[FairOpinion]

Great links. There are a lot of bits and pieces around and when you put it all together is disconcerting to say the least.

[JustPiper]

MSNBC: U.K. officials defend WMD evidence

Blair, Straw deny charge they manipulated Iraq report
June 2 -- The question being asked in some circles about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction: Where are they? Is this a massive case of intelligence failure?

ASSOCIATED PRESS
EVIAN, France, June 2 — British Prime Minister Tony Blair rejected charges that his government had doctored evidence on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, appealing Monday for patience so that those looking for arms can continue their search.I stand absolutely, 100 percent behind the evidence, based on intelligence, that we presented people, Blair said during a news conference on the sidelines of the Group of Eight summit here.

ACCUSATIONS THAT his government had manipulated evidence were “completely and totally false,” Blair said.
Blair and President Bush insisted in the run-up to the war that the existence of evidence of a powerful arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq justified military action against Saddam.
But the failure of American and British troops so far to uncover new evidence that Saddam had banned weapons is creating a serious political problem for Blair in Britain and threatens to undermine his international credibility.
“It’s not a question of admitting we were wrong or saying that there wasn’t the evidence, because the evidence was there,” Straw told British Broadcasting Corp. radio. “The evidence is overwhelming.”
He then referred to a report by chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix last March that cited outstanding disarmament tasks yet to be carried out by the Iraqis — although inspectors also said they found no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons in 3½ months of searching.

The most significant finds reported by inspectors were a dozen artillery shells filled with mustard gas and fewer than 20 empty chemical warheads for battlefield rockets.
“I’ve got in front of me the 173 pages of the unanswered disarmament questions which Dr. Blix put before the Security Council,” Straw said. “Our point is this: Look, if Saddam had nothing to hide why had he failed over a 12-year period to provide answers to these questions?
“All the evidence, categorical evidence in this ... document and the circumstantial evidence of Saddam’s own behavior pointed to one end, that he did indeed, in the words of the Security Council, pose a threat to international peace and security,” Straw said.

“Some of the people who are now saying they feel duped or that we should find further evidence to justify decisions which we openly took three months ago are actually trying to change the basis on which those judgments were made,” he said.

Also in this article at the beginning, is have a little patience, we were going off the UN list, now we're going at it our way.