Wolfowitz says Saudi troop withdrawal was 'huge' reason for war with Iraq

Associated Press ^

[SJackson]

Very weak corollary....

That was a joke :<(, not a corollary.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Righto, this is turning into something of a firestorm with the leftists!
Their last big hope to nuke Bush and Blair!

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[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Very good, thanks!

[blam]

Rumsfeld changes tack by insisting that WMD will be found

By Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor
31 May 2003
Independent (UK)

Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, insisted yesterday that weapons of mass destruction were still in Iraq as Washington and London rejected claims that they used intelligence as "propaganda".

But the fightback was immediately undermined when former Washington security officials claimed that US "intelligence had been cooked to the recipe of policy".

Mr Rumsfeld triggered an outcry from critics of the war earlier this week when he suggested that the Iraqi regime may have destroyed chemical and biological weapons before the Anglo-American invasion. However, he told a radio phone-in yesterday that he personally believed that evidence of the secret programme would be found in the country.

In his latest remarks, he said the reason that weapons had not been found was because the government of Saddam Hussein had worked so hard to hide them. "It is not because they are not there," he said. Mr Rumsfeld also rejected the idea that the war was waged under any false pretext. The US and British case against Iraq was based on what he called "good intelligence".

Ray McGovern, a former CIA analyst who briefed the former president George Bush Snr, said the Pentagon's claims about WMD in Iraq were "an intelligence fiasco of monumental proportions". Mr McGovern, who heads the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, a new group, told BBC Radio 4's PM programme that Mr Rumsfeld set up his own intelligence unit because he didn't get the "correct answers" from the CIA and other agencies.

In London, Baroness Amos, the International Development Secretary, insisted that the Government's dossier on WMD in Iraq had been "thorough and accurate". Lady Amos told BBC Radio 4's The World at One programme: "It is absurd to suggest that we invented, exaggerated or distorted evidence for our own ends. There have been successive United Nations Security Council resolutions about Iraq's WMD. We have evidence that Iraq used its WMD against its own people. These are the facts."

Fresh doubts about how politicians manipulated intelligence reports came when Patrick Lang, a former director of Middle East analysis at the Pentagon's Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), criticised the American claims.

Mr Lang attacked the Office of Special Plans, a unit set up by Mr Rumsfeld inside the Pentagon to rival the CIA and the DIA. The unit relied heavily on information from Ahmed Chalabi, the exiled leader of the Iraqi National Congress and a favourite of hawks in Washington. The Office of Special Plans "started picking out things that supported their thesis ... It's political propaganda".

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate and House of Representatives are to hold hearings to determine whether "the analysis relayed to our policy-makers was accurate and unbiased".

Baroness Williams, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, said yesterday: "As new and disturbing facts emerge, the war on Iraq begins to look more like a tragic mistake ... It is very depressing to see our fears confirmed."

[Mo1]

He was either quoted out of context, or he needs a little preparation on how to present the facts.

According to what was reported on FNC today .. there WAS more to Wolfowitz's quote that Vanity Fair choose not to report ..

[MattAMiller]

Wolfowitz, of course, didn't say that the WMD line was bogus. It's going to take a lot to convince me that Saddam destroyed his WMDs in secret and kept this from inspectors. If it turns out to be the case that there were no WMDs then I'll make no case that it's anything short of scandalous. It was by far the major reason I supported the war. But it just strikes me as absolutely fantastical that there are no WMD.

[w1andsodidwe]

So if we give Democrats a little bit of what they want, they will quit attacking us? Hey, that worked so good, lets give Bin Laden a little bit of what he wants, and he will leave us alone too.

How does that response have anything to do with my post? I don't believe the demoncRATS will ever quit attacking. It is what they do best.

[MattAMiller]

BTW, I really really don't like this reason for going to war. I don't care what what makes Osama angry I only care what kills him and his compatriots and cuts off their support.

[jmc813]

JMO, billbears, but you as a big Libertarian on FR with the above quote prove that marijuana and reveling on the counterculture is the core being of modern Libertarianism.

Maybe I'm just tired from the long week, but that sentence made no sense whatsoever to me.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Baroness Williams, Leader of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords, said yesterday: "As new and disturbing facts emerge, the war on Iraq begins to look more like a tragic mistake ... It is very depressing to see our fears confirmed."

The liberals have an agenda and will distort any statements they can to get the firestorm going!

[aSkeptic]

Why did we go to war?
I don't know.

[Dane]

Maybe I'm just tired from the long week, but that sentence made no sense whatsoever to me

All I am doing is staing the obvious. Billbears is a big Libertarian on FR. He automatically believes a truncated quote that makes the war in Iraq look immoral.

I.E. billbears(big Libertarian) like those on the left are grasping at straws to find anything that would discredit the victory in Iraq. It is not a coincidence that those on the far left(Greens, Barney Frank) also have drug validation as a major tenet as do the Libertarians.

My contnetion is that the modern Libertarians are in tune with the greens and far left, anti-war and pro-drug.

[Freee-dame]

Remember the Presidents words "You are either with us or with the terrorists".

I am so glad to see your quote instead of the often misquoted "You are either with us or against us." Lots of countries are happy to be "against us" but the don't want to be "with the terrorists."

[aSkeptic]

Do you believe that police should wait in their station houses untill crimes are committed before they react to the crime? Because that's the kind of foreign policy and national defense strategy you favor.
You should reword that I think.

[Lady In Blue]

Good points! I was on another conservative website last night and I found a rather interesting post:

Reply 21 - Posted by: J.R. Dunn, 5/29/2003 11:11:08 PM

I've been told in passing by a member of the State Department that a number of WMDs have in fact been found--along with evidence implicating France, Russia, and a number of other peace-loving countries in their manufacture.

It seems that the administration is using this info to bend those countries our way before releasing anything. Which is smart, effective, and very much like W.

In due time.

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

Some of us had expected as much!

[habs4ever]

The WMD line was a sop to arses such as yourself, still sucking thumbs over legalisms and 'proof" and world opinion, etc, when post 9/11, it would be too impolitic to state that the US could and HAD to do anything it goddamned well pleased to secure its national interests and protect its assets.And if Iraq needed a regime change,which it clearly did, go for it.It's a New World Order that the US was obligated to set, enforce and manage and if others didn't accept it, tough shit.The Middle East HAs to turned upside down, and smashed to pieces or the alternative would be more 9/11's.Just who cares one way or another that Saddam is gone but those who hate the US and its allies?

Iran and Syria are next, and it can't happen fast enough.The only rationalizations are coming from the wimps, crybabies and Blame America First chorus that have been wrong about almost everything of consequence the past 50 yrs.

Which side are you on?

[billbears]

but you as a big Libertarian on FR with the above quote prove that marijuana and reveling on the counterculture is the core being of modern Libertarianism.

Well just to prove you absolutely wrong Dane, I am against legalization of drugs at any level. What I am for is no federal prosecution, such as the BATF. The issue is not covered in the Constitution, therefore it is the responsibility and the right of the separate and sovereign states under the 10th Amendment to prosecute any drug war

[FreeReign]

I'm supposed to believe what the Defense Department says about one of their own versus an outside source?!?

So then a source that's not in the DOD can say anything about the DOD and you would believe it. That is your level of objectivity.

[liberalnot]

i'd believe this before i'd believe that bj that rush was pushing today.

rush said that it was possible that saddam ordered wmd made, but that they weren't made. his advisors lied to him.

this is one of the stupidest things i've ever heard rush say.

like, next to his pronouncement that hillary was not running for the u.s. senate.