Powell Speech to UN Live Thread

[Support Free Republic]

Might as well start up the live thread. Speech starts at 10:30 EST (scheduled), which is within the hour.

[WillVoteForFood]

The Iraqi rep just received information he had no knowledge of. His interview on Tony Snow was very revealing. He was asked by Snow if he meets often with Hussein, to which he answered no. Snow then asked if he had ever met Hussein and he answered somewhat unconvincingly that he had met Saddam and he then gave his opinion on Hussein. The Iraqi rep is nothing but an uninformed lackey who has specific talking points to relay to the U.N. and the press. Those talking points are simple. "Lies and Fabrications".

[biblewonk]

Feinstein said she hates to say it, but that Powell in fact made a very good case that further inspections are basically useless due to evidence of their subterfuge.

She states the UN must enforce their resolution or they in fact will be irrelevant.

OH WOW!!!

[William McKinley]

Prepared, but with some flexibility. Diplomats have to be able to react and respond on the fly, but they absolutely have to make sure that they are conveying policy, not setting policy.

No one from China who can set policy was present. There should be no surprise that Chinese policy as conveyed was unchanged.

The coming day or two will tell if China moved or not.

[Kip Lange]

Russia waffling...we need to "study". We need time. Blah blah.

[mass55th]

"FRANCE WILL BE A VERY IMPORTANT PART OF THE WAR if it becomes necessary to surrender."

They'll be able to show the Republican Guard how to wave those white flags properly and how to beg for mercy...or is that merci?

[MeekOneGOP]

When was it that the bombing starts?

I think the expression was:

"Weeks, NOT months !"

[twyn1]

Just wait for the final damning piece of evidence: Saddam in an SUV smoking a cigarette with a handgun in a shoulder holster.

LOL -- You forgot "wearing fur and eating a hamburger"

[txradioguy]

Unfortuneately, we could present video of Saddam giving the blessings of Allah to the 19 hijackers that flew the planes on 9/11 and there yould STILL be people who said we didn't have enough proof for war with Iraq.

[Howlin]

CBS Radio says France wants "proof" of what Powell said.

[bray]

"it's probably more likely that the Belgians hate the French because the French took credit for one of their two inventions (the other being the waffle)."

The Frogs are very good at waffling. The only time they don't waffle is if the question is, do we surrender?

The French don't know what a smoking gun is. The only time they ever see one is if it happened to be loaded when they drop it.

Pray for GW and our Troops

[Wild Irish Rogue]

This was not a "Smoking Gun"-it was an entire Smith and Wesson factory going up.We stood around the tv in the office and the words " Holy Expletive" were used more than once-by guys who have been there and done that and they were still shocked.Brian Williams on MSNBC to Bob Woodward wondered aloud ,if all this was news to Bush,if he had been aware of this before !!!

[YaYa123]

"Let Scott Ritter go kiss Saddam's breech!!

But dittomom, he's probably already "been there, done that."

[StarFan]

Chinese statement seems to have been written prior to hearing the evidence.

[concerned about politics]

He said we needed more inspections and the US and UK should give the inspectors all our classified information so that they can do their jobs "better."

That would be really dumb. Someones been tipping Iraq off to where the next inspection would be. Imagine if the US told them everything!

[Timesink]

Priceless. Not only does Straw make an exceptional point, but he hands the floor back to Germany right after his "far greater evil than we could handle" comment.

And the moment Straw finished, MSNBC cut the feed to talk to Andrea Mitchell! Germany is irrelevant!

Brit Hume: Remember that other governments' statements were written before Powell's presentation!

[mhking]

I think the expression was:

I think we're getting close to "Days, not Weeks."

[kassie]

NO WAY ! Did she really say that???

[William McKinley]

Brit Hume making the same point I was just making.

[Terriergal]

Chinese statement seems to have been written prior to hearing the evidence.

Exactly!

[prairiebreeze]

russia views this meeting today through the prism of the consistent effort of UN to find a political settlement on complete compliance of resolution

resolution demonstrates ability of international community to work together (gag)

strict conpliance with Un charter are most reliable way to solve problem of WMD in Iraq through political means (gag)

with that in mind we have listend closely to Powell, russia believe that Sec Council and international community must have all of the necessary information it needs to answer question of whether there are remaining WMD in Iraq

infor today will require seious and thorough study--we need to analyze it and draw appropriate conclusions--this information needs to be immediately handed over from unmovie and IAEA

we must give inspectors answers to the questions we have heard Powell say (huh???)

appeal for all states to hand over information to inspectors

information from Powell indicates imspections must be continues---gag