where are the WMDs, P-list War supporters?

[pynchonoid]

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0425-01.htm

Published on Friday, April 25, 2003 by the Times/UK 

Reports of Weapons 'Greatly Exaggerated' 

by Bronwen Maddox

 
WHY have American and British Forces not found any
weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? The most
plausible answer is that there are none, in the true
sense of the word, even though forces are likely
eventually to come across some very unpleasant weapons
created by Saddam Hussein. 

But Tony Blair and President Bush cannot give this
answer, as they asserted unambiguously that these
weapons existed in justifying the war. So members of
Blair’s Cabinet and Bush’s Administration have felt
obliged to offer less plausible accounts of where the
elusive weapons might be. 

The most ambitious so far were put forward yesterday
by Geoff Hoon, the Defense Secretary, in a fabulously
implausible narrative which contradicted earlier
statements by his Prime Minister, his colleagues and
himself. 

It is an understatement to say that the failure to
find such weapons is an embarrassment for the British
and American governments. Hans Blix, the chief United
Nations weapons inspector, was always very careful to
say that he was looking for weapons which were
“unaccounted for”, discrepancies between what Iraq
could have produced and what it had declared. 

Blix never said they definitely existed. But Blair,
Bush and their henchmen stepped repeatedly over that
line, particularly in the frenetic and ultimately
unsuccessful attempts to secure the backing of a
second UN resolution. 

In particular, Blair presented Parliament with a
“dossier” on September 24 last year, headlined Iraq’s
Weapons of Mass Destruction — The Assessment of the
British Government. It said that “Intelligence has
established beyond doubt . . . that Saddam has
continued to produce chemical and biological weapons”.


The most dramatic claim of the dossier, much
publicized, was that Saddam’s “military planning
allows for some of the WMD (weapons of mass
destruction) to be ready within 45 minutes of an order
to use them”. 

You do not have to be a fan of BBC Radio’s Today
program, or its breathlessly shrill style of
interrogation, to concede that there is such a thing
as a bad performance. Hoon delivered one yesterday in
response to a shrewd series of questions, also the
ones which any ordinary, interested person would ask
first. 

Top of that list is why the Saddam regime, facing
annihilation, did not use weapons of mass destruction
if it had them. According to Hoon, this is because the
weapons were “scattered across Iraq (and) were well
hidden” while UN inspectors were in the country. 

But then they weren’t ready to use in 45 minutes,
surely? Hoon appeared unaware of this claim. “I do not
recall ever saying that. I specifically did not put a
time on it,” he said. 

No, he didn’t say it, but his Government did, and the
claim is central to Britain’s justification for
pressing ahead with the war. Hoon himself, just before
the outbreak of war, made a speech that gave warning
of the “very real threat today . . . of Iraq’s weapons
of mass destruction”. 

Hoon then alleges that the sudden onslaught of war
disrupted command structures and prevented the weapons
being reassembled. It didn’t seem that sudden at the
time. Several days passed between the departure of the
UN inspectors and the start of the bombing. There was
also a solid two weeks after the bombing started in
which Iraqi command structures looked anything but
shattered, to the point where Washington was grimly
bracing itself for a long war. 

Why, on Hoon’s “well hidden” account, has nothing of
significance been found, even though American forces
have been in the country for more than a month? There
is a limit to the number of possible hiding places. US
Intelligence had identified about 150 sites worth
investigation, and are already believed to have
visited about half, according to analysts. Not one of
these has yet yielded a “smoking gun”. 

On Hoon’s account, the regime was organized and
skilful enough to dismantle, transport and hide all
these weapons beyond the detective skills of US
forces, and yet so disorganized that it could not
retrieve and deploy even one. [...] 

There is no question that Saddam’s regime produced,
and used, terrible weapons. The odds are that forces
will uncover evidence of them. But this is a long way
from the claims made in the run-up to war, or the
accounts now offered about why the weapons remain so
hard to find. 

What they said about weapons of mass destruction:

“If we know Saddam has weapons of mass destruction —
and we do — does it make any sense for the world to
wait to confront him?” “It (Iraq regime) possesses and
produces chemical and biological weapons. It is
seeking nuclear weapons . . . we know that the regime
has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents,
including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, and VX gas” 
George Bush, October 7, 2002

“We are dealing with a very real threat today, that of
Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction” 
Geoff Hoon, March 10, 2003 

“His (Saddam Hussein’s) regime has large,
unaccounted-for stockpiles of chemical and biological
weapon sand he has an active program to acquire and
develop nuclear weapons” 
Donald Rumsfeld, January 20, 2003 

“Every statement I make today is backed up by sources,
solid sources. These are not assertions. What we’re
giving you are facts and conclusions based on solid
intelligence. 

“In fact, they (Iraqi regime) can produce enough dry
biological agent in a single month to kill thousands
upon thousands of people. “Saddam Hussein has never
accounted for vast amounts of chemical weaponry: 550
artillery shells with mustard, 30,000 empty munitions,
and enough precursors to increase his stockpile to as
much as 500 tons of chemical agents. If we consider
just one category of missing weaponry, 6,500 bombs
from the Iran-Iraq war. . . Our conservative estimate
is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and
500 tonnes of chemical-weapons agent. Even the low end
of 100 tonnes of agent would enable Saddam Hussein to
cause mass casualties across more than 100 square
miles of territory, an area nearly five times the size
of Manhattan” 
Colin Powell, address to the UN Security Council,
February 5, 2003 

“It is right (going to war) because weapons of mass
destruction, chemical, biological and nuclear weapons,
are a real threat to the security of the world and
this country” 
Tony Blair, House of Commons, January 15, 2003 

“What I believe the assessed intelligence has
established beyond doubt is that Saddam has continued
to produce chemical and biological weapons, and that
he has been able to extend the range of his ballistic
missile program 

His (Saddam Hussein’s) military planning allows for
some of the WMD to be ready within 45 minutes of an
order to use them.” 
Tony Blair, Foreword to Iraq “dossier”

Copyright 2003 Times Newspapers Ltd






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