Saddam's WMD Have Been Found

Insight Magazine ^ | 26 April 2004 | Kenneth R. Timmerman

[Peach]

Bump for a fascinating read.

Sending this to some liberals who don't want to let the facts get in the way of their opinions.

[FourtySeven]

Bump, good article. And I never thought about the "Oil for Food"/WMD connection, but you may very well be right.

[Huck]

That's the thing. The Bush Admin is going along with the "we had bad intel about WMD" line. They have shifted to the "democracy and UN legitimacy" rationale. Wouldnt they be out there making this case if they believed it? What gives?

[rwfromkansas]

Wasn't there supposed to be some explosive revelation at a hearing on the oil for food program? I haven't heard anything.

As for the article, yes, Iraq had remnants of WMD programs. Yes, Iraq had many many violations of UN resolutions.

But, the lede of the story makes it sound like lots of WMD have been found and the press is not reporting it. That is just not true.

Very few actual cases of WMD are reported in this article, such as: "Reference strains" of a wide variety of biological-weapons agents were found beneath the sink in the home of a prominent Iraqi BW scientist."

BIG WHOOP! So they had something with which they could restart their program with. It doesn't prove they had produced WMD's and had them right before or during our invasion.

Furthermore, this article has a lot of "may" and "might" speculations about what things were used for. Yes, they probably were used for weapons, but may or might is not the same as WE CAN PROVE THEY WERE.

I firmly believe Iraq did have them, that our intelligence was correct.

But, I sure as heck won't allow someone to sex up our findings beyond what they are.

They do not support the conclusion that Iraq had WMD's at the time of our arrival and it is A LIE to say otherwise.

That is our finding....at least as of yet. This probably will change as time goes on once we found out where the weapons are hidden.

[snooker]

Curious that the map in the article shows Falluja isn't it? You got to wonder why the fighting, might be the reason.

[rudypoot]

"It seems Iraqi soldiers were obsessed with keeping ammo dumps insect-free..."

"Danish forces found 120-millimeter mortar shells filled with a mysterious liquid that initially tested positive for blister agents. But subsequent tests by the United States disputed that finding. "If it wasn't a chemical agent, what was it?" Hanson asks. "More pesticides? Dish-washing detergent?"

It's obvious to me that the Iraqi military was very neat and clean. Not only did they want themselves flea-free, but the wanted to kill only clean enemies. What's the point of doing something if you don't look great doing it, right?

[N. Theknow]

But this stunning news has received little attention from the major media

As usual the right wing controlled media is waiting to spring this information at a time when it will be most damaging to the liberal DemonRATS.

If you believe that, please call 999-555-1212 for the latest prices on ocean front property for sale in Nebraska.

[rwfromkansas]

misleading headline......only "reference strains" found.....nothing significant

[Born Conservative]

I suspect Bush will be doing this shortly before the Democrat Convention.

Or perhaps an October Surprise?

[MizSterious]

Actually, it's the original title on the article--click the link if you don't think so. I thought we were supposed to use the original titles when we post?

[MamaLucci]

.... makes it sound like lots of WMD have been found and the press is not reporting it. That is just not true.

What IS true is that the press and rats moved the goal posts....from WMD, to WMD stockpiles, to LARGE WMD stockpiles. No matter what is found, the leftists in the media and the government will never admit they were wrong.

[Barlowmaker]

It's the original headline from the article. LandoLincoln did not change it in any misleading way.

[Tolik]

Kenneth Timmerman BUMP!

What We Knew…and Didn't Do
Posted by optimistically_conservative
On 04/17/2004 7:14:38 PM EDT with 13 comments
Reader's Digest ^ | April 13, 2004 | Kenneth Timmerman
In 1997-1998, I became aware of clearly observable warnings of hostile terrorist intentions against America, by Osama bin Laden. For over eighteen months -- as part of an investigation for Reader's Digest -- I had been learning from a variety of former U.S. intelligence officers and foreign sources about a vast, world wide network of Islamist radicals, who had emerged from the U.S.-backed war to drive the Soviet Union from Afghanistan. At their head was the shadowy Saudi renegade, Osama bin Laden, whom his followers referred to as the "Prince of Jihad." What made bin Laden unusual was his background....

Kenneth Timmerman: This Man Wants You Dead [1998 article about Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda]
Posted by Tolik
On 04/20/2004 11:17:11 AM EDT with 13 comments
Reader's Digest ^ | July 1998 | Kenneth Timmerman
In July 1998, Reader's Digest published Kenneth Timmerman's report, "This Man Wants You Dead." Three weeks later -- with more than 200 innocent civilians torn to bits by al-Qaeda bombs in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam -- bin Laden's face was plastered in newspapers around the world.  The notice appeared in an Arabic newspaper in London last February. "The ruling to kill Americans and their allies -- civilians and military is a duty for every Muslim. We -- with God's help -- call on every Muslim to kill the Americans." Islamic extremists make outrageous statements every day in the Arabic-language...

[not_apathetic_anymore]

bump for later read

[MizSterious]

" What IS true is that the press and rats moved the goal posts"

And so, apparently, have many Freepers.

[Cap Huff]

The following snippet from the February MTP interview has always intrigued me:

"There is going to be ample time for the American people to assess whether or not I made a — good calls, whether or not I used good judgment, whether or not I made the right decision in removing Saddam Hussein from power, and I look forward to that debate, and I look forward to talking to the American people about why I made the decisions I made."

I think the Oil for Food program, and possibly its relationship to the WMD is the background for this rather bold statement. It sounded then like he knew something that is not generally known (although the Oil for Food scandal was already percollating at the time).

[R. Scott]

Caches of "commercial and agricultural" chemicals don't match the expectation of "stockpiles" of chemical weapons. But, in fact, that is precisely what they are. "At a very minimum," Hanson tells Insight, "they were storing the precursors to restart a chemical-warfare program very quickly."

This can be a difficult to use find. Under my kitchen sink are the precursors to chemical agents. There are a lot of duel use chemicals, and unless they are in a useable munitions form they can easily be written off.

At Karbala, U.S. troops stumbled upon 55-gallon drums of pesticides at what appeared to be a very large "agricultural supply" area, Hanson says. Some of the drums were stored in a "camouflaged bunker complex" that was shown to reporters - with unpleasant results. "More than a dozen soldiers, a Knight-Ridder reporter, a CNN cameraman, and two Iraqi POWs came down with symptoms consistent with exposure to a nerve agent,"

Check the contents of a can of Raid.

Until active military munitions are found, tested positive and given wide access to by the reporters, it will still be reported that “No WMD have been found.

[R. Scott]

I suspect Bush will be doing this shortly before the Democrat Convention.

And - as close to the convention as possible, leaving no time for the spin can be initiated.

[ErnBatavia]

[MizSterious]

See also Blast Destroys Iraq Building, Injures GI (Baghdad area, WMD Search?). Be sure to read the Reuters report a little further down in the thread.