Saddam had, at minimum, 6 months of advanced warnings, thanks to the Democrats in Congress and media, that we were going to attack. OF COURSE, there were no WMD's there.
If you were in his shoes, you would've gotten them out of the country as quickly as possible too. First, to insure they stayed in friendly hands at a minimum. Second, to have the opportunity to retain them if the war turned politically, and you somehow remained in power. Third, to "lose the evidence" to provide a black eye to your attacker.
It would be nice if you could hear ONE ANALYST put two-and-two together, but everyone is too worried about preaching how "Bush lied".
Jay Rockefeller IS to blame, and it was treason.
Rockefeller is a Weapon of Mouthy Destruction.
And Jay Rockefeller said, "Mission Accomplished!!".
Ah, Helloooo. Time to smell the coffee! The Syrian Journalist's site detailing the WMD's relocation has been up for YEARS now.
Syria has known its cover has been blown for those YEARS.
Meanwhile Assad has cozied up and enjoyed his chats lying to Colin Powell.
This story is only news to the MSM.
The real issue is why the Administration refuses to admit what we know of the WMD relocation. Dick Cheney is the only one who has come closest to deviating from the Party Line that the "intel was mistaken."
The simplest conclusion is that they...i.e., GWB/Rice/Rove made two big policy mistakes:
(1) They apparently determined that the War On Terror as a "Global" military campaign was effectively over...and there would be no "Hot Pursuit" into Syria or Iran.
(2) Hence, secondly, (since the WOT was effectively over without actual resolution), they needed to simply manage it politically...and strive for closure of the WOT with the pacification of Iraq.
The underlying assumption behind this hugely mistaken political calculation was that there would be less political blowback to suddenly claim the WMD's never existed, deny the transfer of the WMD's to Syria....and just plain 'forget about it.' Hence, as numerous reports claimed, Kay's ISG forces never got out of the Green Zone.
The Upshot of a CoverUp of the Iraqi WMD's is straightforward: All such reports as this Iraqi General thence need to be doubted publicly, their authors marginalized and discounted in some way. Typical Xlintonian stuff.
The reason it was a mistaken political calculation, as we saw in 2004 dang-near losing a slam-dunk election, is that it gives fuel to the Moonbats...Michael Moore cretins, spreading the shallow lies of Soros and the MoveOn.org crowd...but the far more deadly political effect is on the Base...the conservative movement...which is willing to foregive an intel lapse...
But I don't believe that the Conservative Base would be willing to foregive a conscious cover-up, for purely political convenience, of the facts that the Baathist WMD's had successfully evaded capture...and that the decision had been reached secretly to just let them go...and then cover-up that escape. The Coverup, to us conservatives, becomes the issue which erodes confidence. Evidence of the coverup has existed right along.. to consciously and deliberately fail to seriously look for residual evidence of stockpiles that were sealed up to evade detection still secreted around the country, as are some reports in the South of Iraq are just one example.