Germany says it exaggerated Iraq smallpox risk

AP | 2/16/03 | TONY CZUCZKA

[kattracks]

BERLIN, Feb 16, 2003 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The German government said Sunday it exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs in an internal report last year that claimed Iraq has smallpox stocks and could use them in germ warfare.

The Health Ministry said it drafted the statement in August to back up funding requests for the stockpiling of smallpox vaccine. But it denied that German intelligence has evidence of Iraqi smallpox stocks, contradicting the report's central assertion.

Nonetheless, opposition leaders seized on the statement's publication in a Sunday newspaper to renew charges that Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's government was playing down the Iraqi threat in public to avoid undermining its anti-war stand.

The report warned that a smallpox outbreak could kill about 25 million people - nearly a third of the population - in Germany alone, according to a copy published in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.

"German intelligence has documented evidence that smallpox samples are stockpiled" in Iraq, the health officials wrote.

But Health Ministry spokesman Klaus Vater said that while the officials drew on intelligence reports, their risk assessment was hypothetical, "drastic and imprecise."

"The Health Ministry had no documented evidence about smallpox samples in Iraq, and it has none now," Vater said in a statement. Germany's top security official, Interior Minister Otto Schily, said German intelligence has no evidence of Iraqi germ warfare stockpiles.

The revelations reignited a bitter dispute between Schroeder's government and the conservative opposition about whether Germans are being told the full truth about the threat posed by Iraq.

Since crushing Schroeder's Social Democratic party in two state elections this month, the conservatives have aligned more closely with U.S. pressure for military action. They accuse Schroeder's government of withholding intelligence on Iraq from the public - a charge the government rejects.

The government "has withheld critical information for months for reasons of domestic politics and has thereby deceived the public," Friedbert Pflueger, a foreign policy spokesman for the main opposition Christian Democrats, was quoted as saying in the Frankfurt newspaper.

The leader of the small opposition Free Democrats, Guido Westerwelle, urged the government Sunday to reveal its intelligence information on Iraqi weapons to the public.

By TONY CZUCZKA Associated Press Writer

[eabinga]

Ping

[The Electrician]

The German government said Sunday it exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs in an internal report last year that claimed Iraq has smallpox stocks and could use them in germ warfare.

Reminiscent of the Clinton stooge who claimed under oath that he lied to his own diary. Sure, we can believe that...

[whadizit]

Therefore....who can ever believe a thing they say? WEASELS!!

[syriacus]

he Health Ministry said it drafted the statement in August to back up funding requests for the stockpiling of smallpox vaccine. But it denied that German intelligence has evidence of Iraqi smallpox stocks, contradicting the report's central assertion.

And when did they quit beating their wives?

[longjack]

Thanks eabinga.

Here's an updated ping list.

americanbychoice; a_Turk; BMCDA; eabinga; Einigkeit_Recht_Freiheit; Garth Rockett; hellinahandcart; Michael81Dus; longjack; tictoc; pepsionice; riri; reveille; wonders;

longjack

[Steven W.]

so they're saying they lie to themselves but don't lie to us. WEASELS!

[kattracks]

If they LIED back then the question is why? What need did they see for stockpiling smallpox vaccine?

[americanbychoice]

CYA, again. In the FAZ, yhey show the copy of the original memo. Is the Government now saying that they told the BND to exaggerate the report before it was sent to the officials? Doesn't sound plausible at all. Of course the average German will buy this excuse, no matter what.

Most Americans would be willing to die for their country.
Most Germans would be willing to whine for theirs.

[Clara Lou]

So, Germany admits that is has lied-- and cut off its proverbial nose to spite its face.

[McGavin999]

The questions the conservatives need to as is "Has the government actually acquired the smallpox vaccine?" If the answer is yes, then it's obvious that the government considered the threat credible. Why wasn't that shared with the people. If they didn't consider it a credible threat they would not have spent the peoples money to acquire the vaccine.

[Miss Marple]

The "lying to his diary" guy is EXACTLY who came to mind when I read this!! How Clintonian of the Schroeder government. They probably got the idea from The Sinkmeister.

[AntiGuv]

Most Americans would be willing to die for their country. Most Germans would be willing to whine for theirs.

One may argue that times have changed, but history suggests that the Germans are perfectly willing to die for their country (and several others - so long as they get to keep them...)

[eabinga]

Time for a recall of Schröder...

Keep an eye on the CDU activities.

[eabinga]

Most Americans would be willing to die for their country.

Not me, I'd rather make the other schmuck die for his country in vain.

[americanbychoice]

You apparently don't know the new breed of Germans. A little wimpy. They truly believe that ANY conflict can be controlled by rhetoric.

[Mo1]

The German government said Sunday it exaggerated the threat of Saddam Hussein's weapons programs in an internal report last year that claimed Iraq has smallpox stocks and could use them in germ warfare.

So basically they are admitting they are liers?

[pepsionice]

Based on what I know about the BND...they don't lie. They are career workers who can't be fired and the political parties in charge have very little sway over them. They tend to be ultra-professional and indepth on subjects they talk about. If they said that there was an extreme threat...they weren't cooking the books. And based on the purchase involved...the government didn't think so either.

If anyone lied here, and exaggerated...then bring them up immedately in the Bundestag and let them answer why they lied to the government. If someone authorized massive purchases of vaccine which weren't necessary, then they need jail time. I suspect that no one is going to stand up and admit they lied. And then.....Herr Schroeder will have to sweat a bit in front of the cameras again.

So, Herr Schroeder, what did you know and when did you know it?

[americanbychoice]

What galls me is that, even today, Schroeder and Fischer keep saying "We don't believe......."
There is no credibility.

[WOSG]

Schroeder's Law on Bureacratic Report Bias:

Magnify a threat to secure funding, minimize a threat to prevent actual effective action to end the threat