AP: No evidence Iraq stockpiled smallpox

Associated Press ^

[jacket]

Top American scientists assigned to the weapons hunt in Iraq found no evidence Saddam Hussein's regime was making or stockpiling smallpox, The Associated Press has learned from senior military officers involved in the search.

Smallpox fears were part of the case the Bush administration used to build support for invading Iraq - and they were raised again as recently as last weekend by Vice President Dick Cheney.

[cake_crumb]

Quagmire...Bush lied, yadayadayadayada...

Bush did NOT restart the smallpox vaccinations because of Iraq. This is another media lie like the one saying the Bush administration tied Saddam to 9/11/01 to drum up support for the war.

The smallpox fear comes from the fact that it has NOT been eradicated, no matter WHAT the AP says. Pick a country...like Pakistan, Afghanistan, India...stick it into Google with smallpox beside it and see what you find. It was ONE bug out of HUNDREDS we wanted Saddam to prove he didn't still have. He not only didn't prove anything, he did everything in his power to act like the guilty party.

This story is the more media propaganda combined with microscopic bits of truth to make it seem believable..

[gooleyman]

I believe that Saddam led (or allowe) us to believe that he had all those weopons as a ploy to make himself seem more powerful than he really was. And the media and the U.N. helped in the effort. Think about it...when you think you may be threatened by someone, don't you want to appear bigger, stronger and faster than you really are. I want my enemies to think I'm a Gorilla who will kick their a$$es. Saddam hoped that he could scare us off like he had done during the Clinton years by having us think if we attack, he'll unleash chemical and biological weopons on our troops and cities. I think he miscalculated just a little. He won't make that mistake again now will he?

[Soliton]

From CBS News

"Before 1998, U.N. weapons inspectors discovered limited evidence of a smallpox program in Iraq. They found a machine labeled "smallpox" and Iraq is experimenting with a related virus that infects camels."

[woofie]

Bump

[conservativecorner]

Didn't they go look in the big building marked - "Illegal WMD Storage Building"? No? LOL! Yada...yada ...yada on nothing found. The man had 10 years to perfect his systems in order to avoid detection, and it looks like he shipped some things to Syria much as he did during the First Gulf War with Iran.

[Gritty]

Saddam didn't need a 'stockpile' of smallpox to be bring about the apocalypse.

All he needed was a very, very small vial.