So, now Scott McClellan is daring us to look at how the intelligence was used in the build-up to the war and conclude that the claims in the
Downing Street Memo, that intelligence was being fixed around the policy, are false.
From the May 23rd White House Press Breifing:
Q Scott, last week you said that claims in the leaked Downing Street memo that intelligence was being fixed to support the Iraq War as early as July 2002 are flat-out wrong. According to the memo which was dated July 23, 2002, and whose authenticity has not been disputed by the British Government, both Foreign Minister Jack Straw and British Intelligence Chief Sir Richard Dearlove said that the President had already made up his mind to invade Iraq. Dearlove added that intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. Do you think these two very senior officials of our closest ally were flat-out wrong? And if so, how could they have been so misinformed after their conversations with George Tenet and Condoleezza Rice?
Continued... Click "There's more"
MR. McCLELLAN: Let me correct you on the -- let me correct you on the characterization of the quote you attributed to me. I'm referring to some of the allegations that were made referring to a report. In terms of the intelligence, the -- if anyone wants to know how the intelligence was used by the administration, all they have to do is go back and look at all the public comments over the course of the lead-up to the war in Iraq, and that's all very public information. Everybody who was there could see how we used that intelligence.
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Okay, let's just look at how they used their "intelligence" in the build-up to the war in Iraq:
Gee, remember all this talk about weapons of mass destruction, Iraq's nuclear capabilities, Saddam Hussein's ties to the terrorists who attacked us, and the threat he posed?
"[Saddam] is actively pursuing nuclear weapons at this time."- VP Cheney, 3/24/02
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt that he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." -Vice President Cheney, 8/26/02
"We do know that [Saddam] is actively pursuing a nuclear weapon."- National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, 9/10/02
"[Saddam has] amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of biological weapons, including Anthrax, botulism, toxins and possibly smallpox. He's amassed large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons, including VX, Sarin and mustard gas." --Don Rumsfeld, 9/19/02
"You can't distinguish between al-Qaida and Saddam." - President Bush, 9/25/02
"The Iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons...And according to the British government, the Iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as 45 minutes." -President Bush, 9/26/02
"Evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program...Iraq could have a nuclear weapon in less than a year." - President Bush, 10/7/02
"His regime has large, unaccounted-for stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons -- including VX, sarin, cyclosarin and mustard gas; anthrax, botulism, and possibly smallpox -- and he has an active program to acquire and develop nuclear weapons." - Don Rumsfeld, 1/20/03
"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent." -President Bush, 1/28/03
"The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa." - President Bush, 1/28/03
"There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more...Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets." - Colin Powell, 2/5/03
"Iraq has at least seven mobile factories for the production of biological agents - equipment mounted on trucks and rails to evade discovery." -President Bush, 2/8/03
"We believe Saddam has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons." - VP Cheney, 3/16/03
"The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder." - President Bush, 3/19/03
We know where they are [WMDs]. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat. - Don Rumsfeld, 3/30/03
"I'm absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We're just getting it now." - Colin Powell, 5/4/03
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Alright, those are all the claims they used, sighting the "intelligence" they had, to justify attacking Iraq. Now here are the facts:
FACT: No WMD have been found. According to Reuters on 9/15/03 , the Administration's hand picked weapons inspector has come up with no WMD on his visit to Iraq. "A draft report on the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq provides no solid evidence that Iraq had such arms when the United States invaded the country in March." (Note: the chemical weapons Bush was referring to at the time never materialized.)
FACT: Despite the claim that Iraq's supposed WMD posed an imminent threat to the U.S., Secretary of State Colin Powell said on 2/24/01 that Saddam Hussein "has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction."
FACT: "Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991... Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and fill new chemical weapon munitions was reduced - if not entirely destroyed - during Operations Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and UN inspections." - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
FACT: "We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile biological weapons production effort...Technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers." - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
FACT: The UN reported on 9/8/03 that Iraq was not capable of pursuing an active nuclear weapons program after 1991. The report said ""No indication of post-1991 weaponization activities was uncovered in Iraq."
FACT: "We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook significant post-1998 steps to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material." - Bush Administration Weapons Inspector David Kay, 10/2/03
FACT: "Sec. of State Colin Powell conceded Thursday that despite his assertions to the United Nations last year, he had no 'smoking gun' proof of a link between the government of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and terrorists of al-Qaeda.'I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection,' Powell said." [NY Times, 1/9/04]
FACT: "Three former Bush Administration officials who worked on intelligence and national security issues said the prewar evidence tying Al Qaeda was tenuous, exaggerated and often at odds with the conclusions of key intelligence agencies." [National Journal, 8/9/03]
FACT: Declassified documents "undercut Bush administration claims before the war that Hussein had links to Al Qaeda." [LA Times, 7/19/03].
FACT: "The chairman of the monitoring group appointed by the United Nations Security Council to track Al Qaeda told reporters that his team had found no evidence linking Al Qaeda to Saddam Hussein." [NY Times, 6/27/03]
FACT: "U.S. allies have found no links between Iraq and Al Qaeda. 'We have found no evidence of links between Iraq and Al Qaeda,' said Europe's top investigator. 'If there were such links, we would have found them. But we have found no serious connections whatsoever.'" [LA Times, 11/4/02]
And this is what even Bush Administration officials were saying as early as 2001:
FACT: Vice President Cheney said on 9/16/01 that Saddam Hussein was not a threat. He said, "Saddam Hussein is bottled up."
FACT: Powell said on 2/23/012/24/01e threatens not the United States." , "I think we ought to declare [the containment policy] a success. We have kept him contained, kept him in his box." He then said "[Saddam] is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors"
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See American Progress for the complete report on the claims and facts of the build-up to, and war in Iraq.
I don't know about you, but I know what conclusion I'm drawing.