The Truth About Iraq

The Bush Administration's pre-war claims that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction were "manipulated, at least" to mislead the American people, former President Jimmy Carter has said."The decision to go to war was the culmination of a long-term plan to attack Iraq", Carter said on NBC's Today show. President Carter is yet another in a long line of people standing up and telling the truth. There were no WMD's in Iraq nor was their a connection between the 9-11 highjackers, Al Qaeda and Iraq. At least not pre-war. George W. Bush and his administration, namely Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell and Rice made their case for war with Iraq to the American people and the world in a series of strongly worded accusations. That Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and were a clear and present danger to the United States. To be fair, at first it was hard to ascertain with reasonable certitude whether such accusations were the truth, lies, biases, or whether Bush and his administration were simply not competent. Now it appears to have been a series of deliberate deceptions as is slowly being revealed much to the chagrin of the Bush administration. In any case the people of the United States and the world were deceived and we went to war under false pretenses, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of American soldiers and Iraqi citizens and emboldening terrorists like never before.

After the indictment of Scooter Libby and the outing of Valerie Plame, the world got a peek at just what this administration would do to attack and destroy people speaking the truth who they considered their enemy. Let’s look at the facts again and not at the the hyperbole as the Bush administration’s justification for war is stripped naked for all to see. The case for war was made based on a number of speeches Bush made including his State-Of-The-Union address and Collin Powell's illadvised presentation to the United Nations. This administration said that Iraq had chemical weapons and that satellite photos of buildings, bunkers, and trucks showed secretive movement to hide missiles and chemical/biological weapons. The US said that trucks at two sites were decontamination vehicles for use with chemical weapons. The facts say otherwise. These sites had been inspected about 500 times by U.N. inspectors and Hans Blix reported that his inspectors found no evidence that contraband had been evacuated. Norwegian U.N. inspector Jorn Siljeholm also told AP that he had followed up on similar intelligence and found that the vehicles were ordinary fire trucks and water trucks, that's all. Since that time of course, there have been no reports of anything being found. This administration also said that Iraq had VX a nerve agent where a single drop on the skin is fatal within minutes. In fact, most of the 4 tons of VX Iraq was supposed to have was destroyed in the 1990's under U.N. supervision. Iraq tried to prove before the war began that the rest had been destroyed by chemically analyzing soil samples at the VX dump site. British experts indicated that pre-1991 VX probably would have degraded to a safe compound by now, and there has been no post-war report that VX has been found. The US also said that by conservative estimates, Iraq had a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agents and a CIA report from October, 2002 made a similar statement without specific evidence. A DIA report from September, 2002 said that there "is no reliable information on whether Iraq is producing and stockpiling chemical weapons." No such weapons were used against US troops and none have been reported to have been found. Powell also said to the UN that Iraq had chemical weapon shells and warheads, namely unused 122-mm shells designed to carry chemical agents. Powell said these might be the "tip of the iceberg". No reports indicate that additional shells or warheads have been found. Those found through U.N. inspections were from the 1980's and were empty, still in crates and never used. The Bush administration in addition made the case that the Iraqis dispersed rocket launchers and warheads holding biological weapons to the western desert, hiding them in palm groves and moving them every one to four weeks. Nothing has been reported found, after months of searching by U.S. troops in the desert. Iraqi presidential science adviser Lt. Gen. Amer al-Saadi suggested the story of palm groves and weekly-to-monthly movement was lifted from an Iraqi general's written account of hiding missiles in the 1991 war. The US said Iraq had stockpiled biological weapons like Anthrax and were getting ready to use them. Iraq declared that it produced 8,500 liters of anthrax before 1991 and U.N. inspectors estimated it could have made up to 25,000 liters. Powell said that none has been "verifiably accounted for". No anthrax has been found. A confidential DIA report from September, 2002, said that the agency believed Iraq had biological weapons but had no information on types, quantities, or readiness for use. 3 weeks before the war began Iraq reported that soil samples confirmed its contention that a particular site had been used to dispose of anthrax stocks, and it supplied a list of witnesses to verify quantities. The war began before these witnesses could be interviewed. The US also reported that defectors reportedly described mobile biological weapons factories using trucks and train cars. Powell displayed an artist's conception of one. After the war two semi-trailers were found which the Bush administration says were such labs. The Iraqis say they were used to manufacture hydrogen for artillery weather balloons. Various U.S. and British intelligence teams disagree with identification of these as mobile labs. One of the most credible reports came from a Defense Intelligence Agency engineering team, which concluded that the trailers were in fact small-scale hydrogen factories. Records in England showed that British Marconi sold the same type of equipment in the trailers to Iraq in 1987 for production of hydrogen. Another accusation, another false one. Powell also showed a video of an Iraqi Mirage F-1 simlating delivery of anthrax by spraying from a belly tank. He said that four tanks were unaccounted for and that Iraq was building small unmanned aircraft (drones) for delivery of chemical and biological weapons. U.N. inspectors reported that the Mirage video predated the 1991 war, the Mirage was destroyed in that war, and 3 of the 4 spray tanks were destroyed in the 1990's. No drones have been found with the capability to deliver chemical weapons. The known Iraqi drones are small, with an 8-meter wingspan. Iraq declared their range as 34 miles, but said that two had been modified to fly 62 miles. U.N. inspectors did not have time to verify their range before the war started. Powell said "classified" documents found at a nuclear scientist's Baghdad home were dramatic confirmation of intelligence saying prohibited items were concealed this way. U.N. nuclear inspectors later said the documents were old and irrelevant, some administrative material and some from a failed and well-known uranium enrichment program of the 1980s. Powell also said that, "We have no indication that Saddam Hussein has ever abandoned his nuclear weapons program." Mohammed El Baradei reported to the United Nations Security Council that the International Atomic Energy Agency had "to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq." Since then no additional evidence has been reported to support a current or recent nuclear program. One centrifuge for uranium enrichment was unearthed, after having been buried in 1991. Former Iraqi nuclear scientist Imad Khadduri reported that Iraq's nuclear program was shut down in 1991. Of course there is the now infamous attempt to acquire uranium from Africa. This item was not part of Powell's presentation to the U.N., its best known presentation was by George Bush in his 2003 State of the Union address. It is included here for convenience in producing a single reference for the most important points of the Bush administration's WMD assertions. "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." This claim was based on forged documents portraying an attempt by Iraq to buy uranium from Niger. The documents were easily identified as a forgery, the IAEI reached this conclusion only hours after it was granted access to the documents. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson went to Niger at the request of Vice President Cheney's office and the CIA in February, 2002, a year earlier to investigate the validity of this source. He reported that U.S. ambassador Barbro Owens-Kirkpatrick felt that she had already refuted these claims in reports to Washington based on her factual knowledge. The US also contended that aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq were for use in centrifuges for uranium enrichment, for nuclear weapons. IAEA inspectors, Energy Department experts, and the State Department's intelligence bureau did not believe this was likely. Substantial modification would be needed to adapt the tubes to centrifuge use, but their specifications precisely match those used in for the Italian Medusa 81 artillery rocket. Identically matched characteristics include alloy, length, diameter, wall thickness, and anodized coating. IAEA inspectors observed a factory in Iraq which was using these tubes to manufacture artillery rockets. Multiple intelligence sources indacted that Iraq was trying to buy magnets for use in uranium-enrichment centrifuges. IAEA inspectors traced about a dozen types of imported magnets to their end users. Neither the inspectors nor post-war investigators have found magnets for use in centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Intelligence sources say Iraq has a secret force of up to a few dozen prohibited Scud-type missiles, a program to build newer missiles with 600-mile range, and had put a roof over a rocket test stand to block view from spy satellites. No Scud-type missiles have been found. In the 1990s U.N. inspectors accounted for all except two Scuds formerly possessed by Iraq. No program to build new, longer-range missiles has been found. The Iraqis reported that the roofed test stand had been converted from vertical firing to horizontal firing and was roofed for the obvious reason, things get very hot in the sun. Iraq was violating a U.N. resolution by rejecting U-2 reconnaissance flights according to Powell's United Nations presentation. Iraq did object to U-2 overflights at the time of Powell's presentation. However, it authorized U-2 overflights 5 days later, on February 10, 2003. U-2 reconnaissance flights began on February 17, about a month before the war started. US says that Iraq was violating a U.N. resolution by rejecting private interviews with scientists by U.N. inspectors. Powell suggested that scientists withheld information on weapons of mass destruction due to fear of Saddam Hussein's regime. When interviews with scientists began news reports typically indicated that the scientists themselves had requested presence of Iraqi "minders". Fear of the regime probably was involved, but by early March 12 scientists had been interviewed privately. Since Saddam Hussein was deposed all known reports indicate that scientists have continued to insist that no WMD programs had been active for a minimum of several years, with most shut down in 1991.One former Iraqi nuclear scientist who defected to Canada in 1998, Imad Khadduri, has always insisted that the nuclear program never recovered from the 1991 war, and was stopped at that time. The facts are in and the end game as to why is just beginning. Stay tuned. (Factual reporting and information for the above was obtained from Charles Hanley, of the Asociated Press and from other sources.)