White House Says Iraq Weapons Search Over

AP ^ | January 12, 2005 | AP

[ejdrapes]

White House Says Iraq Weapons Search Over

WASHINGTON - The search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq has quietly concluded without any evidence of the banned weapons that President Bush cited as justification for going to war, the White House said Wednesday.

The Iraq Survey Group, made up of some 1,200 military and intelligence specialists and support staff, spent nearly two years searching military installations, factories and laboratories whose equipment and products might be converted quickly to making weapons.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said there no longer is an active search for weapons. "There may be a couple, a few people, that are focused on that" but that it has largely concluded, he said.

"If they have any reports of (weapons of mass destruction) obviously they'll continue to follow up on those reports," McClellan said. "A lot of their mission is focused elsewhere now."

Chief U.S. weapons hunter Charles Duelfer is to deliver his final report on the search next month. "It's not going to fundamentally alter the findings of his earlier report," McClellan said, referring to preliminary findings from last September. Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either. Bush unapologetically defended his decision to invade Iraq.

Bush has appointed a panel to investigate why the intelligence about Iraq's weapons was wrong.

[rightinthemiddle]

They should convene the panel in Syria.

[epluribus_2]

Why won't anyone in the media state the obvious - Saddam picked a bad time to *** BLUFF *** the west. He wanted us desperately to believe that he was a serious threat. It worked, since our guys had to where the moon suits on the way in. Oh, and by the way - the war was completely justified on the basis of breaches in the 91 war ceasefire.

[rohtol]

How many people to Saddam kill ?

[1LongTimeLurker]

Why won't anyone in the media state the obvious - Saddam picked a bad time to *** BLUFF *** the west. He wanted us desperately to believe that he was a serious threat. It worked, since our guys had to where the moon suits on the way in. Oh, and by the way - the war was completely justified on the basis of breaches in the 91 war ceasefire.

Read the jailhouse interviews with Saddam, he wasn't bluffing us, he was bluffing Iran. He thought we really knew that he didn't have anything and that his government had been infiltrated by the U.S. His mistake was in overestimating the capabilities of the CIA. Funny, someone else made that mistake recently. :-)

[nyg4168]

Well, it looks like we screwed up. There weren't any WMD. I'm going to catch hell for saying this, but I think it would be a good idea for Colin Powell to go back to the UN and said, "We were wrong. We'll try to do better next time." (Colin's on his way out anyway, so he can take the fall on the world stage.) I think it's always best to admit your mistakes rather than try to hide them. Trying to hide them just makes you both wrong and dishonest.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Nice play by the US. Declare nothing there and see what Syria does.

The Bush WH will be criticized either way.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Nice play by the US. Declare nothing there and see what Syria does.

The Bush WH will be criticized either way.

[mvpel]

I wish one of these jokers would dare to try to explain to the residents of Halabja that Saddam's nerve gas was just a figment of their imagination.

[kingattax]

bingo......thats probably where they were moved to. anyone that has the notion that the WMDs were never in iraq needs to lay off the wacky weed. saddam had them moved, bet on it.

[Destro]

"Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either."

That translates into no Iraqi WMD existed to go to Syria.

[Destro]

"Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either."

That translates into no Iraqi WMD existed to go to Syria.

[Destro]

"Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either."

The use of nerve and chemical attacks were before Gulf War 1.

[A CA Guy]

They were given all those months to move it to Syria and other places. It's not like they never existed.

[Destro]

"Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either."

That translates into no Iraqi WMD existed to go to Syria. You can no longer say the WMD went to Syria.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

Won't happen. As far as catching hell goes, you are a newbie, (12-29-04) we will give you a pass.

[A CA Guy]

They just so happened to have large pristeen chemical labs in several places in Iraq to just make swimming pool chemicals?
They of course needed to camplage that one like a sand dune a hundred miles in the desert to make sure we didn't bomb their pool chemical factory...

Right, tell that one to Democrats.

[A CA Guy]

pristine** camouflage **

Excuse me.

[A CA Guy]

If I had a gun in my house illegally and I was told that months from now, inspectors would be in my house to look for the gun, would the gun be here when they come to look? Hell no!

Between what was moved and what was buried, there was plenty.

Trusting people to pontificate way after the fact about things they refused to chase down in a timely manner is ridiculous.

LASTLY and most importantly. Saddam and Iraq needed an ass whooping for financing terror in Israel and elsewhere for people to blow themselves up.
WMD was a reason, but financing terror and hundred of mass graves with more to come was more than a legitimate reason to go in.
As usual, we did good.

[Destro]

I have read many reports of found labs and WMD that turned out not to be true. I have seen ZERO evidence of pristine and or camouflaged chemical labs that you seem to be sure existed.

Also, why do you deny the report put out by Bush's appointed team?

This is not the Democrats saying so but a team that directly answers to Bush and the results are accepted by Bush. The results being that: "Duelfer reported then that Saddam Hussein not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either."

Now what?

[Destro]

What did Iraq do to America to deserve an ass whooping? Israel is not America. Israelis are not American citizens. Saudi Arabia financially contributed more to the PLO than did Iraq yet we have no problem protecting the Saudis.

I am not against us having fought the war with Iraq - but we can no longer hold up the fantasy that the WMD existed and that they went to Syria or are still hidden in the sands somewhere. Saying WMD are in Syria is like saying UN balck helicopters fly over Michigan farms at night.

[AxelPaulsenJr]

I guess it's a shame that hanoi john didn't win, then maybe we could have asked him where did he get his information that Hussein had wmds.

[Tilly]

Uhhh ... I thought that Delfour reported last fall that Saddam's weapons programs could be reconstituted very quickly.

Also ... I'm still puzzled as to why our forces found traces of pesticides ... in Iraqi WARHEADS ...

The whole WMD issue is just screwey.

[A CA Guy]

In the area of weapons of mass destruction, we know that:

Saddam Hussein in the far and recent past had an active chemical and biological weapons program.
Saddam had as recently as 1998 significant stockpiles of these weapons, according to both U.S. intelligence and U.N. weapons inspectors, who had seen and catalogued this stockpile.
The Baathist regime used these chemical and biological weapons on at least half a dozen instances.
Saddam provided no significant evidence to inspectors in 2002-2003 that he had destroyed any of this stockpile.
In 1998, the Clinton administration launched an intensive, though short, preemptive air war against Iraq because it was convinced that Saddam’s WMD program was unchecked.
The Iraqi dictatorship was reasonably close to obtaining nuclear weapons on two occasions in the past, and was prevented from doing so only by military force. In 1981, an Israeli air strike crippled the Osirik nuclear reactor which had been producing nuclear material for bomb use. In 1991, Operation Desert Storm again crippled Iraq’s nuclear program, which experts later estimated had been within one year of developing a bomb.
The Iraqi dictatorship retained the scientific know-how and the services of many of the scientists who had been active in its previous nuclear efforts. It also coordinated the concealment of equipment necessary for a nuclear program. Recently, an Iraqi nuclear scientist led allied forces to a key piece of equipment that he had been instructed to bury under a rose bush at his home.
Likewise, in late April, an Iraqi scientist involved in the biological and chemical weapons program led Americans to a site in the desert where chemical components for chemical weapons had been buried by the regime immediately prior to the onset of war.
In both the nuclear and chemical/biological arenas, Iraq possessed many “dual use” facilities that had been used for weapons programs and could have been again with little difficulty. For example, early in the war U.S. forces stumbled across a giant buried complex which seemed well-suited for chemical weapons production. As it turned out, the facility had been a chemical weapons plant until 1998, when it had been converted to civilian production. A vast underground facility was also discovered beneath Iraq’s main civilian atomic research center, filled with sealed barrels of uranium. Upon investigation, the site was known to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which had sealed the uranium. In neither case was there any significant barrier to the reconversion of those facilities for WMD purposes on short notice.
As was widely reported, two mobile laboratories have been captured, and many (though not all) weapons analysts consider it either probable or possible that they were used for biological weapons development.
Along the route to Baghdad, large numbers of Iraqi troops were killed or captured in possession of gas masks. Military headquarters and bases were consistently found stocked with chemical warfare suits and large stockpiles of nerve gas antidote.

---

When it comes to terrorism, what we know is this:

Saddam actively sponsored the terrorist group Hamas, boasting that he had sent $35 million to provide for the families of Hamas suicide bombers.
Notorious terrorist figures Abu Nidal and Abu Abbas (of Achille Lauro fame) had taken up residence in Baghdad under Saddam’s protection (at least until Abu Nidal committed "suicide" last year by multiple gunshots to the head).
A Palestine Liberation Front training camp was maintained outside of Baghdad, complete with airplane chassis for hijacker training.
In northern Iraq, U.S. and Kurdish forces overran a base and training camp for Ansar-al-Islam, an Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist organization with hundreds of members. The Ansar-al-Islam camp included a crude poison lab, with evidence pointing to the possibility that the group had made the deadly toxin ricin for use in attacks.
Another major terrorist facility in the desert of central Iraq was recently uncovered and destroyed by U.S. forces.
Iraqi intelligence documents published by the London Daily Telegraph indicated that Iraqi officials had traveled to Sudan in 1998 to meet with Osama bin Laden, seeking a “strategic alliance” against America. For his part, bin Laden released a tape shortly before hostilities began urging jihadists to flock to the defense of Iraq.
The deputy of a key Al-Qaeda associate who had been reported in Baghdad receiving medical treatment after fleeing Afghanistan was captured there shortly after the fall of the Iraqi capital.
Whatever ties Iraq did or did not have with Al-Qaeda, it is clear that Saddam supported the 9-11 terrorist attacks. Upon their arrival in Iraq, coalition forces found items like official murals celebrating the 9-11 attack and 9-11 commemorative cigarette lighters complete with etchings of bin Laden and the World Trade Centers carried by Baath Party functionaries.
Saddam had no compunction about using terrorism against the United States directly. In 1993, Iraqi agents were apprehended in Kuwait before they were able to carry out a plan to assassinate former president George H.W. Bush on his visit to the Emirate. Considerable evidence also links Saddam and Iraqi intelligence to the first attack on the World Trade Centers in 1993.

http://www.mafhoum.com/press5/154P5.htm

[Greenback_dollar]

DUELFER REPORT SUMMARY

Saddam wanted to recreate Iraq’s WMD capability—which was essentially destroyed in 1991—after sanctions were removed and Iraq’s economy stabilized, but probably with a different mix of capabilities to that which previously existed.

Iran was the pre-eminent motivator of this policy. All senior level Iraqi officials considered Iran to be Iraq’s principal enemy in the region. The wish to balance Israel and acquire status and influence in the Arab world
were also considerations, but secondary.

ISG uncovered Iraqi plans or designs for three long-range ballistic missiles with ranges from 400 to 1,000 km and for a 1,000-km-range cruise missile, although none of these systems progressed to production and only one reportedly passed the design phase.

Iraq Survey Group (ISG) discovered further evidence of the maturity and significance of the pre-1991 Iraqi Nuclear Program but found that Iraq’s ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively decayed after that date.

While a small number of old, abandoned chemical munitions have been discovered, ISG judges that iraq unilaterally destroyed its undeclared chemical weapons stockpile in 1991.

In practical terms, with the destruction of the Al Hakam facility, Iraq abandoned its ambition to obtain advanced BW weapons quickly. ISG found no direct evidence that Iraq, after 1996, had plans for a new BW program or was conducting BW-specific work for military purposes. Indeed, from the mid-1990s, despite evidence of continuing interest in nuclear and chemical weapons, there appears to be a complete absence of discussion or even interest in BW at the Presidential level.

[lugsoul]

Aw, c'mon. Nobody likes to have bugs in their warheads...

[Destro]

In the area of weapons of mass destruction, we know that: Saddam Hussein in the far and recent past had an active chemical and biological weapons program. Saddam had as recently as 1998 significant stockpiles of these weapons, according to both U.S. intelligence and U.N. weapons inspectors, who had seen and catalogued this stockpile.

PER POST #26 - That and other facts you posted are now shown to be false.

[Condor51]

What did Iraq do to America to deserve an ass whooping?

Well ... for

1. Saddam violated (as in broke) the Gulf War cease fire agreement like the next day. (there never was a "treaty")

   And....

2. Saddam fired missiles at our and the UK's jets in the No-Fly Zone on a daily basis (again violating the Cease Fire Agreement).

   And

3. Then there was the tiny matter of Saddam breaking, what was it again... oh yeah, SEVENTEEN U.N. Resolutions ordering him to disarm and to PROVE it or face the consequences.

Other than that he didn't do anything' to "us".

[SerpentDove]

Strange. I would have sworn they found sarin gas and ricin.

[SteamShovel]

Well, it looks like we screwed up. There weren't any WMD

I'm not convinced. Chemical weapons were found in small quantities. Yellow cake was found all over the place and it was poo pooed since it is not weapons grade (but is a raw material). The Niger allegation was found to be true (Wilson false). Centrifuge parts found buried. Alleged bioweapons vans said to be for making hydrogen (yea right). This man was a threat, if not immediate, then in the future when the next wimp president would loosen the noose more than Clinton did. Bush did the right thing. They are disarmed and disassembled as a military machine.

I do believe that some weapons stuff was sent to other countries. That needs to be tracked down.

[A CA Guy]

Saddam had as recently as 1998 significant stockpiles of these weapons, according to both U.S. intelligence and U.N. weapons inspectors, who had seen and cataloged this stockpile.

PER POST #26 - That and other facts you posted are now shown to be false. Destro

UN inspectors had seen and cataloged them.

How is it possible that they saw and cataloged stockpiles and then filed a false report? I missed that.
How was that possibly false?

[A CA Guy]

They had a year by stalling with France, Germany and Russia to hide and move them wherever.

Could have buried them deep in the sand, or moved them to Syria, Jordan and so forth.

We are not exactly accessing the Pakistan/Iraq border and there could be lord-knows what there as well.

[zencycler]

Well, it looks like we screwed up. There weren't any WMD.

Say you're a police officer chasing a suspect. The suspect turns and points what looks like a real gun at you. Of course, you shoot him. Upon close inspection it turns out that the suspect only wanted you to believe that he had a real gun, when in fact it was an immitation toy gun.

Now tell me... who screwed up? You, or the suspect?

No one can deny that Saddam wanted the world to believe that he had WMDs. What choice did we then have? We didn't screw up....Saddam did. He gambled that if the West thought he had WMDs they would leave him alone, and the Arabs would see him as a successful, defiant leader to the West. He thought wrong.

[Destro]

Well we imposed said rules on Iraq - before Gulf War 1 Saddam was polite enough to ask our permission to invade Kuwait - unfortunately there was a miscommunication over America's position should such an invasion take place.

[A CA Guy]

Is there some link to where an American government official said it was OK to invade Kuwait to Saddam?

What was your source for that?

[PFC]

By now this comes as no surprise. And like it or not, it is gonna hurt U.S. credibility. That may or may not be fair but that's reality. The only way that can be overcome is for Iraq to be made stable and free. We have a lot on the line in making Iraq work.

[Destro]

How is it possible that they saw and cataloged stockpiles and then filed a false report? I missed that. How was that possibly false?

Dude, this is not me talking - I mean there is some kind of disconnect happening - the official - Bush Admin appointed - team of experts says that NO SUCH WEAPONS or WEAPON PROGRAMS EXIST OR EXISTED since 1991.

That is the official written in ink and published conclusion endorsed by the Bush admin.

[Destro]

You twisted my words - before Gulf War 1 Saddam was polite enough to ask our permission to invade Kuwait - unfortunately there was a miscommunication over America's position should such an invasion take place.

That is not in any way saying as you mischaracterized my words that an American government official said it was OK to invade Kuwait to Saddam.

[Destro]

Agreed - the only way the war can now be justified is if Iraq is made a free and stable nation - a democratic example to the region.

[A CA Guy]

What link is there to any news organization that ever verified this story that Saddam had "communicated with America over Kuwait about INVADING" and there was this "miscommunication"? Did anybody ever source that beyond a rumor? If so, do you know where?

That seems to have never been anything but a rumored excuse of Saddam, who was busy filling those mass graves and funding terror in Israel and elsewhere up to $25,000 a homicide bombing.

[Dave Elias]

"Homicide Bomber"?

What a ridiculous term.

[A CA Guy]

Homicide Bomber:

a person who is using their body with a bomb as a weapon of mass destruction in order to blow up innocent citizens for their cult.

HOMICIDE BOMBER.

NO DEBATE.

[Destro]

That seems to have never been anything but a rumored excuse of Saddam, who was busy filling those mass graves

America had no problem under Reagan and Bush with Saddam filling said mass graves.

[vezke]

Can anyone tell me why Saddam didnt resort to the use of WMD? If he actually had them.

What's the point of having WMD if you wont use them? Especially when faced with a force that intended to occupy and did so. This is the ultimate scenario for any country with WMD.

This is why we have them. Does anybody feel that we would ship them all off to our allies before the Russians completely conquered our country?

[A CA Guy]

Sure, with sanctions, he figured to bide his time, then to start up again or bring them out.

The UN inspectors had many things listed that were not found since we went in.

With France, Germany and Russia being bribed by Iraq and sabotaging further sanctions, Saddam thought we would never go in.
The UN held this deal up 11 years and especially the last 11 months when we wanted to go in with the financing of homicide bombers in Israel and other terror.

We found out France was into the oil fields for big money.
Russia and Germany were doing illegal business as well.

Those there are another three terrorist enabling countries right there. They want to say we are wrong for going in, but they were backstabbing the world meanwhile for money and oil.

So for eleven years and especially the last 11 months, Saddam was free to hide or move anything.
Look to Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and other terrorists for his WMDs.

Plus a whole bunch will probably be dug up in the sand 30 years from now.

[A CA Guy]

Seems these are more freshly killed than that. At least the last million or so.

I wasn't for his rape and torture rooms or his jailing of children either.

It is not uncommon for America or other countries to make allies with people because of common enemies.
I remember we sided with Iraq because we had the other cult society Iran and at the time, it seems a better strategy to save tens of thousands of American lives by letting Iraq fight Iran in their war rather than us.

On rare occasions after an alliance, a few dictators went postal. Saddam, Castro and Bin Laden are but a few examples of such, but compared to the few bad people who turned later, we had far more life long allies.

Were you able to find any links to the Kuwait invasion rumor?

[BillF]

There were 53 WMDs found in Iraq and referred to in the Duelfer (Iraq Survey Group) Report issued last September.

Below is a map of Iraqi locations where WMDs were found. This is a map from the Duelfer Report as published on the CIA web site.

I understand that the Dems and their willing accomplices of the liberal media want to ignore these findings.

It is beyond me why President Bush and the administration have let themselves be put on the defensive over false assertions that no WMDs were found in Iraq.

President Bush, with his administration backing this line, should say, pointing to the below map:

The WMDs found in Iraq at the locations on this map were direct threats to America and all civilized countries. These weapons, kept in Iraq as Saddam continued to violate its ceasefire with us and 17 UN resolutions, required strong action by us.

The brave American and coalition forces took that strong action, liberating Iraq from a ruthless, mass-murdering dictator who had kept that country in bondage for decades.

Although it's true that the chemical WMDs found in Iraq were apparently made prior to 1991 and there were not as many WMDs as we, our allies, and our intelligence agencies believed, these weapons could easily have been used to murder innocent Americans in a terrorist attack.

Five (5) Americans were murdered, 13 others were infected, and major disruptions of our Congress and Postal Service resulted from a relatively small amount of anthrax mailed by an as-yet-unknown person or persons.

I don't think that the American people wanted Saddam to get away with flouting the ceasefire and the UN resolutions, keeping his WMDs, and continuing to pose a threat. We've found more WMDs in Iraq than were involved in the anthrax attacks. I wasn't about to trust that Saddam would not use the WMDs and would not transfer the WMDs to his terrorist allies.

Below is Figure 5, on page 30 of volume 3 (click here to go directly to map on CIA web site). You can click here to go to the index of the report.

[A CA Guy]

The President has spoken up about these things before.
It isn't THAT important because existing WMDs were only a part of why we went in. It wasn't the only manor reasons.

The defied sanctions and in the last year shot nearly 300 times at planes patrolling the no-fly zone.

Saddam had a history of allowing terrorists in.
He had camps there for them to be trained before and was financing homicide bombers in Israel and elsewhere up to $25,000 an attack.

He was using oil money to finance terror.

Scientists who escaped claimed he had is weapons scientist and technology on standby to start right up if sanctions were lifted.

He was pursuing a nuke before, and scientist came forward with parts and records showing he had interests to start on that again right away also if sanctions were lifted.

We also found over 230 mass graves.
Tens of thousands of tapes of executions.
Rape and torture rooms were all over.

We can go on and on and on.

[1LongTimeLurker]

It is beyond me why President Bush and the administration have let themselves be put on the defensive over false assertions that no WMDs were found in Iraq.

Because a few scattered rounds don't make up a "stockpile".