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Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War
The Washington Post ^ | April 12, 2006 | Joby Warrick

Posted on 04/11/2006 10:16:58 PM PDT by MC Miker G

Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary

By Joby Warrick Washington Post Staff Writer Wednesday, April 12, 2006; A01

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.

The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: 200305; 20030527; 20030529; biolabs; iraq; jobywarrick; mobilelaboratories; mobilelabs; wmd; wp
WaPo is at it again...
1 posted on 04/11/2006 10:16:59 PM PDT by MC Miker G
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To: MC Miker G

didn't one of the recently translated documents from the document dump have Saddam talk about these very vehicle being mobile chem labs ?


2 posted on 04/11/2006 10:24:08 PM PDT by stylin19a (I never put my foot in my mouth...I shoot that sucker off long before it gets anywhere near my mouth)
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To: MC Miker G

Wow, the leftist clowns at WaPo must be really worried about what's coming out in the documents dumps if they are dredging out this nonsense now........ we can always tell when the MSM is getting it's collective panties twisted because they come out with a flood of articles which have no possible timeliness except to try to distract attention from what's truly important.


3 posted on 04/11/2006 10:25:51 PM PDT by Enchante (Democrats: "We are ALL broken and worn out, our party & ideas, what else is new?")
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To: MC Miker G

LOL, Saddam's defense team is at it still....


4 posted on 04/11/2006 10:29:14 PM PDT by roses of sharon
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To: Enchante

How many more MSM articles talking about what happened in 2003.

Wasn't Bush on the ballot between then and now.

Enough already.


5 posted on 04/11/2006 10:30:27 PM PDT by santorumlite
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To: santorumlite

Most Americans believe the 911 Commission report. The MSM has done a real good job of monopolising the information stream. No media personality comes out and states things like, Saddam was involved in the 911 attacks, or... Saddam had the largest concentration of biological and chemical and nuclear scientists of any other "islamic" country.
Iran harbors AlQuaeda and is involved in attacks on American troops.
The headlines are not there for our side. Nowhere that most people read.
The brainwashers control most media that people read. They control the colleges and the schools. They control the Department of Education. They control Hollywood. All this misinformation. Liberalism is about as tolerant as islam. This can not be just an accident.


6 posted on 04/12/2006 1:12:35 AM PDT by 2ndClassCitizen
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To: MC Miker G
"That report said the trailers were "impractical for biological agent production," lacking 11 components that would be crucial for making bioweapons. Instead, the trailers were "almost certainly designed and built for the generation of hydrogen," the survey group reported.

The group's report and members of the technical team also dismissed the notion that the trailers could be easily modified to produce weapons."

A little critical reading shows the inconsistencies with the title compared to fact. No where does it state that the trailers was impossible to be used to make Bio weapons just that it lacked 11 components and the word "easily" is very subjective.
7 posted on 04/12/2006 6:59:09 AM PDT by tobyhill (The War on Terrorism is not for the weak.)
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To: MC Miker G

Of course! that's why they were buried in the sand, because they could make Hydrogen.


8 posted on 04/12/2006 9:01:01 AM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: Dilbert56
Of course! that's why they were buried in the sand, because they could make Hydrogen.

Where in the article does it say anything about them being buried in the sand? Do you happen to know of something *does* claim this?

9 posted on 04/12/2006 4:17:36 PM PDT by nosofar
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To: MC Miker G

They're making some pretty serious accusations here. If this is true, it certainly doesn't look good for whoever was ignoring the ultimate technical findings they allege.


10 posted on 04/12/2006 5:03:58 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: FreedomPoster
There was more than one set of findings. It was certainly not ruled out at the time. Even CBS was quoting a report that they were inefficient for hydrogen and, therefore, more likely for WMD production.

This is just another case of someone pulling a minority opinion that contradicted the majority and using it to accuse the President of dealing with the public in bad faith. Just as Saddam's nuclear program status was questioned in one footnote and the media make it sound like that overruled all the other agencies' opinions.

11 posted on 04/12/2006 5:18:06 PM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: Dilbert56

Yeah, I agree with the aspect of "at the time".

The issue seems to be, that even when the full technical results were known, much later, that they were suppressed.

Of course, anyone with any idea at all, of how a large bureaucracy works, knows that there still might not have been anyone at a high level who knew this.


12 posted on 04/12/2006 6:36:07 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: nosofar
My mistake. These labs were still being moved around the country, not buried. I was thinking of these other ones that CNN reported.
13 posted on 04/12/2006 9:27:25 PM PDT by Dilbert56
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To: FreedomPoster
The issue seems to be, that even when the full technical results were known, much later, that they were suppressed.

How were they suppressed? The dispute about their purported uses and conflicting findings was very public and vocal. It was also three years ago. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (don't snicker) ripped into this and everything else CURVEBALL fed us. Only much later did we find out CURVEBALL was being managed by the Germans. We also found out through the SSCI that someone in the CIA noticed a rail line that CURVEBALL described would have had to run through a wall. Unfortunately, if you didn't toe the line at the CIA's WINPAC area, you were shunted off the project.

This in another example of the Intelligence Community telling the President something and him being transparent with us. Then, when it turns out to be wrong, or even if it doesn't, the media and other Dems accuse him of lying. I won't throw anyone to the winds just because the State Dept. assessed something one way while the Pentagon and CIA assessed it another. The State Dept. hasn't been shy about its agenda. Its entrenched bureaucrats think the Administration is supposed to execute their policies instead of vice versa.

14 posted on 04/12/2006 9:36:51 PM PDT by Dilbert56
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