Posted on 03/14/2006 2:59:01 PM PST by Aussie Dasher
US intelligence analysts misunderstood intercepted Iraqi communications, believing the orders were meant to deceive UN weapons inspectors searching for chemical or biological agents, a new report says.
Instead, the conversation between two Iraqi Republican Guard Corps commanders that included the order to remove reference to "nerve agents" from "wireless" communications was intended to ensure the regime was in compliance with international demands to disarm, the Foreign Affairs magazine reported in its online edition this week.
That conversation was intercepted by the United States in 2002.
The article was based on a recently declassified US Joint Forces Command report assessing Iraqi internal developments prior to the war. The report said that US analysts had no way of knowing Saddam Hussein was trying to comply, since Iraq had spent a decade trying to hide evidence of weapons of mass destruction.
According to this report, Saddam was insisting that full access be given to weapons inspectors "in order not to give President Bush any excuses to start a war".
Allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction was Mr Bush's chief reason for launching the March 2003 invasion. In the months leading up to the war, Iraq did give access to UN weapons inspectors.
The comments about "nerve agents" featured prominently in then US secretary of state Colin Powell's February 5 presentation at the UN security council that aimed to win support for a military conflict with Iraq.
After the invasion, the US military searched for unconventional weapons but were unable to find any, adding fuel for war critics who insisted the Bush administration purposely deceived the US public about the reasons for going to war.
Sort of like when I voted democrat, it ran in the family.
Live and learn.
DeVillain was definitely one of the main villains in this saga. This is why I have always believed that France (and Russia) are most responsible for this war. It was their very activities that further emboldened Saddam...and enabled him to pursue a course of reckless belligerence.
To further secure his position...and give Saddam an even greater false sense of security, both DeVillain and Chirac traveled the world undermining the very coalition that was desperately needed to force Saddam into compliance.
It was their own actions that made a diplomatic solution nearly impossible because they gave Saddam the impression they could prevent this conflict. If Saddam had truly believed that dire consequences might follow, this war may have been prevented.
The US media has gone beyond being agitprop for the US Left and into territory that can only be described as agitprop for Al-Qaida.
Someone please explain this to my confused mind... how does one Iraqi telling another Iraqi not to say "nerve agents" over a wireless comm constitute compliance with the demands to disarm?
So, when they find evidence of Iraq possessing WMD in the boxes just released, the liberals are going to tell us that they were all talking about the 'imaginary weapons' that they didn't have and that George Bush was so stupid that he misinterpreted the intelligence reports. Get out the waders, kids, cuz it's getting deep in here.
Doesn't really matter,the "excuse to re-start" the war occurred when Saddam(Iraq) violated the Cease Fire Agreement.
See Saddam was a poor misunderstood little luvable pussy cat awww....... aint he cute ?
They have no choice but to ignore, deny, and repeat their revisionist history louder and more often.
"The US media has gone beyond being agitprop for the US Left and into territory that can only be described as agitprop for Al-Qaida."
Agreed.
Road apple fight!
Oh we had it wrong the whole time
Saddam was actually a good guy who for some reason everyone else in the world including his family thought differently
they weren't trying to coverup their WMD programs they were complying fully with the inspectors
it was just a SNAFU,, they swear
This won't fly far with the public, the Saddam Tapes will help to further expose the MSM for the mess that it is...They might also show his connections with Osama and 911....The MSM doesn't have enough fingers to plug this dike..
From your lips to G-d's ear.
More like a cow pattie Olympic tossing contest.
Why would someone need not talk about pink elephants... I mean come on.. for fear that someone might think they were in the room?
This is a new sort of distortion.. proposing the "Post Hoc" fallacy as causation to explain away a much more reasonable explanation of cause and effect.. such as..
Don't talk about Nerve agents in wireless communications because the NSA might be listening without a Warrant!
Gees!!!!
NOVEMBER 16, 2002 : (IRAQ : THE DAY BEFORE UN INSPECTIONS TEAMS RETURN, AN IRAQI COLONEL AND AN IRAQI REPUBLICAN GUARD BRIGADIER GENERAL DISCUSS HOW TO HIDE TELL-TALE ITEMS - SPECIFICALLY, A MODIFIED VEHICLE FROM THE AL-KINDI COMPANY- FROM UN INSPECTORS; THE US SECRETLY TAPES THE CONVERSATION, AND US SEC OF STATE POWELL WOULD PLAY PORTIONS BEFORE THE UN IN FEBRUARY 2003)
... COLONEL : "We have this modified vehicle. What do we say if one of them sees it?"-- Source: "Remarks to the United Nations Security Council," by Secretary Colin L. Powell, New York City February 5, 2003GENERAL : "You didn't get it modified. You don't have one of those, do you?"
COLONEL : "I have one."
GENERAL : "Which? From where?"
COLONEL : "From the workshop. From the Al-Kindi Company."
GENERAL : "What?"
COLONEL : "From Al-Kindi." [A company known to have been involved in prohibited weapons systems activity.]
GENERAL : "I'll come to see you in the morning. I'm worried you all have something left."
COLONEL : "We evacuated everything. We don't have anything left."
...
True, and well said.
Re#77 Sad, as well. The Fourth Estate has become the Fifth Column. But for the 'net (thanks Al!) and talk radio, we would be getting our clocks cleaned. Instead, we are holding our own, notwithstanding the outright lies followed by polloganda that the presstitutes spew....
---both DeVillain and Chirac traveled the world undermining the very coalition that was desperately needed to force Saddam into compliance. ---
The dynamic dufuses: DeVillain and CHIRAQ.
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