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Article #769

Blix questions credibility of US-Brit WMD teams (Christian Science Monitor with other Sources)

#769
From: No One
Date: Fri, 06 Jun 2003 18:47
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http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0606/dailyUpdate.html

In comments to reporters after he gave a speech to the UN Security Council,
BBC, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix questioned the credibility of the
US and British teams currently looking for weapons of mass destruction in
Iraq. "I do not want to question the integrity or the professionalism of the
inspectors of the coalition, but anybody who functions under an army of
occupation cannot have the same credibility as an independent inspector,"
Mr. Blix said Thursday.
http://www.islam-online.net/English/News/2003-06/06/article04.shtml

Later, in interviews with the BBC, Blix also criticized the quality of the
intelligence given to him by the US and Britain. "Only in three of those
cases did we find anything at all, and in none of these cases were there any
weapons of mass destruction, and that shook me a bit, I must say." Blix also
said he would not be surprised if weapons of mass destruction are found in
Iraq, and that the coalition forces had "other reasons" for invading Iraq
other than looking for those weapons. Blix also acknowledged that Iraq had
not provided full cooperation, although he said he believed more could have
been achieved if inspectors had stayed longer.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/2967598.stm
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/europe/06/06/sprj.irq.blix.wmd/

Meanwhile the controversy over the prewar intelligence about the presence of
WMD in Iraq continued to grow in both Britain and the US. In Britain, the
BBC reported that British intelligence services were asked to "rewrite" the
dossier on Iraq at least six times. The Guardian reports that the new claims
seems to back up previous allegations that intelligence services were told
by Downing Street to "sex up" the dossier to boost support for the war. In
another angle to the debate, the Financial Times reports that the claim Iraq
could have its WMD ready in 45 minutes (one of the points critics claim was
exaggerated), was made by a "senior officer within Iraq's military."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml;$sessionid$MDI3TFCIHWTNZQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/2003/06/06/nwmd06.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/06/06/ixnewstop.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,972019,00.html
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-06-05-brits-iraq-intelligence_x.htm

The New York Times reports that British PM Tony Blair continues to insist
his government did not distort intelligence reports in order to exaggerate
the threat of weapons of mass destruction and justify war in Iraq. Earlier
this week, the Leader of the Commons,John Reid, said "rogue spies" fed false
information to journalists which accused Tony Blair of exaggerating the size
of Saddam Hussein's arsenal. But Mr. Reid's comments produced a combination
of "amazement and skepticism" in opposition MPs, who said that intelligence
sources were not taking his remarks seriously.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/06/04/international/middleeast/04CND-BRIT.html?ex=1055390400&en=c17b7fd661f9faa1&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2961432.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/2962164.stm

The Iranian news agency, IRNA, reports that the US sought to help Blair on
Friday, as US assistant secretary of defense Valerie Clarke wrote a letter
to the Telegraph saying "It is far too early to make any judgments as the
final chapter of Saddam's WMD ambitions has yet to be written."
http://www.irna.ir/en/head/030606144717.ehe.shtml

Reuters reports that a new secret US report made public this week may add
more fuel to the WMD fire in the US. The report, written in Sept, 2000 by
the Defense Intelligence Agency, said it did not have enough "reliable
information" Iraq was amassing these weapons. And The Washington Post
reports that analysts at the CIA "felt pressured" to make their intelligence
fit the Bush administration's policy objectives. This pressure was
increased, the analysts say, by the "multiple visits" paid to CIA
headquarters by Vice President Dick Cheney and his chief of staff, Lewis
"Scooter" Libby. Other analysts, however, said they "welcomed" the visits.
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=CLSSCPLRKI4VUCRBAE0CFFA?type=topNews&storyID=2889971
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15019-2003Jun4.html

On Thursday, President Bush said the invasion of Iraq was justified and
pledged that "we will reveal the truth" of WMD to the world. Earlier in the
week, Douglas Feith, the undersecretary of defense for policy, took the
unusual step of holding a press conference to deny that senior civilian
policy makers had politicized intelligence to fit their hawkish views on
Iraq, and that the special intelligence unit he created in the Pentagon,
known as the Special Plans unit, was there just to produce pro-war
information. "This suggestion that we said to them, 'This is what we're
looking for. Go find it,' is precisely the inaccuracy that we are here to
rebut," Feith said.
http://channels.netscape.com/ns/news/story.jsp?floc=NW_1-T&oldflok=FF-APO-1151&idq=/ff/story/0001%2F20030605%2F044401817.htm&sc=1151&photoid=20030604JSA124
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/06/05/MN268188.DTL
http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?030512fa_fact

In Congress, The Los Angeles Times reports ranking members of the Senate
Intelligence Committee clashed over how aggressively the panel should pursue
the weapons issue. The Senate's most outspoken critic of the war in Iraq,
Democratic Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, said he wants an "open,
gloves-off" inquiry, specifically on the absence of proof that Iraq had WMD.
He also questioned whether President Bush has been honest about the issue.
"It is time that the president leveled with the American people," Sen. Byrd
said.
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/6016795.htm
http://www.register-herald.com/articles/2003/06/05/news/local_news/byrd6.txt
http://www.newsandsentinel.com/news/story/066202003_new05_Byrd.asp

The question of the President's veracity was also raised in different ways
by two columnists. In the Boston Globe, columnist Derrick Jackson writes
that with "empty hands after tha battle, President Bush is losing the war
for his honor," and that "Iraq is about Bush sending Americans to die for
what may have been a lie." But in the Weekly Standard, Max Boot writes that
it's ridiculous to think that President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony
Blair lied about the presence of WMD. "It is indeed puzzling that US forces
haven't found more evidence of WMD, but this hardly shows that Bush and
Blair lied. It does show how imperfect our intelligence about Iraq was,
which actually makes the case for preventive war that much stronger."
http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/157/oped/Bush_s_deceptions_on_Iraq_intelligence+.shtml
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/002/766aaprx.asp

USA Today says that one victim of the lack of proof of WMD might be the
policy of pre-emptive strikes. The next time the president comes to Capitol
Hill warning of an emerging threat, one that requires military action to
pre-empt and defeat, some lawmakers of both parties say they will be
skeptical.
"If you're going to have a doctrine of pre-emption," said Jay Rockefeller,
the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, "then you sure as
heck better have pluperfect intelligence." A Republican senator who spoke on
condition of anonymity said that if President Bush went to Congress with
another plan to strike an enemy state, "It would have to be very clear and
convincing intelligence for it not to cause a dispute."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-06-05-bush-doctrine-usat_x.htm

As of 6-03-03 when a man tossed a grenade into a Humvee, wounding wounding a
soldier, US casualties in the Iraq War have now reached 900, 186 killed and
714 wounded.  We've spent 80 billion dollars (120 times the amount spent on
Iraqi humanitarian aid after the war), started World War 4 according ex-CIA
director James Woolsey, legitimized pre-emptive strikes against anyone
percieved as a threat- including ourselves, shattered the coalition on
terrorism, isolated ourselves from the world, declared the UN irrelevant
after bullying and bribing it's members, 7041 Iraqi civilians have been
killed, degraded our national security by encouraging more would be
terrorists like Timothy McVeigh and Osama bin Laden which the first Gulf War
brought, and angered the entire world over two rusted out trailors that MAY
or MAY NOT have been able to produce WMD if two other trailors were present
for the other necessary steps required.  No WMD have been found to date
which is evidence our war was illegal because there was never a clear and
present threat, if WMD ever existed it is entirely possible our war caused
it to get into the hands of terrorists.  The UN weapons inspectors who would
bring expertise, credibility, and experience to the WMD hunt have asked to
help and were denied for fear of having and WMD finding or planting second
guessed.  The only people searching to this date are the very people who
could (and have reason to) plant evidence.

Powell says the public was misled:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,967548,00.html
Wolfwowitz says the public was misled:
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2003/s867453.htm
Bush officials told ABC the public was misled:
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/US/globalshow_030425.html
National Security Advisor Condoleeza Rice said the public was misled:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/30/1051381997497.html
The head of the UN Inspections Team Blix said the public was misled:
http://www.iraqwar.ru./iraq-read_article.php?articleId=3680&lang=en
A Bush official told the Scottish Sunday Herald the public was misled:
http://www.sundayherald.com/print33628
Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (mostly former CIA) say Bush
misled the public:
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0501-09.htm
Putin says Bush misled the public:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-663950,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,946321,00.html
A High level UK intelligence officer says Blair lied:
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=400805
Blair advisor says we were mislead:
http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ahJS35XsmXGg&refer=top_world_news
Ex-UN Weapons Inspector and former dedicated marine Scott Ritter said the
public was lied to:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3233.htm

"I don't want to be the world's policeman"
-George W. Bush (2000 election debates)
"We cannot be all things to all people"
-George W. Bush (2000 election debates)
"I think the United States must be humble, and must be proud and confident
of our values, but humble in how we treat nations that are figuring out how
to chart their own course"
-George W. Bush (2000 election debates)
"Too much use of American power overseas causes the nation to look like "the
ugly American"
-George W. Bush (2000 election campaign)
"Listen, it's a healthy debate for people to express their opinion. People
should be allowed to express their opinion."
-George W. Bush (November 2002)
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From: "No One" <noone@nowhere.com>
Newsgroups: la.general,ba.general,balt.general,va.general,tx.general
Subject: Blix questions credibility of US-Brit WMD teams (Christian Science Monitor with other Sources)
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