Posted on 06/07/2003 8:46:05 AM PDT by Seti 1
Edited on 06/07/2003 8:54:36 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
WASHINGTON - In the weeks last fall before critical votes in Congress and the United Nations on going to war in Iraq, senior administration officials expressed certainty in public that Iraq possessed chemical and biological weapons, even though U.S. intelligence agencies said they had no direct evidence.
President Bush himself said in the Rose Garden on Sept. 26 that "the Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons. The Iraqi regime is building the facilities necessary to make more biological and chemical weapons."
"We continue to have confidence in our statements about Iraq's possession of chemical and biological weapons," spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "We are patient and so are the American people."Patient? No, not quite. It's a complete non-issue for me. Iraq had to be liberated; we liberated it. Done. If we find WMD, great. If not, even greater. Whatever is the case, Iraq is liberated.
Was Clinton admin lying?
Was UN lying?
Why have some imposed an artificial deadline on finding WMD?
WARNING: Gathering WMD storm a crock. See what Clinton told nation in 1998...
The Guardian Fully Retracts BOTH Powell/Straw Story AND Wolfowitz "It's All About Oil" Story
CIA convinced truck-trailers held bioweapons labs ^
IRAQ: WMD source 'was senior Iraqi officer'
FAS (Fed Am Scientist) Report: Iraqi Precursor Chemicals Stored Separately for Weapon-side Mixing
THE ROAD ENDS FOR WMD ON WHEELS
Coalition forces enter possible WMD site
Initial tests suggest WMD "cocktail" found in Iraq (**Of special note--post #58, by Archy)
U.S. finds new evidence of Iraqi WMD (NBC training school, antidotes)
Chem-weapons lab believed discovered
BRITS' CHILLING CHEM-NUKE FIND
CAPTURED FOES FOUND WITH CHEM-WAR GEAR
MSNBC - Cyanide & Mustard Agents Found in Euphrates River
Is the Activity at Al Qaim Related to Nuclear Efforts?
U.S. probing nuclear facility (Al Tuwaitha Follow Up)
Team Inspects suspected plutonium site (update by the journalist who broke original story, NEW info)
Underground Nuclear Facility Found in Iraq
Marines hold Iraqi nuclear site built by French
U.S. Marines Guard Secret Iraqi City with Very Hot Nuclear Radiation Levels
And from Freeper "HatSteel":
Terrorist devices, chemical weapons found in Iraq
Suspicious Iraqi Drums - UPDATE
Suspected bioweapons labs found
Searching for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Larry Elder
Iraq's Weapons and the Road to War
Iraqi Scientist Links Weapons to 'Dual Use' Facilities, White House Says
IRAQ: U.S. Analysts Link Iraq Labs to Germ Arms
Illicit Arms Kept Till Eve of War, an Iraqi Scientist Is Said to Assert
Herald Sun: Soldiers find Iraqi chemical 'dump'
***Germany's leading role in arming Iraq
*Germany intercepts (30 tonnes) chemicals (may be used to make nerve gas) for N Korea
New DOD team to hunt for intel as well as weapons
Capture of chemical expert could help U.S. weapons hunt in Iraq (Emad Husayn Abdulla al-Ani)
Belgium Finds Nerve Gas Ingredient in Letters
Banned missile programme found in Iraq
Administration to Announce 'Rollback' Strategy for WMD
Suspicious Iraqi Drums Preliminary Testing Suggests Chemical Agents; More Testing Needed
2 trailers deemed biological arms labs
******CENTAF IRAQ'S CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS PROGRAM
And I should add--
October 1998:Senate Democrats Signed Letter Urging Clinton To Attack Saddam Over WMDs, just posted today.
Owl_Eagle
”Guns Before Butter.”
No, Captain. It's the population that needs this information. It's currently being overlooked by the population in favor of liberal zealots in the media and liberal zealots running for president - both doing anything and everything to discredit Bush.
That should be clear.
And have the following disclaimer: "Anything resembling the truth in the Washington Post is purely coincidental."
I believe that Saddam Hussein secretly destroyed his banned weapons long ago and then refused to provide evidence verifying it, thusly subjecting his country to more than a decade of sanctions and billions of dollars of lost oil revenue because he secretly hates himself.
I like that one!
1. loss of face in Muslim/Arab world, looking impotent and subject to Western and infidel subjugation
2. Not wanting to let factions that detested him (Kurds, Iraqi Shias, Iran, etc.) know that he was now toothless in terms of terror weapons...
I see these as reasons that he would NOT destroy his WMD. But if he did destroy them, these would be reasons not to tell. JMHO.
Still, I can't think of a reason that he'd get rid of them. Perhaps military leaders got rid of them instead of using them? Maybe they've been handed out to terrorist orgs?
Who knows, but it doesn't make sense for Saddam to just "get rid of them"...???
I think that one- it's going to take time to find all the various hidden locations of weapons stocks and labs, and two- Saddam's programs may not have been as advanced as believed. I think a lot of the infrastructure of production may have been destroyed prior to our invasion, but somewhere the stocks of bio and chem weapons are buried in the sands of Iraq.
It WILL be bad for the U.S. if nothing more than two broken down trailers are found. I find it hard to believe that the administration is either that incompetent or that machiavellian
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