re Where Oh Where Are Those W.M.D.?

Joe Conason
Last week, six months after the commencement of war in Iraq, the Bush administration?s chief weapons inspector reported on his findings. To date, David Kay has found no nuclear-weapons program (and, of course, no actual nuclear arsenal), no chemical weapons, and no evidence that those famous mobile laboratories were ever used to produce biological weapons, as advertised at the United Nations.

David Kay 10/02/03
"We have not yet found stocks of weapons, but we are not yet at the point where we can say definitively either that such weapon stocks do not exist or that they existed before the war and our only task is to find where they have gone. We are actively engaged in searching for such weapons based on information being supplied to us by Iraqis."

"With regard to biological warfare activities, which has been one of our two initial areas of focus, ISG teams are uncovering significant information - including research and development of BW-applicable organisms, the involvement of Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) in possible BW activities, and deliberate concealment activities. All of this suggests Iraq after 1996 further compartmentalized its program and focused on maintaining smaller, covert capabilities that could be activated quickly to surge the production of BW agents."
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html

mmd10
You really must read the whole report and try and figure out where these ding dongs like Conanson draw their conclusions from. Does this Conason character even realize this is a progress report and not a final report? This guy is supposed to be the left wing hero to take on Ann Coulter? What a joke, Ann would wipe the floor with this guy.

NRO
Of course, Saddam knows better than the media — as does David Kay. Far from being a failure, Kay's interim report is an important breakthrough. Kay has validated the reason for going to war: Saddam's regime was not in compliance with its U.N. obligations.

Kay has actually done more than simply justify the war to oust Saddam by demonstrating a past history of Iraqi violations. Kay has shown that Iraq never had any intention of complying with the demands of the U.N. inspectors.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/apostolou200310031526.asp

NRO
New York Times: "No Illicit Arms Found in Iraq, U.S. Inspector Tells Congress"
Washington Post: "Search in Iraq Finds No Banned Weapons"
Los Angeles Times: "Inspectors Find Aims, Not Arms"
Boston Globe: "US report finds no illicit arms"
BBC: "US team finds no Iraq WMD"

mmd10
Look at those headlines, and Conason believes it's a conservative slant in the media. What a joke this guy is, no wonder why he is the libbys hero. He tells the sycophants exactly what they want to hear and the egotistical narcissists eat it up.

Joe Conason
The most terrifying item discovered by Mr. Kay?s 1,200 inspectors so far is a single vial of something that he described as botulinum toxin.

Upon closer examination, however, even that vessel of nastiness isn?t quite so frightening. It reportedly contains botulism bacteria rather than the lethal toxin, and it has been identified as strain B rather than the more virulent strain A. That may be why the Iraqi scientist who turned that vial over to the Kay team had been keeping it in his home refrigerator since 1993. This item appears to be the sum total of Iraq?s imminent threat to Western civilization.

For a deadly serious matter that led to untold thousands of fatalities, the quest to eliminate weapons of mass destruction from Iraq now seems darkly comical. Mr. Kay?s interim report offers only the most paltry rationale for a pre-emptive war.

mmd10
Wrong ding dong! What report did this Conason guy read? First of all he's talking as if this were the final report instead of just a progress report. I wonder if France reassured the libbys that they helped Saddam get rid of the evidence. The way these libs are so positive in their opinions that Saddam had no WMD amazes me.

David Kay 10/02/03
"Let me turn now to chemical weapons (CW). In searching for retained stocks of chemical munitions, ISG has had to contend with the almost unbelievable scale of Iraq's conventional weapons armory, which dwarfs by orders of magnitude the physical size of any conceivable stock of chemical weapons."

"For example, there are approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points (ASP), many of which exceed 50 square miles in size and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordinance. Of these 130 ASPs, approximately 120 still remain unexamined."

mmd10
Hey Conason they've only searched 10 out of 130 Ammunition Storage Points. How the hell are you so sure of yourself when the inspectors over in Iraq doing the searching are not.

"Kay: This is typical. We now have three cases in which scientists have come forward with equipment, technology, diagrams, documents and, in this case, actual weapons material, reference strains and Botulinum toxin, that they were told to hide and that the U.N. didn't find. "

"SNOW: You believe that there are similar strains perhaps throughout Iraq right now?"

"KAY: We're actively searching for at least one more cache of weapons — of strains that we know exists."

"SNOW: This is a cache that had been referred to by a scientist. The first bit of information paid off; you're still looking for the second one?"

Joe Conason
Were all those Iraqi civilians, all those American soldiers, all of our international prestige and credibility sacrificed for the sake of a test tube in somebody?s fridge? George W. Bush likes to be compared with Winston Churchill, but this latest episode of his Presidency resembles Fawlty Towers more than Their Finest Hour?except the horrific carnage that resulted from the President?s zeal is no skit.

mmd10
No Conason, they were sacrificed in our war on terror that Iraq is a key part of. You do not fool me Conason, IMO you just want to exploit these heroes to meet your political needs. Why don't you take a poll of our soldiers in Iraq and ask them this question: "Would you rather have terrorist shooting at you with all your armor, weapons and training? Or would you rather have terrorist blowing up your families back in the U.S.?"

President George W. Bush will be revered and justified by history and once again the democrats will be on the wrong side of history. Horrific carnage Conason? Less innocent civilians were killed in GWII than Saddam gets rid of in a month or two. Since when is it that libbys are not proud of freeing oppressed peoples. I guess it's only when a democrat is in office that would satisfy you libs.

You libs are nothing but hypocrites, you treat Clinton like a hero for bombing innocent Serbian civilians. I suppose those civilian deaths caused by Clinton's fly so high strategy of bombing were justified to you libs because Serbians are Christians. It was Clinton's misunderstanding that the American public will accept casualties for a JUST WAR that had him dropping bombs from such high altitudes that the bombs missed their targets and killed many innocents. The fact that Clinton is you libbys hero for doing this speaks volumes about your morals.

A war on a country mind you that definitely was no threat to the USA. I do believe a better case can be made for Iraq than Kosovo, don't you? You libs make me sick with your selective humanitarianism, how do you people sleep at night or look yourselves in the mirror? Read from the link I provided below Mr. Conason, please tell me why this is an unjust war?

Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor 12/2002
"Iraqi dissidents are tortured, killed, or disappear in order to deter other Iraqi citizens from speaking out against the government or demanding change. A system of collective punishment tortures entire families or ethnic groups for the acts of one dissident. Women are raped and often videotaped during rape to blackmail their families. Citizens are publicly beheaded, and their families are required to display the heads of the deceased as a warning to others who might question the politics of this regime. Saddam Hussein was also the first leader to use chemical weapons against his own population, silencing more than 60 villages and 30,000 citizens with poisonous gas."

"Many Iraqi citizens simply "disappear" never to be heard from again. Widespread disappearances are prevalent and occur regularly among Kurdish minorities. In 2001, Amnesty International claimed that Saddam Hussein's Government was responsible for the majority of the hundreds of thousands of persons that have disappeared in the Middle East and North Africa in recent decades."
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/15996.htm

Joe Conason
Mr. Kay?s own expertise is in the field of nuclear weapons, so his conclusions concerning that category of threat carry particular weight. The President, along with Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, declared repeatedly during the year that led up to the war that Saddam Hussein had reconstituted his nuclear-weapons program and was actively seeking an atomic arsenal. Ms. Rice went so far as to conjure scary images of a mushroom cloud.

mmd10
I think Mr. Kay has made a case that Saddam was trying to reconstitute his nuclear ambitions. This report is not final yet, and the search has only just begun. I think you may end up with egg on your face when it's all said and done. Again I will point out to you Conason that you should read the progress report.

David Kay 10/02/03
"With regard to Iraq's nuclear program, the testimony we have obtained from Iraqi scientists and senior government officials should clear up any doubts about whether Saddam still wanted to obtain nuclear weapons. They have told ISG that Saddam Hussein remained firmly committed to acquiring nuclear weapons. These officials assert that Saddam would have resumed nuclear weapons development at some future point. Some indicated a resumption after Iraq was free of sanctions. At least one senior Iraqi official believed that by 2000 Saddam had run out of patience with waiting for sanctions to end and wanted to restart the nuclear program."
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html

Joe Conason
Yet according to Mr. Kay, his endeavors have found no evidence that Iraq undertook significant steps after 1998 to actually build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material.

SNOW: Senator Carl Levin said the other day that there was no evidence that Iraq had restarted its nuclear weapons program. True or false?

KAY: Well, I think in the nuclear area there's evidence that they were putting small amounts of money and starting rudimentary experiments. But we haven't finished our examination there. On the basis of what we've examined, I think there is evidence that they were interested in restarting their nuclear program, but it was at a very early stage, based on what we have currently found.

SNOW: You also had heard that Saddam Hussein had gotten frustrated with the U.N. weapons inspectors and was simply ready to go ahead, regardless of their presence on his soil.

KAY: His senior head of the arms industry has told us that in 2000 he believed that Saddam had simply gotten fed up with the U.N. restrictions and was ready, in the face of them, to start restarting the program.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,99151,00.html

mmd10
I suppose you'll try to tell me that was a "Big Lie" by David Kay because he was interviewed by Fox News. I'll tell you Mr. Conason, if the Soviets had the propaganda machine you libby democrats have the whole world would have been talked into communism.

Joe Conason
The President and Secretary of State Colin Powell stated as incontrovertible fact that the Iraqi dictator possessed mobile laboratories whose purpose was to produce biological weapons. Both men claimed last May that those labs had been found. On May 29, Mr. Bush told reporters, "We found weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories."

David Kay 10/02/03
"We have not yet been able to corroborate the existence of a mobile BW production effort. Investigation into the origin of and intended use for the two trailers found in northern Iraq in April has yielded a number of explanations, including hydrogen, missile propellant, and BW production, but technical limitations would prevent any of these processes from being ideally suited to these trailers.

"That said, nothing we have discovered rules out their potential use in BW production. We have made significant progress in identifying and locating individuals who were reportedly involved in a mobile program, and we are confident that we will be able to get an answer to the questions as to whether there was a mobile program and whether the trailers that have been discovered so far were part of such a program."

"Additional information is beginning to corroborate reporting since 1996 about human testing activities using chemical and biological substances, but progress in this area is slow given the concern of knowledgeable Iraqi personnel about their being prosecuted for crimes against humanity."
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html

mmd10
I believe Mr. Kay said ideally suited, he did not say they definitely were not used for mobile research. Just what do you think those mobile labs were used for? Selling ice cream? Why were they cleaned squeaky clean? Do you think they were mobile restaurants afraid of getting fined by the Iraqi Dept. of Public Health or something? Use your common sense if you have any. You people are so quick to try and discredit the President that I believe you've lost your common sense. I suppose if you had any in the first place you wouldn't be a liberal though, so maybe you can't help yourself from sounding like a fool.

Joe Conason
Wrong again, as Mr. Kay reluctantly noted. After scouring the two trailers for the past several months, his teams have been unable to "corroborate the existence of a mobile [biological-weapons] production effort." Indeed, what his scientists have learned is that technical limitations would almost certainly have made such difficult, dangerous processes impossible in those peculiar, canvas-sided vehicles.

David Kay 10/02/03
We have made significant progress in identifying and locating individuals who were reportedly involved in a mobile program, and we are confident that we will be able to get an answer to the questions as to whether there was a mobile program and whether the trailers that have been discovered so far were part of such a program.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html

mmd10
Maybe so Joe, but wouldn't those assumptions be based on the premise that Saddam actually cares about his scientist lives. I believe that's what Mr. Kay meant by ideally suited, but we all know that Saddam doesn't give a rats ass about anybody's life. I do believe the search is still ongoing Mr. Conason, the trailers were scrubbed squeaky clean like I said before, why do you think that is Mr. Conason? You are either the biggest fool alive or a partisan hack. I suspect you are both.

Joe Conason
On various occasions during the past two years, the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of State, the National Security Advisor and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld all insisted that the Iraqi regime had maintained an enormous, illegal cache of VX, sarin and mustard gas. There can be no doubt, said Mr. Powell. There is no doubt, said Mr. Cheney. And Mr. Rumsfeld, with his typical chin-thrusting certitude, spoke of large, clandestine stockpiles of chemical weapons.

David Kay 10/02/03
"For example, there are approximately 130 known Iraqi Ammunition Storage Points (ASP), many of which exceed 50 square miles in size and hold an estimated 600,000 tons of artillery shells, rockets, aviation bombs and other ordinance. Of these 130 ASPs, approximately 120 still remain unexamined. As Iraqi practice was not to mark much of their chemical ordinance and to store it at the same ASPs that held conventional rounds, the size of the required search effort is enormous."

David Kay 10/02/03
"Discussions with Iraqi scientists uncovered agent R&D work that paired overt work with nonpathogenic organisms serving as surrogates for prohibited investigation with pathogenic agents. Examples include: B. Thurengiensis (Bt) with B. anthracis (anthrax), and medicinal plants with ricin. In a similar vein, two key former BW scientists, confirmed that Iraq under the guise of legitimate activity developed refinements of processes and products relevant to BW agents. The scientists discussed the development of improved, simplified fermentation and spray drying capabilities for the simulant Bt that would have been directly applicable to anthrax, and one scientist confirmed that the production line for Bt could be switched to produce anthrax in one week if the seed stock were available."
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html

mmd10
Did you even read the whole STATEMENT BY DAVID KAY ON THE INTERIM PROGRESS REPORT ON THE ACTIVITIES OF THE IRAQ SURVEY GROUP (ISG) BEFORE THE HOUSE PERMANENT SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE, THE HOUSE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON DEFENSE, AND THE SENATE SELECT COMMITTEE ON INTELLIGENCE October 2, 2003?
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html

mmd10
IMO you are nothing but a partisan hack Conason, you are transparent and so are your motives for your baseless arguments about Iraq. You are just exposing yourself the more you write, the only people who don't see right through you are the sycophant libbys who just hate Bush. Please do keep it up, the more you talk the more you expose yourself. Your party has as much of a chance in getting the WH back as Gray Davis did of surviving recall. Stop staring in the water Narcissus.

Joe Conason
Their hand-picked inspector, Mr. Kay, had this to say on Oct. 2: "Multiple sources with varied access and reliability have told [the Kay team] that Iraq did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled C.W. program after 1991. Information found to date suggests that Iraq?s large-scale capability to develop, produce and fill new C.W. munitions was reduced ?if not entirely destroyed?during Operation Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of U.N. sanctions and U.N. inspections."

mmd10
It says multiple sources have told Kay, it didn't say Kay believes them or that they are his conclusions. David Kay also had this to say.

David Kay 10/02/03
We need to recall that in the 1991-2003 period the intelligence community and the UN/IAEA inspectors had to draw conclusions as to the status of Iraq's WMD program in the face of incomplete, and often false, data supplied by Iraq or data collected either by UN/IAEA inspectors operating within the severe constraints that Iraqi security and deception actions imposed or by national intelligence collection systems with their own inherent limitations. The result was that our understanding of the status of Iraq's WMD program was always bounded by large uncertainties and had to be heavily caveated. With the regime of Saddam Hussein at an end, ISG has the opportunity for the first time of drawing together all the evidence that can still be found in Iraq - much evidence is irretrievably lost - to reach definitive conclusions concerning the true state of Iraq's WMD program. It is far too early to reach any definitive conclusions and, in some areas, we may never reach that goal.
http://www.cia.gov/cia/public_affairs/speeches/2003/david_kay_10022003.html

Joe Conason
The Kay report does hold out slight hope that sometime during the next nine months?possibly just in time for next year?s Presidential nominating conventions?the American inspectors may find evidence more convincing than W.M.D.-related program activities, tall tales told by former exiles and trashed computer disks. Now the President would like to give Mr. Kay $600 million to pursue the search, whose results can hardly get worse.

mmd10
Yes those WMDs being found would sure make things worse for the democratic party. It would also make things worse for you trying to prove that you are not just a partisan hack of a reporter. You and the liberal media should be ashamed of yourselves by the way you try and distort the facts about the case made for war with Iraq.

Joe Conason
"Meanwhile, however, evidence of another sort continues to emerge."

"A few weeks ago, an Australian journalist discovered videotaped remarks made by Mr. Powell during a Feb. 24, 2001, press conference in Cairo. He told Egyptian reporters that the international sanctions against Iraq had worked, assuring them that Saddam Hussein had not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction."

Colin Powell 02/24/01
"We will always try to consult with our friends in the region so that they are not surprised and do everything we can to explain the purpose of our responses. We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the sanctions -- the fact that the sanctions exist -- not for the purpose of hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are going to keep in place, but we are always willing to review them to make sure that they are being carried out in a way that does not affect the Iraqi people but does affect the Iraqi regime's ambitions and the ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and we had a good conversation on this issue.
Incompetence or dishonesty are the only plausible explanations, and either demands accountability."

FOREIGN MINISTER MOUSSA - 02/24/01
I would wish to borrow two expressions from what the Secretary has just said, that this situation should be under constant reviewing. So it's not a stagnant situation that we accept things as they are, but should be reviewed. The other thing is that, as the Secretary said, he knows that there is unhappiness and knows what is taking place in Iraq. What we need is to give the full chance for the talks that are going to resume or start after tomorrow in New York between the Government and the Secretary General of the United Nations about the whole question of Iraq and the Security Council resolutions, and the Secretary General is going to listen to what the Iraqis have to say, concerning sanctions, concerning the situation after ten years, etc., so this meeting should be given full opportunity for both parties to talk, to listen, and then, judging from the results of such a meeting, I believe we shall all be reviewing the situation. So there are certain stations that are coming up and we will see what we can do.
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2001/933.htm

mmd10
I believe they reviewed that situation after 09/11/01, I believe Mr. Powell was just trying to be diplomatic in saying that. Remember Joe we were not fighting the WOT in Feb. of 2001. Why don't you go even father back and tell us when George W. Bush said he doesn't believe in nation building. I think you partisan hacks miss the point, 9-11 changed everything.

Joe Conason
More recently, former British foreign minister Robin Cook revealed excerpts from his diary, which suggest that Prime Minister Tony Blair knew there was no imminent threat from Iraq.

Maybe Robin Cook has his own ambitions there Mr. Conason, not unlike the democrats who want to undermine President Bush the WOT, and GWII .

"Robin Cook, the leading Labour critic of the Iraq war, denied yesterday that he was "plotting" to remove Tony Blair."
"But I am not plotting. I don't have a wall planner in my bedroom in which I am plotting to take over the leadership of the Labour Party."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/06/07/note107.xml

Vice President Dick Cheney
"Those who declined to support the liberation of Iraq would not deny the evil of Saddam Hussein's regime. They must concede, however, that had their own advice been followed, that regime would rule Iraq today," Cheney said in a speech to the Heritage Foundation think tank."

"His speech represented a sharpening counterattack against critics including Democratic presidential candidates who say President Bush exaggerated the Iraqi threat to justify war, disregarded opposition of allies and is now mismanaging the occupation."

"The United States would not allow the stance of "a single foreign government" to stop the country from defending itself against terrorism, he said in a challenge to the veto authority of permanent members of the U.N. Security Council."

"Cheney compared the debate over Iraq with the early stages of the Cold War battle against communism, and said the war in Iraq was part of a wider battle to prevent an "ultimate nightmare" of large-scale global terrorism."
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=politicsNews&storyID=3594800

mmd10
I would have to agree with the VP on that early stages of the cold war comment. I also agree with him on his stance with the United Nations too. I agree with them statements Joe because I am a patriot to this great Nation we live in called The United States of America. I am the "average Joe", you are an "elitist Joe". I have the best interest of my country in my heart. You have the best interest of the Socialist U.N. at heart, you don't even realize that countries like France play you.

The French are patriots to their best interest Conason, why do you and other elitist liberals allow them them to use you? The French are probably laughing at you, they never did forgive us for the bastard children our brave American soldiers didn't know they left behind WWII when we left the country. The French were not only subjected to their very sexual women thanking the brave Americans who set them free, they had to raise the bastard children too! Don't you now see why the French hate the U.S.?

You see the French live in a perception is reality world just like you Conason, all the other elitist leftist like your self too. The French perception they have people actually believing is, they are lovers not fighters. We I know for fact based on what I've heard from WWII Vets I had worked with, just like Tennessee rejected Al Gore because they knew him best, the sexual French women rejected the Frenchmen in free France because they knew them best. The sexual women of France wanted real men, brave men, Americans. Obviously I don't need to go into the not fighters part, I think their cowardice in WWII and taking a stand against Saddam, proves that point. I guess that proves the French have their perception and their reality in that order. In your case you just have your perception, there is no reality for you. IMO reality exist in your narcissistic, justify by any means, narrow liberal hollow, shallow minded thought processes.

"One ought never to turn one's back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half."
-Sir Winston Churchill

mmd10
You liberals have not learned anything from history and will once again end up on the wrong side of it. I'm sure you'll try to revise it though.

"When the eagles are silent, the parrots begin to jabber."
-Sir Winston Churchill

mmd10
IMO Joe Conason you are one of those cowards who turns his back on danger and parrots the French point of view. The eagles won't be silent Mr. Conason, we are going to re-elect President George W. Bush as President in 2004 despite your Leftist tactics of Big Lies and Big Distortions of facts..

Joe Conason is the author of
Big Lies: The Right-Wing Propaganda
Machine and How It Distorts the Truth

mmd10
IMO Joe Conason is nothing more than a partisan hack. I haven't read his book but I suspect it is just another hack by Conason for the sycophants to absorb. Here is one of his points about the "Big Lie", what a joke.

Among the top 10 radio talk show hosts, Conason writes, there's not a single liberal.

Duh! Mr. Conason there is no market for liberal radio host. I bet they have a couple in S.F. etc.. where the market will support them. When you say that none of the top ten host are liberals it tells me there is no market for them. Believe it or not Mr. Conason radio stations are in business to make money. You know a guy like Rush who brings in 12 to 20 million listeners or more brings cash to the radio stations. You see the radio station broadcast commercials of companies willing to pay for advertising during those radio shows. Do I really need to explain that to you Joe. I guess I do with the lack of common sense you seem to have.

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http://www.townhall.com/columnists/richlowry/rl20030603.shtml

"The community of nations may see more and more of the very kind of threat Iraq poses now: a rogue state with weapons of mass destruction, ready to use them or provide them to terrorists," the president of the United States warned. "If we fail to respond today, Saddam and all those who would follow in his footsteps will be emboldened tomorrow."

The secretary of state loyally followed this hard line, defending the U.N. sanctions on Saddam Hussein: "There has never been an embargo against food and medicine. It's just that Hussein has just not chosen to spend his money on that. Instead, he has chosen to spend his money on building weapons of mass destruction and palaces for his cronies."

Leveraging U.N. resolutions to support military action, the secretary of defense said: "The United Nations has determined that Saddam should not possess chemical or biological or nuclear weapons, and what we have is the obligation to carry out the U.N. declaration."

The officials argued that U.N. inspections weren't enough. "It is ineffectual; it is not able to do its job by its own judgment," the president's national security adviser said of the U.N. inspections regime. "It doesn't provide much deterrence against WMD activity."

The president's congressional loyalists stood behind him. "Iraq is not the only nation in the world to possess weapons of mass destruction," said a prominent senator, sounding a familiar theme, "but it is the only nation with a leader who has used them against his own people."

"For the United States and Britain, an Iraq equipped with nuclear, chemical or biological weapons under the leadership of Saddam Hussein is a threat that almost goes without description," said another hawk, taking aim at the split in the international community. "France, on the other hand, has long established economic and political relationships within the Arab world, and has had a different approach."

Who were the political leaders who, according to critics of the Iraq war, perpetrated this fraud on the American people by making overblown warnings about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction? Respectively, President Bill Clinton, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, Sen. Tom Daschle and Sen. John Kerry.

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