Inspectors conclude no WMD in Iraq

[MetalMilitia]

The Iraq Survey Group will report that Saddam Hussein had no banned weapons before the US-led invasion.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3718150.stm

Imagine my shock!

No WMD's, no ties to September 11th... we have in custody one old dictator - at the current exchange rate, it costs $120 billion to remove a dictator, and to throw a country into more chaos then it was when we got there.

Instead, we could have paid for 18,364,219 children to attend a year of Head Start.

Instead, we could have insured 83,023,888 children for one year.

Instead, we could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 5years.

Instead, we could have built 1,248,412 additional housing units .

Instead, we could have fully funded world-wide AIDS programs for 13 years.

"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."

President Dwight D. Eisenhower
April 16, 1953

So where do your priorities lie?

-MM- :crs:

[dutchie]

At the current exchange rate, it costs $120 billion to remove a dictator, and to throw a country into more chaos then it was when we got there.

Instead, we could have paid for 18,364,219 children to attend a year of Head Start.
Instead, we could have insured 83,023,888 children for one year.
Instead, we could have fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 5years.
Instead, we could have built 1,248,412 additional housing units .
Instead, we could have fully funded world-wide AIDS programs for 13 years.

...but we didn't, didn't we?? I know you chucked in the numbers for effect, but that does not take away the sadness...

Instead, we could have kept 1,000 American and British soldiers alive.
Instead, we could have kept 1,000 hearts from mothers unbroken.

[MacRasta]

And instead, you wouldn't have to blame Belgium for not following the "hype" ... dirty wankers :bird: ...

Mac:headbang:

[MetalMilitia]

"The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over 25,000 liters of anthrax; enough doses to kill several million people. "

"The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin; enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure."

"Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent. In such quantities, these chemical agents could also kill untold thousands."

"U.S. intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence. Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions."

"From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs. These are designed to produce germ warfare agents and can be moved from place to a place to evade inspectors."

"The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb.

The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

"Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production."

------------------------------------------------------

Iraq had no stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons before last year's U.S.-led invasion and its nuclear program had decayed since the 1991 Gulf War, the chief U.S. weapons inspector said on Wednesday.

Iraq's nuclear weapons program had deteriorated since the 1991 Gulf War, but Saddam did not abandon his nuclear ambitions, he said.

"The analysis shows that despite Saddam's expressed desire to retain the knowledge of his nuclear team, and his attempts to retain some key parts of the program, during the course of the following 12 years (after 1991) Iraq's ability to produce a weapon decayed," Duelfer said.

Bush, who has given varying justifications for the war, said in a speech in Pennsylvania on Wednesday that the concern was that terrorists would get banned weapons from Saddam.

"There was a risk, a real risk, that Saddam Hussein would pass weapons or materials or information to terrorist networks," Bush said.

http://news.myway.com/top/article/id/318194|top|10-06-2004::14:48|reuters.html

Lemme get this straight - Look back and let it sink in how much disinformation there was floating around. How did internet bloggers and various websites, that run on pocket change, know what the top US officials DIDNT?

Pass Weapons or materials or information? Ok - Lower the standard.

Maybe Saddam didn't have WMDs. Maybe He wasn't trying to build them. Maybe He wasn't trying to acquire them. Maybe He wasn't defying the United Nations. Maybe He wasn't aligned with Al Qaeda. Maybe He wasn't connected to 9-11.

BUT - HE WAS PLOTTING SOMETHING! - HE HATED AMERICA. Ok... so by that rationale, we should be liberating dozens of countries around the world...

Bush is trying to justify the war by claiming that Iraq WANTED weapons, but name one nation on Earth that doesn't want WMDs. I mean shit, look what the US does to countries without them.

"By the end of 1991 they had gotten rid of just about everything including missiles," the official said. "We found nothing which reflected production after 1991," he said.

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[AngelTV]

My fault. I didn't think it went through the first time.

[AngelTV]

Matt,
I agree with you that war is not a nice subject and yes the money could be better spent and yes Dutchie lives could be spared. I just think there is a bigger picture to this than just oil and fabricated lies.The Fact is that Saddam is not a nice guy. He is a sociopathic, psychologically insane meglomaniac who would have loved to have been the next Saladin and destroy the West. He stated this trying to get support in 91. He would have gone to war with Isreal (who do have nuclear weapons and would have used them before subjecting their people to another Holacaust.) He did have wmd's. We know this cause he used them against the Kurds. We know he wanted to get Nuclear capability. Stop trying to make out this guy got a raw deal in world politics. Oh poor Saddam was unfairly taken out when he was just about to win the Nobel Peace Prize. Stop trying to put Saddam in the same catagory as the lesser known idiots who run third world countries. The guy was a definite threat to world stability. Not one country came to his aide and sent troops to defend his rulership. That's because not one country in this world thought he was worth defending. Why then do you? Do you know something the world leaders don't know? Saddam the softy. Hey I don't mind you having grievences with the Bush Admin. I have a few of my own. Just stop using Saddam as some sort of example of unfair Diplomacy. It doesn't cut with me.
Just a quick comment on recent events in the news of the world. Lately everyone is repeating that the war into Iraq was based on misinformation. That now intelligence is saying we got it wrong. I find the whole media retreat on such an important issue more than convenient. I believe that there is a cover up being perpetrated and that we are once again being duped. Look I know that Oil played an important part in this war and that Suddam’s regime change was also a convenient carrot to dangle in front of the Elephant and Mule. I just think there is a bigger picture. Recent events in North Korea, China, Russia, Iran leads me to believe that Globalization is actually using the process of civil unrest to divide future possible threatening regions into smaller, manageable States. Ironic that a process of hybrid cultural alignment needs nationalism and cultural identity to help motivate humanity to violence against neighboring ethnic groups. This is terrorism. Creating a label for this process just gives dissidents a vehicle for which to cling to and vent their vengeful hate. You see if you disagree with Globalization, U.S.A and it’s policies, Economic Reform, Multi Nationalism, Environmental Destruction or whatever conspiracy driven group is responsible for your unhappiness and fear then you seek to join the opposition, which in this case is terrorism. Whether it be home grown militia blowing up federal buildings, overseas zealots planning attacks on superpowers through cowardly deaths of innocent people, Military black ops causing international power change or just public protests and demonstrations that lead to violence and rioting. You feed the flames and the fire grows. I think it is a mistake to align these world affairs to any particular wrongdoing, as it will enlist those opposed to fight against you. Psychologically, you are creating and defining your enemy and those who should fight against you.
China is heating up with military based power (Jiang) against reformist like President Hu. Iran trying to dictate Iraq’s possible Islamic future. Russian intervention in Chechnya and North Korean negotiations being tested with nuclear trump cards of WMD. I think there is a good chance that we will see a major world conflict within our lifetime. I also believe that terrorist already have WMD’s and that is the cover up that I read between the lines in today’s events. Maybe they are allowed to. Maybe it is part of the plan. I find it hard to believe that there have been no reports of the “insignificant” finds of WMD’s in Iraq as even these are hugely devastating. Leaders are not using the news of missing equipment and disappearing tech from Iraq to support their actions. It is not making sense. Something is up. I am afraid we will find out the hard way.
Read this
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=2&u=/nm/20041011/wl_nm/iraq_un_nuclear_dc


http://www.cfr.org/publication.php?id=5997

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/FI08Ad03.html

http://www.state.gov/g/rls/rm/2003/20250.htm

[mickydoolittle]

So important, he had to post it twice and edit only one of them.

:jamn:

[AngelTV]

Thanks Micky. Have corrected.

[DarkAce]

Great post AngelTV. and to add a little more food for thought:


Iraqi official denies nuclear material vanishing

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/041012/041012_iraq_nuclear_hmed_9a.hmedium.jpg
A U.N. nuclear expert carries empty barrels at the Tuwaitha storage site near Baghdad in a June 9, 2003, file photo.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - U.N. nuclear inspectors are welcome to return to Iraq to check for any missing equipment and materials, an Iraqi government minister said on Tuesday.

Iraq’s Science and Technology Minister Rashad Omar made the offer in response to concerns raised by the International Atomic Energy Agency that equipment and materials that could be used to make nuclear weapons are disappearing from facilities in Iraq,

The IAEA reported on Monday that neither Baghdad nor Washington appeared to have noticed the disappearance of nuclear equipment and materials once closely monitored by the agency.

“The locations that belong to the Science and Technology ministry are secure and under our control,” Omar told Reuters.

He said nothing had disappeared since a looting spree shortly after last year’s U.S.-led invasion, which the United States and Britain said was to rid Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. Both countries now admit Saddam had no banned weapons.

Omar said Tuwaitha, a vast compound south of Baghdad that included Iraq’s main nuclear facility, was being turned into a science park. “The IAEA came back one month ago, they inspected the plant and others and didn’t say anything.

“We are transparent. We are happy for the IAEA or any other organization to come and inspect,” he said, adding that he had not seen the agency’s report to the Security Council.

Click for related story
Inspector: Iraq had no WMD before invasion




In its report on Monday, the IAEA said that satellite imagery shows that entire buildings in Iraq have been dismantled. They once housed high-precision equipment that could help a government or a terrorist group make nuclear bombs, the agency said in a report to the U.N. Security Council.

Equipment and materials helpful in making bombs have also been removed from open storage areas in Iraq and have disappeared without a trace, according to the satellite pictures, said Mohamed ElBaradei, director-general of the IAEA.

Potential bomb-making materials said missing
While some military goods that disappeared from Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in March 2003, including missile engines, later turned up in scrap yards in the Middle East and Europe, none of the equipment or material known to the IAEA as potentially useful in making nuclear bombs has turned up yet, ElBaradei said.

The equipment — including high-precision milling and turning machines and electron-beam welders — and materials like high-strength aluminum were tagged by the IAEA years ago, as part of the watchdog agency’s shutdown of Iraq’s nuclear program. U.N. inspectors then monitored the sites until their evacuation from Iraq just before the war.

The United States barred the inspectors’ return after the war, preventing the IAEA from keeping tabs on the equipment and materials up to the present day.

Under anti-proliferation agreements, the U.S. occupation authorities who administered Iraq until June, and then the Iraqi interim government that took power at the end of June, would have to inform the IAEA if they moved or exported any of that material or equipment.

But no such reports have been received since the invasion, officials of the watchdog agency said.

The United States also has not publicly commented on earlier U.N. inspectors’ reports disclosing the dismantling of a range of key weapons-making sites, raising the question of whether it was unable to monitor the sites.

‘We simply don’t know’
In the absence of any U.S. or Iraqi accounting, council diplomats said, the satellite images could mean that the gear had been moved to new sites inside Iraq or had been stolen. If stolen, it could end up in the hands of a government or a terrorist group seeking nuclear weapons.

CLICK FOR RELATED COVERAGE
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U.S. officials had no immediate comment.

President Bush, locked in a tough re-election battle with Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, justified the war, in part, by saying Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb that he might use against the United States or give to terrorists.

The men agreed during their debate Sept. 30 that nuclear proliferation was the most serious threat facing the United States.

A new CIA report last week by the chief U.S. weapons investigator, Charles Duelfer, made it clear, however, that Saddam had all but given up on his nuclear program after the first Gulf War in 1991.

ElBaradei, whose agency dismantled Iraq’s nuclear arms program more than a decade ago, drew similar conclusions to those of the Duelfer report well before the March 2003 invasion.

Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.


Link:http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6228800/

What were they dismantling, chocolate factories?

[Emerald_Dragon]

>In its report on Monday, the IAEA said that satellite imagery shows that entire
>buildings in Iraq have been dismantled.

*LOL*, so, with over what, 2000 U.S. weapons inspectors on the ground looking for Iraqi WMDs and tools to make them, a whole buildings worth of nuclear bomb making equipment disappears? from under the U.N.'s satellites? while the U.S. occupation forces are running around using 1 of many hundred maps Powell supplied them of where these WMD sites were?

Did the U.S. inspectors bother to use the U.N. lists? This cracks me up!! My guess would be, our inspectors took those buildings apart looking for hidden WMDs and to make sure no one else could use them.

[MetalMilitia]

...Thereby setting the stage for a claim that the missing equipment went to Iran of course! Let's Bomb 'em!...

"The imagery shows in many instances the dismantlement of entire buildings that housed high precision equipment ... formerly monitored and tagged with IAEA seals, as well as the removal of equipment and materials (such as high-strength aluminum) from open storage areas,"

We didn't exatctly do our best to secure the sites and materials - but we sure are doing a great job keeping the oil flowing.

The simple fact is - The American government prevented U.N. weapons inspectors from returning to Iraq ... blocking the IAEA from monitoring the high-tech equipment and materials...We had inspectors there, tagging the stuff, monitoring it. We kicked them out before we invaded. We go back to the site, and now the stuff is gone...

Good job guys.

[AngelTV]

Exactly MM. Perfect. I would go one step further and say that they have made there way over to Iran and this will turn up as evidence after the next Terrorist attack. I agree good work guys.

[bbbv3.5]

Bush got reports from the CIA that Iraq was a huge terrorist threat. NOw lets say he doesnt care for it and lets it pass then two years later we find out the Iraq was invlovled with a terrorist attack and we let them go.....

So what do you want him to do in that situation??? It was a huge risk and Bush had to get rid of it and he did....

[Emerald_Dragon]

http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=BCUDFRDA4HUOKCRBAE0CF FA?type=worldNews&storyID=6503468


"
The removal of Iraq's mothballed nuclear facilities took around one year and was carried out by experts with heavy machinery and demolition equipment, diplomats close to the U.N. said on Thursday.
"


yep, we didn't notice it at all. and don't know where it went. not like we had satellites following trucks leaving Iraq headed to Syria and Lebanon....from a WMD manufacturing site, no less.


bbb, keep reading, you'll find that SH did not have WMDs and was effectively sanctioned by the UN, unable to aquire any according to Powell. and further, had nothing to do with 911.

so tell me, was Rice lying when she said the smoking gun would be a mushroom cloud over a U.S. city, in regards to SH supplying WMDs to terrorists?