Bush Says Iraqi Weapons Sites Were Looted

Reuters ^ | June 21, 2003 | Randall Mikkelsen

[Buckeroo]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, trying again to explain the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, said on Saturday that suspected arms sites had been looted in the waning days of Saddam Hussein's rule.

"For more than a decade, Saddam Hussein went to great lengths to hide his weapons from the world. And in the regime's final days, documents and suspected weapons sites were looted and burned," Bush said in his weekly radio address.

[Buckeroo]

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"The WMD issue is a non-issue." -- trickydick62

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You must be an idiot. This whole American administration used the WMD reason as a means to garner war upon another sovereign nation. Iguess you forgot all the balleyhoo in front of Congress .... and the UN last year.

What a fool, you are.

[Buckeroo]

It is intended for folks like you that post it everywhere.

[Jorge]

Since there are no recovernable WMD in Iraq,

You don't know that. All you know is nobody has found any stock piles YET.
They could be anywhere. He's been hiding them from UN inspectors for many years.

what was the REAL reason for America to make war about a sovereign nation half-way around the world, that America already had under control for 12 years?

Before the war..the Dems and others were complaining that Bush was giving TOO MANY REASONS for removing Saddam.

Including WMDs, the danger of Iraq's links with terrorist(training camps were found), and liberating the Iraqi people from Saddam's torture, murder and oppression.

Now the Bush bashers are denying any of the other reasons existed...and they are completely unmoved by the thousands of Iraqis being uncovered in mass graves.

They are so desperate to turn this great victory and magnificant act of goodness into something evil.

In any case..all GOOD PEOPLE are applauding Bush and Blair.

[rwfromkansas]

Apparently Reuters doesn't like inserting "allegedly" when it is a Republican:

"Bush has been widely criticized for misleading the public by asserting that Saddam had stockpiles of unconventional weapons that menaced the world."

There should be an allegedly before "misleading" for the sake of fairness and balance.

Then again, when did that matter to Reuters?

[rwfromkansas]

Man you are a prick. Can't you just go play with yourself and leave us alone?

[Buckeroo]

Bush needs bashing, pal. He has not performed anything other lead our nation into further loss about our nation.

Where is OBL? Why has it cost Americans (not a government) to go after a boogeyman that has now created a police-like-state in America? Why is America committing our resources towards peace everywhere in the ME while making war?

You are a fool if you believe this administration is control of anything other than your pocketbook.

[fhayek]

Sorry, but is simply isn't true. Check out Jim Dunnigan's Strategy Page.

Myths:

The United States armed Saddam. This one grew over time, but when Iraq was on it's weapons spending spree from 1972 (when its oil revenue quadrupled) to 1990, the purchases were quite public and listed over $40 billion worth of arms sales. Russia was the largest supplier, with $25 billion. The US was the smallest, with $200,000. A similar myth, that the U.S. provided Iraq with chemical and biological weapons is equally off base. Iraq requested Anthrax samples from the US government, as do nations the world over, for the purpose of developing animal and human vaccines for local versions of Anthrax. Nerve gas doesn't require technical help, it's a variant of common insecticides. European nations sold Iraq the equipment to make poison gas.

The U.S. created Saddam. Arab nationalism created Saddam. He neither asked, needed nor got any help from the United States as he rose to power in the Baath party. When he took over in 1979, he promptly went to war with Iran a year later. Even before that, public opinion, and public policy, regarding Saddam (the bloody minded head of the secret police) was negative. You can go read it in the contemporary papers. Despite most Americans feeling OK about Iran getting hammered by Iraq (because Iran had held our embassy staff hostage for over a year), there was no move to provide Iraq with weapons. When the Iraqis looked like they might fold, and Iran's then fearsome Islamic Jihad (against less observant Moslems, and mostly against America, the Great Satan) might spread, the U.S. provided Iraq with satellite photos of Iranian military positions. After that war ended in a draw in 1988, the U.S. believed Saddam's pronouncements that he had seen the light and would rein in his aggressive impulses.

Satellite photos, that was about the extent of it. France and Germany were far more responsible for the poison gas attacks against the Kurds than the U.S. was.

[hole_n_one]

taking the country to war and getting American sons and daughters killed based on false and fabricated information on WMD is criminal.

I would agree.

Is that what has happened?

[Jorge]

He has not performed anything other lead our nation into further loss about our nation.

Can somebody please translate this for me?

Why has it cost Americans (not a government) to go after a boogeyman that has now created a police-like-state in America?

Oh no.. Here comes the "police state". Again.

[Buckeroo]

Don't you just love the Patriot Act and the consolidation about government agencies that give America a Tom Ridge coloring book?

It is funny; you belive in government comics that do nothing.

[meenie]

If Bush was misled about WMD's, so was Clinton, the UN, Blix, Blair, etc. If Bush misled the public about WMD's so did Clinton, the UN, Blix, Blair, etc. Conclusion: Bush is no better than the rest of the politicians and will lie to suit his purpose just like the rest of them will. Now, just watch the Bushies come out of the woodwork and try to defend their hero that acts more like a liberal than a conservative. With trillions in unbudgeted future liabilities, he can't resist spending money like a drunken sailor.

[VRWC_minion]

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll. Latest: June 17-18, 2003. N=900 registered voters nationwide. MoE ± 3.
.
"All things considered, do you think the United States going to war with Iraq has been worth it or not?"
		Worth It	Not Worth It	Not Sure
		%	%	%
	6/03	53	31	16
	4/03	64	25	11
.
"On the issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, do you believe Iraq currently has weapons of mass destruction, had weapons of mass destruction before the war but has moved or destroyed them, or that Iraq did not have any weapons of mass destruction?"
			%
	Currently has WMD		25
	Has moved or destroyed WMD		54
	Did not have any WMD		12
	Not sure		9
.
"Which one of the following do you believe is most likely to be true? President Bush exaggerated the dangers of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The intelligence agencies exaggerated the dangers of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to President Bush. Both President Bush and intelligence agencies exaggerated the dangers. OR, Neither President Bush nor the intelligence agencies exaggerated the dangers."
			%
	Bush exaggerated		8
	Agencies exaggerated		11
	Both exaggerated		24
	Neither exaggerated		43
	Not sure		14

[Buckeroo]

Jesus Christ, "a poll!" to substantiate your viewpoint.. why am I not impressed?

[b4its2late]

The knucklehead won't believe it. Thinks the poll was rigged no doubt, because it was done by Fox News...... and all these people can be wrong ya know! .... the guys lost in himself.

[Jorge]

You had better damn sure have the evidence in your pocket before you invade and not freaking vague "they got em cause I say they got em" BS like we've been handed from day one on this.

What planet have you been living on?

Bush never said "they got em cause I say they got em" .

Both Clinton and Gore and most of the Democrats now attacking Bush AGREED that Saddam had WMDs and we needed to remove him from power.

Saddam admitted to having WMDs and in fact USED WMDs on Iran and the Kurds..wiping out entire towns.

The United Nations security council and UN inspectors claimed that tons of chemical and biological weapson stockpiles were unaccounted for.

Intelligence agencies from numerous countries, even those opposed to war said that Saddam had WMDs.

There was never any question about whether Saddam had them or not..only about where he was hiding them, and how to disarm him.

In any case these hysterical accusations against Bush are dishonest and phoney.

[VRWC_minion]

Mahmud, who ranked behind only Saddam and his sons in importance in the Iraqi regime, has told the interrogators that during the weeks after the war with the United States he spent time in hiding with the former Iraqi leader himself. But Mahmud told interrogators that the group split up at an unspecified time before he left for Syria with Odai and Qusai, according to the U.S. officials. Along with the information about Saddam's sons, the U.S. officials said, he was providing information about Iraq's suspected program of weapons of mass destruction, and that he had contradicted evasive accounts from other former senior Iraqi officials now in U.S. detention.

Its a dangerous assumption to ones credibility to conclude the US has no knowledge of the existance of weapons of mass destruction. Its a safer bet that the adminisration has decided to withhold details for now.

[Long Cut]

Respond to post #47, and admit your parroting of Leftist lies about America arming Hussein with WMD, or call it a day.

I've seen you post that nonsense for months now. It is no more true now than day one.

Oh, nice homesite...the White Aryan Resistance have a new logo?

[VRWC_minion]

The poll is meant to challenge this from the biased author

Bush has been widely criticized for misleading the public

[Buckeroo]

The reason for going to war against Iraq was because of UN 1441; America flipped the bird at the UN about their insistance concerning inspections.

All you are saying is that our government is a UN clone; we used UN sanctions to make a war; we can't prove the basis for a rational decision, however. Well, we can prove that America has lots of money; our hard earned tax payer dollars going after boogeymen without proof.

If thats a government you want, it's ok with me. But you are more like the governments that America is about to replace ... meaningless and without truth.

[TLBSHOW]

oh look its Louie and the nation of islam with

No weapons of mass destruction creates problem for Bush

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_836.shtml