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Also the March 6th report "UNRESOLVED DISARMAMENT ISSUES IRAQ’S PROSCRIBED WEAPONS PROGRAMMES." has to be put into the mix about the US's decision to go into Iraq.

The principal part of this document thus presents clusters of “unresolved disarmament issues”, which are to be addressed by the inspection process (and Iraq) and from which “key remaining disarmament tasks” are to be identified and selected for early solution. Some of the material used in the cluster part is from the period after 1998. However, a short separate part of this document is specifically dedicated to disarmament questions related to the period after 1998, when UNSCOM inspections ended. Did Iraq resume any proscribed activities in this period and did it produce or import any proscribed weapons or other proscribed items?

Some analyst writes some weasel words in a report to cover his ass in case he's wrong, and this author "interprets" it as damning evidence that Iraq is based on a lie.

Yes, it is certain that Iraq had banned weapons. They had them in 1998, and showeved no evidence that they were destroyed. The weapons are either still hidden somewhere in Iraq, or they were sent away to a sympathetic state such as Syria.

What about all this stuff?

WARNING: Gathering WMD storm a crock. See what Clinton told nation in 1998...

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

EUPHRATES 'POISONED'

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

***Chemical Weapons Programs

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

***Table 2: Characteristics of Chemical Warfare Agents: Commercial Uses of Chemicals or Precursor Chemicals ***CENTAF IRAQ'S CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS PROGRAM

One thing is certain: Saddam DID have chemical weapons once upon a time; thousands of Kurds found that out the hard way. Now either one of two scenarios is true:

1) Saddam continued to possess WMD, in which case we'll eventually find them, whether they're in Iraq, Syria or Iran.

2) Saddam destroyed all his WMD, in which case he was willing to lose his entire country, and perhaps his life, in order to hide that fact.

Scenario 1 is more plausible.

First as a military man, you are tought to study your enemy and how you should get to know him. Saddam and his underlings had 7 years to study how the UN Inspectors went about their work and how to avoid and feed disinformation to the inspection teams.

Second Iraq is a country of mountains, swamps, flatland and desert so hid something from plan sight is easy. Remember the one underground bunker that was build so well under a parking lot in Baghdad that we did not know it was there until a lone Marine open a locked door that lead to the tunnel.

Third givern Saddam's mindset you would be a fool to believe that Saddam gave up on having WMD's when his very record and name in Arabic means "The one to confront."

``It's pretty clear that the intelligence judgments concerning Iraq weapons of mass destruction did not undergo a major change between the Clinton and Bush administrations,''

Shifting the blame to Clinton is getting rather old. Time for the Republicans to stand up and take responisbility for themselves. Unless they want to aknowelege that Clinton is their de facto leader; after all, they did spend a lot of years saying 'yes sir Mr. Clinton. What would you like us to do now, mr. Clinton?'.

Freepr BilLies posted on a related thread:

I saw a press conference with Jacoby and Warner after the testimony/hearing and Jacoby wanted it made clear the reason they "could not verify" the existence of the weapons was because we did not have american personel on the ground in Iraq.

In other words, New York Times and Vanity Fair type reporting from Bloomberg here, taking statements out of context to portray exactly the opposite of what was actually said. A correct summary would have said that the Pentagon/DIA had no doubts as to the existence of chemical weapons, but that they did not have hard data on the precise locations of the weapons or facilities.

Pentagon in 2002 Found `No Reliable' Iraq Arms Data

Is this any suprise?
Even Democrats were wailing about the lack of "human operatives" in the
USA intelligence community after 9-11...even trying to make it sound like this was
Dubya's fault.

How quickly they forget the emasculation of the intelligence community by
Senator Frank Church.
A Democrat, if memory serves me right.

And, thanks to having these blind spots imposed by Church and his fellow travelers,
Dubya chose to play it safe and take out another thorn in the side of civilization.

We'll find out how the real results the first Tuesday in November 2004.