White House promises 'smoking gun intelligence'

The Daily Telegraph ^ | January 16, 2003 | Toby Harnden

[MadIvan]

White House officials have reassured Republicans by signalling that America and Britain are prepared to release powerful intelligence evidence to cement the case for war against Iraq.

Andy Card, the White House chief of staff, and Karl Rove, President George W Bush's chief political strategist, have each indicated privately that the administration has proof that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Card received blunt warnings from conservative Republican senators last week that Mr Bush had to produce a much more concrete case for war if he hoped to keep public support.

Senator Kit Bond of Missouri said more information should be released and asked: "What is the connection between Iraq and al-Qa'eda?" According to sources at the private meeting, Mr Card is understood to have urged him: "Don't worry."

Mr Rove is believed to have used similar language during private briefings to politicians in Washington.

He strongly suggested that the Bush administration already possesses a piece of intelligence from the CIA or MI6 that would amount to the "smoking gun" critics are calling for.

[Restorer]

I think it might be a bit more accurate to to refer to them as: his supposedly far more intelligent opponents

I was using irony.

Those who call someone stupid need to think what it says about them if he consistently outsmarts them.

[Centurion2000]

And the Assault Weapons ban needs to sunset

When is it due to sunset?

I'd love to get a Stinger.

IIRC the sunset is due in Sept 2004. BTW, stingers are classed as DD's by the ATF ... no fun for you without fingerprints and a 200.00 tax :)

[plain talk]

That's old fashioned. How a about a giant projection disply and the CinC operting the cursor from a laptop? :)

How about what you suggested and then the video cuts to a live view from a missile warhead as it falls closer and closer and then annihilates the target on live TV during the SOTU?!

[Maelstrom]

Not many paid attention, perhaps not many cared, but Bush promised to release information linking Al Qaeda and Saddamn to the Senate last year.

Shortly thereafter, an extremely important contact with Al Qaeda in the Czec Republic was killed.

Releasing information exposes the people whom have given it to us. In that case, a man died for it, and the Senate both has the information and demogogues the issue anyway.

I would surmise that Bush isn't waiting for anything more than that contact's safety before the information is revealed.

[1Old Pro]

I sense "strategery" is going to triumph again shortly.

Yep

[txhurl]

Perricos, the smoking gun?

[txhurl]

Sorry, meant Iraqi physicist Faleh Hassan. C/P travesty.

[Lonesome in Massachussets]

I prefer a snide "putatively".

[capitan_refugio]

I'll take your word for it regarding earthborne radioactivity sources. I seem to recall that the effectiveness of a scintillometer drops off exponentially with respect to the distance away from the source. However, I also recall that one particular U-2 instrumentation package included a dust collector, wherein the dust could be analysed for telltale radioactive particles. Or is this in the realm of sci-fi???

[The Great Satan]

Thats what nuclear weapons are for. Instant annihilation.

You still don't get it. Saddam can only die once. We could kill Saddam easily -- it wouldn't take nuclear weapons to do it either. But we don't. Why? Because we are in a Mutual Assured Destruction standoff with Saddam. That what's the anthrax letters mean. Saddam is telling Bush: "Point the finger at me, and you'll regret it." Almost 18 months later, Bush still hasn't pointed the finger. No way would Saddam launch an attack on the US mainland of the scale of 9/11 without cast-iron back-end security. The powder in the letter to Daschle tells us he has cast-iron back-end security.

[justa-hairyape]

Anyone who learns their geopolitics from drug abusing musical pop artists, deserves what they get.

[justa-hairyape]

MAD is not that difficult a concept to figure out or to subvert. You do remember how loud the Soviet Union got when we were putting Medium range ballistics on their door step in Western Europe and how loud they got when Reagan was planning on a missile defense. And you do remember how close the MAD principal was tested during the Cuban Missile crisis. Bottom line is the infiltrators and Saddam plants have been under investigation. Its not that hard to find Iraqis with money and no jobs. How will Saddam know his 'assests' are still in place and have not been comprimised ? At any rate, as I have pointed out all along, this situation warrants a first strike. Whatever assests he has in place will have to commit their acts knowing full well that what they are fighting for is finished. Gone. Totally annihilated.

[Chemist_Geek]

The most fun would be if the evidence comes from MI6. That would explain why Tony has been on board from the beginning. And it would be nice if it was a nonAmerican source so the liberals couldn't claim we manufactured it.

So, hope your side cements the case, Ivan!

Can you imagine the next Bond movie, if that happened in real life?

[Chemist_Geek]

And the Assault Weapons ban needs to sunset

When is it due to sunset?

I'd love to get a Stinger.

September 13, 2004, and unfortunately Stingers will still be classified as DDs after that and require serious BATFE paperwork.

A few more elections like the last one, though, and the anti-gun forces in Congress will melt away like ice on a summer's day...

[pfflier]

OK so here is my question. When the president is vindicated what will become of the Chancellor of Germany, the PM of Canada, the 100+ movie stars, the three senators, that sympathized with Iraq, and the leftist peaceniks...all of whom were quite willing to betray their country or who call our president some very unpleasant names?

Answer remember them always, they were selling us out. Put Ramsay Clark at the top of your list. He is getting paid by Iraq to sell us out.

[Boot Hill]

capitan_refugio says:   "I also recall that one particular U-2 instrumentation package included a dust collector, wherein the dust could be analysed for telltale radioactive particles."

The dust particles that the U-2 collected were generated by nuclear detonations, not from radioactive sources (weapons or other) stored here on the earth. Much of the confusion about this was generated by satellite radiation detection systems like SABRS and RADEC. While many thought these systems were capable of detecting nuclear weapons, the reality was that they were only designed to detect nuclear weapon detonations. Because of natural background radiation, you have to be within 30 meters (or so) before you can detect the radiation from an unexploded nuclear weapon.

Regards,

Boot Hill

[piasa]

Some items for you in this and some following posts...

[piasa]

Here is an article on the person who was killed as a result of his information being revealed by the press and by whomever leaked it to the press in the first place. Life isn't too important to some people when they are eager to get a scoop into the insatiable maw of people demanding ever-escalating levels of "proof" :

Czechs Lose Key Al-Qaida Intelligence Source

[BraveMan]

Oh come on now! Why not be like Sheryl Crow?

She's picking up where Hanoi Jane left off . . .

[The Great Satan]

MAD is not that difficult a concept to figure out or to subvert.

You're kidding, right?