Rumsfeld: No New Iraq Weapons Evidence Before War

[ze_dscherman]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Wednesday the United States did not go to war with Iraq (news - web sites) because of dramatic new evidence of banned weapons but because it saw existing information on Iraqi arms programs in a new light after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.



"The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq's pursuit" of weapons of mass destruction, Rumsfeld told the Senate Armed Services Committee (news - web sites). "We acted because we saw the evidence in a dramatic new light -- through the prism of our experience on 9-11."

SNIP

Rumsfeld said Iraq "had 12 years to conceal its programs," and "uncovering those programs will take time."


Iraq's refusal to comply with U.N. resolutions requiring it to show it had destroyed its banned weapons brought on the war, he said. "The United States did not choose a war -- Saddam Hussein did. For 12 years he violated 17 United Nations (news - web sites) resolutions without cost or consequence," Rumsfeld said.


Rumsfeld also maintained that most of Iraq is safe after the war, with most of the recent attacks against U.S. and British forces concentrated in Baghdad and surrounding areas.

More: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/nm/20030709/ts_nm/iraq_rumsfeld_dc&e=1&ncid=564

On edit: More lies and some denial added

[Giuseppe]

1. Then what does "reconstitute" mean?

Do we need another horde of aides explaining to us what Smirk meant?

[UpInArms]

2. definition of "reconstitute"

take old bogus and plagiarized documents - and more spin and lies - and voila! "reconstituted"!

[lumpy]

3. So Colin Powell's 'evidence' presented before

the UN was bogus also? Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell. Wolfowitz and the rest of the gang continually dwelled/pounded upon the WMDs threat before and after the invasion of Iraq stating they had irrefutable proof that Saddam had stores of WMDs.. Who do they think they are fooling.

[underpants]

4. Exactly- this is see we told you no not that this

Rummy, stop digging and don't ask for a bigger shovel.

[The Magistrate]

11. Of Course They Were Lies

Each claim of precise knowledge of whereabouts and quantities of such weapons were a lie, told by a functionary who knew it to be a lie.

These are imposing on fewer people by the hour.

[Magleetis]

5. They have a saying

down here in Louisiana. The admin is "crawfishin" big time. It is fun to watch.

[ps1074]

6. LOL

The United States did not choose a war -- Saddam Hussein did.

Now I believe this is a pearl of wisdom :shrug:

[wtmusic]

8. This one's been around a while

They would have you believe the Iraqis pulled the trigger

[Demobrat]

7. They saw it in a dramatic new light all right.

Suddenly they could pull it out, dust it off, connect it to S/11 and voila, instant war.

[GalleryGod]

25. Like, How to STEAL THE FECKIN' MID TERMS!;>)

Impotent,friggin' viagara-poppin' closet queen towel snappers!
200 kids have died! Well,the dog ate our homework!

[ewagner]

9. Interesting new spin

Let me see if I have this straight:

Per the Sec'y of defense:

None of the "dire" statements about the immenient threat of Iraq to the UA or its allies in the run-up to the war were the real reasons we invaded Iraq.

We invaded Iraq because Saddam "had 12 years to conceal" his weapons programs.

hhhhmmmmmmm.......so this means that half-truths, distortions, hyperbolic statements ("...we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom shaped cloud....") really don't count? So the administration doesn't have to be held accountable for anything it said to justify the war?

[shockingelk]

10. They are all absolutely insane

If there are vany that aren't, anticipate them bailing out of the cabal this week.

[Mechatanketra]

12. Sigh.

We really need to start getting this meme floated out there: Only self-defense is a legal cause for war. Only, only, only. That's not hippie peacenik philosophy, it's the de jure position of every UN nation from the moment they sign the charter -- and America pretty much wrote that position.

Citing UN resolutions is a red herring, since the UN itself didn't agree that Saddam's violations were heinous enough to justify a war --only sensible, since he wasn't going to attack anyone. Frankly, Saddam can whip out his dingus and urinate on the UN building steps, and it's not a cause for war. If Iraq isn't in the process of militarily attacking another nation, or directly preparing for an imminent attack, there is no justification for war. It's not that complicated of a pattern here: Iraq could only "choose war" by attacking another country. (They did do this in the Kuwait war, but we already finished that war.)

So, as far as anything is relevant to America, England, and Australia, if there were no WMDs poised to attack, then there was no threat -- and no justification for war. Which means they are the threat to peace, and the UN has every right to call for military action against them ...

But the important thing is, no WMDs == no threat == no right == war crime. Now, you tell two friends ...

[codeword]

19. ALL wars are fought in "self-defense."

Including this one.

[MidwestTransplant]

13. Of course the attacks are occuring in the large area surrounding Baghdad..

that's where the vast majority of the population lives.

[truthisfreedom]

14. perfect analogy. prisms bend light, so bushco bent the truth.

prisms break down light into individual colors. bushco went for the color of oil.

there is so much evidence being suppressed about bushco's actions immediatly following 9/11 concerning the rush to war with iraq that could potentially come forward, bit by bit, into the mainstream media over the next year. let's hope some of it does.

[sandnsea]

15. "They're in the area of Baghdad and Tikrit"

Here we go round in circles again, just like before the invasion.

They all got on the talk circuit with their harrowing threats of Iraq's weapons and when asked for proof would dance the next step of "Saddam had 12 years to disarm" and he hasn't proven he disarmed. And he's hiding them so we can't prove he has them. And if he says he doesn't have them, then he's lying.

The Congress authorized war to enforce UN resolutions which MUST be approved by the Security Council OR to protect the U.S. We do not invade other countries unless there is an imminent threat. Mushroom clouds and dirty bombs and terrorists killing off entire cities. That's what they said.

Did they take us to war on assumptions or did they KNOW Iraq had weapons which created an imminent threat? The Congress better get on their toes with these people or we'll be dancing in circles again.

[The Magistrate]

17. What They Knew, Sir

Is that Iraq had no such weapons: every statement to the contrary was a deliberate lie.

[ewagner]

20. Probably

Well spoken sir......but to prove it....now that is the trick!

[uhhuh]

16. This is so stupid

He says that they have had 12 years to hide their programs, but the claim was that they had weapons...LOTS of them. I could understand if they needed to wade through millions of pages of documents to find evidence of a program in the works, especially if the info was being hidden, but the claim was weapons, real, assembled, ready to be deployed weapons.
The fact that Saddam's government had years to hide them, even if true doesn't make any sense. If someone had a stockpile of weapons in their house and they denied you access to their house to look for them, then you might be able to make a case that they have them through other evidence, but if you broke in and took control of the house, I don't think it would take more than a few minutes to determine whether they had them or not. The U.S. in now the Iraqi government. No access or documentation is hidden from them.
To make the claim that they are so well hidden that it will involve an exhaustive search, even after taking control of the whole country, pretty much proves that there was no way that these weapons could have threatened anybody, even if they did exist. Lies,Lies,Lies!!!
The UN did get a lot of access in the end,but they weren't running the country. They weren't giving the orders and weren't present everywhere in the seats of power. To claim that the U.S. should be given more time to find the weapons because the UN was asking for more time is lunacy. I still hear that from RW idiots. It still mkaes me mad.

[ProudGerman]

18. They've already done an exhaustive search

The military team tasked with finding the WMD's have long since given up and come home.

We all knew the WMD story was a lie the moment it popped up. The administration has always said the prime factor was disarming Saddam, while throwing up statements to terrify the masses with mentions of irradiated American cities of course. Every statement regarding WMD prior to the war, had this qualifier attached to it, incontrovertable proof. They knew he had them and where he had them. Us here in the DU wondered why he didn't give this proof to the UN so they could discover the WMD's and actually support the war. We all knew why the administration didn't do that, because they had jack shit!

If they could have proven so much as one nuclear device to the world, the administration might have actually gotten some real support for their little adventure in Mesopotamia.

We impeached one president for lying about a blowjob. Now, tens of thousands are dead, and more are maimed and injured because another president lied. Impeach these fuckers and throw them in jail!!!!!

[BiggJawn]

21. " through the prism of our experience on 9-11." BLINDERS, he means, right?

"911" has BLINDED the Murkans to EVERYTHING except getting "revenge"...Doesn't matter one whit that we're slapping around the wrong people, just so we're slapping SOMEBODY!

Wolfenstein and knit-one Purl-two say that we have an Iraqi guy on ice who talked to Atta in Prague when the FBI has his paper trail in Virginia, well, the FBI is full of nincompoops, EVERYONE knows that, just ask Hannity!

"Mr. President, the intel on the Niger Uranium is bogus"
"I don't give a flyin' Texas Fuck, I *LIKE* that story, and I'm gonna USE it!"

Then we have a slightly attractive (until you get a glimpse of her soul) woman who tells us she knows ALL about this foreign national security stuff, when the object of her expertise went TOES-UP almost FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!!!("Mister Gorbachov, tear down that wall and I'll take the credit for it!")

Like Gimli said, "The words of this Wizard stand on their heads...'Help' means 'harm'..."

[dArKeR]

22. RUMSFELD: 9/11 CAUSED WAR - Mirror

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld admitted yesterday there had been no major new evidence of weapons of mass destruction before the war on Iraq.


He said America had gone to war because it had seen Iraq's arms programme in a new light after the September 11 terror attacks.


It was a dramatic shift of view from President Bush's hawkish senior adviser.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/content_objectid=13161427_method=full_siteid=50143_headline=-RUMSFELD%2D%2D9%2D11%2DCAUSED%2DWAR-name_page.html

[joeunderdog]

23. Boy did he look uncomfortable last night on CNN

He managaged to "keep it light" with a few humorous lines, but he clearly didn't have much in the way of substantive answers. He was getting grilled on the WMD's, the cost of the war, and the "bad" Intelligence. He got smoked, and CNN showed him squirm for about 5 minutes straight. BTW, he wasn't getting too many laughs for his inappropriate humor--I don't think the families of the victims were getting the jokes.

Also on CNN, Tony Blair and some guy in the HOC had an absolute slugfest when the guy demanded that Blair apologize for misrepresenting the Intelligence. It was the fiercest political exchange I've ever seen. It was brutal. Wish I had the VCR cranked up last night.

The tide is turning...

[fisu]

24. Oh no not porn!

Sorry for posting this in this thread but since this is my 1st post I cannot start a new thread, but I thought I'd share because this is too funny I think ...

North Korea uses ''mafia-like'' business model -U.S.
CANBERRA, July 10 — North Korea has been caught trying to sell pornography in Finland and rhinoceros horn in Africa to replace the revenue it used to receive from the Soviet Union, the U.S. ambassador to Australia said on Thursday.

Tom Schieffer told the National Press Club in Canberra that North Korea was a rogue state, which had also been involved in shipping missiles and could conceivably sell nuclear weapons.
''When the Soviets were no more, the North Koreans had a revenue shortfall. They seem to have decided that a mafia-like business model is the best way to replace that revenue,'' said Schieffer, a close friend of President George W. Bush.
''They have been caught trying to sell pornography in Finland and prohibited animal products, like rhinoceros horn, in Africa, counterfeiting in Kuwait and trafficking heroin in Australia.
He said concerns surrounding North Korea were not just whether it would acquire and use nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, but also its potential to sell them on the black market.
North Korea is in a stand-off with the United States over the communist state's nuclear weapons programme, but the Asian country has dismissed U.S. criticism of its missile exports as interference in its internal affairs.
It has also rejected allegations of drugs trafficking.


http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters07-10-021620.asp?reg=PACRIM

oh, and I really like selling those rhinoceros horns to Africa .. what next ? Sand to sahara .. ;)

[BiggJawn]

26. Uh, why not ADD something to the topic?

instead of trying to hi-jack this thread?

Your post has nothing to do with this topic, and frankly, you should have found a "Yak" thread in the lounge to hi-jack....

You couldn't find 10 threads to respond with something germain to the topic before you could start your OWN thread?

So, since you're here already, what DO you think about Rumsferatu and his kaliedascope "prism of 9-11"?

[fisu]

27. hijacking wasn't my intention

newbie mistakes, sorry.

But on the topic of Rumsfeld and usage of 9-11 as an excuse to attack. I watched Rumsfelds congressional hearings yesterday, and noticed that he nowadays speaks like it's actually a clear link between terrorist organizations and Iraq, and he doesn't even have to show any evidence. But hopefully his statements will open peoples eyes to see how he uses 9-11 to excuse anything. If world accepts 9-11 as a valid reason to attack Iraq, people in any non-nuke country other than US or Israel should be somewhat afraid of the future.

Sometimes I really miss the Soviet Union. Things were much more balanced.