Frustrated, US Arms Teams to Leave Iraq

Washington Post ^ | 5/11/2003 | Barton Gellman

[joesbucks]

washingtonpost.com

Frustrated, U.S. Arms Team to Leave Iraq

Task Force Unable To Find Any Weapons

By Barton Gellman Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 11, 2003; Page A01

BAGHDAD -- The group directing all known U.S. search efforts for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is winding down operations without finding proof that President Saddam Hussein kept clandestine stocks of outlawed arms, according to participants.

The 75th Exploitation Task Force, as the group is formally known, has been described from the start as the principal component of the U.S. plan to discover and display forbidden Iraqi weapons. The group's departure, expected next month, marks a milestone in frustration for a major declared objective of the war.

Leaders of Task Force 75's diverse staff -- biologists, chemists, arms treaty enforcers, nuclear operators, computer and document experts, and special forces troops -- arrived with high hopes of early success. They said they expected to find what Secretary of State Colin L. Powell described at the U.N. Security Council on Feb. 5 -- hundreds of tons of biological and chemical agents, missiles and rockets to deliver the agents, and evidence of an ongoing program to build a nuclear bomb.

Scores of fruitless missions broke that confidence, many task force members said in interviews.

The rest you'll have to click on the link.

[Gore_ War_ Vet]

Shhhhh! Maybe nobody will notice. This is just proof at how successful our bombing campaign was.

[joesbucks]

Now there's an explanation I haven't heard. We bombed the evidence from existance.

I hope the WH communications office don't see our missive. It gives them the answer to what I believe over time will be a very sticky question.

[Gore_ War_ Vet]

at=of doh!

[Gore_ War_ Vet]

$100,000,000,000+, 10's of thousands of Iraqi lives, hundreds of our troops, to find out I've got more WMD's under my kitchen sink than Sadam had.

[chainsaw]

They should go to Syria, there they will find wrapped in a blanket all the evidence
you need.

[meenie]

Not to worry, some cockamimie story will be enough to put the public back to sleep. How about, "The devil made me do it"?. Or, "Barney ate the intelligence report on the way to the office".

[tsmith130]

It doesn't make sense....if Saddam had no WMD, why wouldn't he just prove that to the inspectors rather than risk everything? Why the extended game of cat and mouse if there was nothing to hide? I don't get it.....

[SBprone]

Where the heck am I?

I thought I was on FR. but it looks like I stumbled into DU by mistake.

OK, there's my ride. See ya.

[gabby hayes]

Little things like standards of proof should never get in the way of blind obeddience?

[LS]

Um, you totally missed the point. Saddam was REQUIRED to PROVE he had destroyed these. He did not. Thus, in the absence of proof of destruction, we had to ACT as though they existed. All this means is that we were 100% successful in PROVING that he does not (and will never) have them.

Now, shall we talk abou the Al-Quaeda links---which to me were the far more important reason to take out this regime?

[LS]

The public has never been asleep. It has known since that "minor" event called 9/11 that we have ENEMIES, they are REAL, and we need to obliterate everyone who is involved in supporting or sheltering terrorists. Saddam qualified, big time. He should have been on the hit list even without the threat of WMDs. Thankfully, the public knows this, although the Dems still haven't figured it out.

Which will be very good for 2004.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

10's of thousands of Iraqi lives

Where did you get that figure? We weren't responsible for the deaths of 10's of thousands of Iraqis.

[Amelia]

Odd, looks like they found another mobile bioweapons lab yesterday.

[Seti 1]

It doesn't make sense....if Saddam had no WMD, why wouldn't he just prove that to the inspectors rather than risk everything?

Maybe because Saddam understood that it is not possible to prove a negative. The weapons can always be somewhere else, as we have seen. So he scraped together a couple of billion, shaved off his moustache, and went to live with the ex-Nazis in South America.

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Though I don't agree with you, glad to see you're still posting. ;>)

[Nick Danger]

Third-and-nine, Bush is in the shotgun. Tommy Franks on the outside.

The Arms Team goes in motion. Democrats shift into a blitz...

[Gore_ War_ Vet]

Though I don't agree with you, glad to see you're still posting.

...and I you. If you end up in the same place, does it really matter who you followed to get there?

We're not that far apart, you and I. #;o)

[Eastbound]

Saddam was the weapon of mass destruction. Mission accomplished!