcing your plans is a good way to hear God laugh. - - Al Swearengen)
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To: mtbopfuyn

Send that Kool Aid to the Liberals in DC.


17 posted on 07/11/2007 6:49:41 AM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: ParsifalCA
What the leftists wanted to see are several buildings filled with tons of WMDs and with huge signs like in a cartoon. Hundreds of huge neon and brightly lit signs stating "This Way To Saddam’s WMDs, Here It Is!, The Real Thing!, It’s What We’ve Been Looking For, etc.” Those are their minimum requirement to prove Saddam had any. Now that I think about it, that probably wouldn’t even satisfy them.
18 posted on 07/11/2007 6:50:42 AM PDT by Hillarys Gate Cult (The man who said "there's no such thing as a stupid question" has never talked to Helen Thomas.)
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To: ParsifalCA

We know that there was WMD in Iraq because Saddam used them against the Iranians and the Kurds. And the UN, despite the inspections, was not able to account for all the WMD based on Saddam’s records.


19 posted on 07/11/2007 6:52:28 AM PDT by kabar
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To: theDentist

If you also recall, Saddam flew a large part of his Air Force to Iran just prior to the Gulf War.


20 posted on 07/11/2007 6:54:04 AM PDT by kabar
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