Iraq Arms hunt may Hinder other US Aims

[Bandit]

BAGHDAD, Iraq Dec. 30 — In nine months, not a single item has been found in Iraq from a long and classified intelligence list of weapons of mass destruction which guided the work of dozens of elite teams from Special Forces, the military, the CIA and the Pentagon during the most secretive, expensive and fruitless weapons hunt in history.
For U.S. allies, arms control experts and some involved in the hunt, the lack of evidence in a war premised on the threat of proliferation will have far reaching consequences in the coming year for the United States in its efforts to curb Iran, North Korea, Syria and others.
<snip>

Of the handful of Iraqi weapons scientists remaining in U.S. custody, two are missile experts, and seven worked on past biological programs, according to Iraqi officials now working for the American occupation.
All continue to claim that Iraq hasn't worked on weapons of mass destruction for years.
<snip>

The Bush administration began planning its own hunt six months before it went to war, military officers said.
Working in secret, the Pentagon set up the first U.S. teams designed to search for, identify and destroy chemical, biological and nuclear weapons. The mission, which military planners expected to be brief, was a failure and in June the Pentagon announced a larger operation with investigative capabilities to be led by Kay and Gen. Keith Dayton.
By August the operation, known as the Iraq Survey Group, was underway. Its most notable determination to date has been that two mobile trailers found in April and May were not biological laboratories as senior administration officials had claimed. In a BBC interview Kay called the trailers "a fiasco."

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20031230_1825.html


Not sure if this is breaking news but it is front page ABC News and I thought should get some attention

[killbotfactory]

1. This is what happens when you let assholes like Cheney

fuck with the intelligence.

Man this pisses me off.

[dusty64]

2. Gee, do they

think. :crazy:

[gulliver]

3. Didn't Bush say "We found them" (WMD) about those trailers?

KRAKOW, Poland, May 30 -- President Bush, citing two trailers that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were probably used as mobile biological weapons labs, said U.S. forces in Iraq have "found the weapons of mass destruction" that were the United States' primary justification for going to war.

<snip>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A60140-2003May30?language=printer


Yet now we read "In a BBC interview Kay called the trailers 'a fiasco.'"

More incendiary words by Bush that turn out to be untrue. The guy is a joke. The joke's on us.

[54anickel]

4. Sounds to me like UN "containment" was doing its job just fine. They

again hid some of the good stuff at the end of the article in the last 5 short paragraphs.
Bush is an idiot and Kristol is a fool.

So hey, what's happened with Saddam and the waiting vistors?
The Red Cross, his daughter? I would be extremely interested in his daughters visit, that might finally make be believe they really got him.

[loudnclear]

5. I keep telling you that the US MUST find those weapons it planted.

They are very worried about whose hands they fell into. The plan was not supposed to work that way. somehow, our special ops were double-crossed.

[Moderator]

6. Kick

:dem:

[rocktivity]

7. Fruitless?

What about mendacious? Bogus? Alleged? The very least you can do is raise the question as to whether the WMDs actually exist--THAT might explain the whole fruitlessness thing.


rocknation

[goforit]

10. Good point ...rocknation.

?

[missile_bender]

11. "Fruitless" only if

The search yielded no fruit, i.e. no weapons. However, it did yield fruit: evidence supporting the high and rising probability that the weapons don't exist. The fruit is proof of a Bush lie.

Now, "pointless," that's something entirely different.

[priller]

8. One of my favorite Ari quotes was:

"If Saddam says he has no WMD, we know he is lying, because we know he has those illegal weapons."

What a pathetic situation we have. Saddam was telling the truth, while Bush and his minions were lying on a daily basis. I'm not trying to give Saddam any credit, but just pointing out how very, very low the Bushies have fallen, where Saddam has more credibility than the US President.

[Cocoa]

9. the Zombies said it best

please don't bother trying to find her, she's not there.