Deception - America misled into war

[UpInArms]

http://www.wvgazette.com/section/Editorials/200402044/

PRESIDENT Bush is launching an “independent” investigation to learn why last year’s dire warnings about Iraq’s horror weapons — the basis for Bush’s war — turned out to be bogus.

Somehow, this smacks of O.J. Simpson launching his own investigation to find the “real killer” of his ex-wife and her lover.

A year ago, Bush and his aides were telling the world that Iraq possessed “hundreds of tons” of hideous chemicals and germs, and was just “six months away” from making a nuclear bomb. They said Iraq was in bed with terrorists who would inflict those ghastly weapons on Americans. The crisis was so desperate, they said, that America couldn’t let U.N. inspectors continue searching Iraq, but must invade immediately. Today, all those alarms have turned out to be false.

<snip>

A year before the invasion, Bush swaggered to Condoleezza Rice and three U.S. senators in the White House: “F--- Saddam, we’re taking him out.”

...more...

note: I have been monitoring this paper for about 18 months - they have swung from cheerleading to this.

[PBinOregon]

1. Bump This

It is sooooo good to read editorials like this. Our country is oh so slowly waking up. We have to do everything possible to make sure it awakes in time to get * out of the White House in November.

Thanks for posting this, made my day.

[Bozola]

2. Such lies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2655629.stm
"So far I haven't seen any evidence that he has disarmed," said Mr Bush. "I'm sick and tired of games and deception."


http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/text2003/0109blix.htm
The United States knows "for a fact" that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons of mass destruction, and has concerns that Iraq is seeking to acquire and develop nuclear weapons, Fleischer said.




http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/text2003/0205pwlun1.htm
One example Powell presented was photographs of the Taji weapons facility housing chemical munitions — the first photograph indicating four of the facility's 15 bunkers active, with special guards, a decontamination vehicle and special equipment present to monitor any leakage. A second photograph taken in December 2002 as U.N. inspectors were arriving, showed two of the bunkers changed dramatically, sanitized.

He described the inside of mobile biological weapons factories from eyewitness accounts and said that Iraq may have 18 such trucks from which it can produce enough biological agent, such as anthrax or botulinum toxin, in a single month to kill "thousands upon thousands of people."

"Just imagine trying to find 18 trucks among the thousands and thousands of trucks that travel the roads of Iraq every single day," he said. "It took the inspectors four years to find out that Iraq was making biological agents. How long do you think it will take the inspectors to find even one of these 18 trucks without Iraq coming forward."

The secretary detailed the "potentially much more sinister" connection between Iraq and terrorists, especially leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network, "a nexus," he said, "that combines classic terrorist organizations and modern methods of murder."



http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/text2003/0317frist.htm
We have the information that Hussein will use chemical and biological weapons.


http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/text2003/0317bush.htm
Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq's neighbors and against Iraq's people.


http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/text2003/0319whitehouse.htm
On February 5, 2003, the Secretary of State delivered a comprehensive presentation to the UNSC using declassified information, including human intelligence reports, communications intercepts and overhead imagery, which demonstrated Iraq's ongoing efforts to pursue WMD programs and conceal them from UN inspectors. The Secretary of State updated that presentation one month later by detailing intelligence reports on continuing efforts by Iraq to maintain and conceal proscribed materials.
...
The lesson learned after twelve years of Iraqi defiance is that the appearance of progress on process is meaningless - what is necessary is immediate, active, and unconditional cooperation in the complete disarmament of Iraq's prohibited weapons. As a result of its repeated failure to cooperate with efforts aimed at actual disarmament, Iraq has retained weapons of mass destruction that it agreed, as an essential condition of the cease-fire in 1991, not to develop or possess. The Secretary of State's February 5, 2003, presentation cited examples, such as Iraq's biological weapons based on anthrax and botulinum toxin, chemical weapons based on mustard and nerve agents, proscribed missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles to deliver weapons of mass destruction, and mobile biological weapons factories. The Secretary of State also discussed with the Security Council Saddam Hussein's efforts to reconstitute Iraq's nuclear weapons program.

The dangers posed by Iraq's weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles are clear. Saddam Hussein has already used such weapons, repeatedly. He used them against Iranian troops in the 1980s. He used ballistic missiles against civilians during the Gulf War, firing Scud missiles into Israel and Saudi Arabia. He used chemical weapons against the Iraqi people in Northern Iraq. As Congress stated in 1998 in Public Law 105-235, "Iraq's continuing weapons of mass destruction programs threaten vital United States interests and international peace and security." Congress concluded in Public Law 105-338 that "t should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq and to promote the emergence of a democratic government to replace that regime."
...
Members of al Qaida, an organization bearing responsibility for attacks on the United States, its citizens, and interests, including the attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, are known to be in Iraq.

[teryang]

3. Investigation equals fraud continued

OJ Simpson is still looking for Nicole's killer, no doubt!


The despicable chorus of lying is an affront to every citizen. The whole regime should be prosecuted.