Posted on 10/07/2004 5:39:03 AM PDT by foreverfree
snip
WASHINGTON — Saddam Hussein did not produce or possess any weapons of mass destruction for more than a decade before the U.S.-led invasion last year, according to a comprehensive CIA report released yesterday.
Saddam intended to someday reconstitute his illicit programs and rebuild at least some of his weapons if United Nations sanctions were eased and he had the opportunity, the report concluded. But the Iraqi regime had no formal, written strategy to revive the banned programs after sanctions, and no staff or infrastructure in place to do so, the investigators found.
snip
There were none.
Well... in that case, we'd best apologize and put Saddam back in office asap (sarcasm off)
No disrespect intended to the CIA, but if they were wrong before we went into Iraq on the WMD issue, why should we take as gospel that they can prove a negative now? Watch the dems jump all over this, finding new credibility in the CIA.....
Don't be so sure.
This is the third or fourth investigation that has concluded that there were none. Were they all inept?
Mmmmmmmph....mmmmmmph...
{muzzled...}
Then why was he threatening to use them?
ff
If there were no WMD why did the UN keep up the charade of inspections for 12 years, Why did our military keep up the no fly zone? Why for the past 12 years since Gulf War I did every intelligence agency around world say that they did have WMD?
The joke was on them, I guess. If there were WMDs as recently as 2002 then where are they? Hussein must be laughing his ass off over this one.
And even suppose, for the sake of argument, we now say "Okay, he didn't have them" -- it doesn't for a minute change the fact that 1) the UN passed resolutions to the effect that it was IRAQ's burden to prove they didn't, and 2) that we did the right thing by following through on the resolutions.
I dont picture Saddum laughing, smirkin maybe. The CIA has a lot of explaining to do as do other intelligence agency on their failure to find out the truth before we sent our sons and daughters off to war. Getting rid of Saddum is still a major plus as he was a tryrant but I want some more answers.
'twas also a figment of your imagination that the UN said "fess up or suffer nasty consequences" shortly before Iraq didn't fess up and promptly suffered nasty consequences.
At the time of the invasion, nobody seriously thought that Saddam did NOT have WMDs - the bickering was over whether to continue negotiating or deem 12 years of negotiating "enough".
You mean like the previous report released by the Iraq Survey Group? Once again we see that evidence to defend the president's position, and to also totally destroy the Dem'Rats' position, is publicly available but ignored by the media and not trumpeted by the Bush administration for some frustrating reason.
Below are excerpts from the "Statement On The Interim Progress Report On The Activities Of The Iraq Survey Group," by David Kay, October 2, 2003:
“We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late-2002.”
“A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW [Chemical and Biological Weapons] research.”
“A prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of BW [Biological Weapons] agents, that Iraqi officials working to prepare for UN inspections were explicitly ordered not to declare to the UN.”
“Reference strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist’s home, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.”
“New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.”
“Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists’ homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).”
“A line of UAV’s [Unmanned Aerial Vehicles] not fully declared at an undeclared production facility and an admission that they had tested one of their declared UAVs out to a range of 500 km, 350 km beyond the permissible limit.”
“Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited SCUD variant missiles, a capability that was maintained at least until the end of 2001 and that cooperating Iraqi scientists have said they were told to conceal from the UN.”
“Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km - well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the UN. Missiles of a 1000 km range would have allowed Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East, including Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.”
“Clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles --probably the No Dong -- 300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles, and other prohibited military equipment.”
“With regard to Iraq’s nuclear program, the testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and senior government officials should clear up any doubts about whether Saddam still wanted to obtain nuclear weapons. They have told ISG [Iraq Survey Group] that Saddam [Hussein] remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons.”
“In addition to the discovery of extensive concealment efforts, we have been faced with a systematic sanitization of documentary and computer evidence in a wide range of offices, laboratories, and companies suspected of WMD work.”
Keeping in mind that we did not go to war over "stockpiles of WMD," the new report is meaningless. However, the above excerpts prove the president to be correct, because the congressional resolution that Kerry, Edwards, and every other senator voted on, said simply that Hussein had the "capacity to possess" WMD, and having WMD-related programs and facilities, with the scientists on hand, certainly meets that criteria.
And because of the intelligence that President Bush, like the Clinton administration and everyone else in the federal government relied upon, we have the following:
“Trusting Byrd”
The Washington Times
by John McCaslin
January 20, 2004
“I do believe Iraq poses an imminent threat” -Senator Jay Rockefeller, West Virginia Democrat [date unknown]
"He [Saddam] will use those weapons of mass destruction again, as he has 10 times since 1983." -Former Clinton National Security Adviser Samuel R. Berger, February 18, 1998
"Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology, which is a threat to countries in the region, and he has made a mockery of the weapons-inspection process." -Representative Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat, December 16, 1998
"We are confident that Saddam Hussein retains some stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and that he has since embarked on a crash course to build up his chemical- and biological-warfare capabilities." -Sen. Robert C. Byrd, West Virginia Democrat, October 3, 2002
Of course this leaves out the quotes that Sean Hannity has been ramming down Rats' throats, from Kerry that leaving Hussein in power would be irresponsible due to his possession of WMD, and from Edwards stating that Hussein posed an "imminent threat" because of his WMD. [Of course, President Bush never referred to Iraq as an "imminent threat," but rather a "gathering" threat; but facts and integrity never got in the way of the Rats insisting that he did do so, and that he was therefore misleading the American public.]
And finally, if the Dem'Rats want to attack the credibility of the CIA's information, let's remember who is responsible for their budget, operations, and quality assurance. It isn't the president; he simply appoints the nominee for DCI. The Senate approves or rejects the nominee. However, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) have oversight authority for basically all aspects of the CIA's functioning (i.e. what it targets, what programs are approved, cut, or denied, the budget issues, and reviews for quality assurance). So, as a former member of SSCI, John Kerry shares some blame for whatever faults the agency had, as does John Edwards, supposedly a current member who just doesn't have the time to show up for many of the meetings and hearings.
As Cheech y Chong could have told Hussein, "Don't answer the phone!"
Saddam refused to document the disposition of said weapons. His own government officials thought that they still had WMDs. If it walks like a duck...
Getting rid of Hussein alone does not justify, in my mind, the thousands of casualties we've suffered in Iraq. We were told that Hussein was an iminent threat to the United States and an active participant in terrorist strikes against us, and in the planning of future strikes. None of that was shown to be true. So I'd like more than just a few answers.
Forgot who was on FOX a few days ago saying that France and Russia were telling SH not to worry about a US invasion and he believed them.
A decade, huh? Geez, I guess Bill Clinton was wrong for attack Osama, too, then, right?
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