the new york times rediscovers weapons of mass destruction in iraq

Excellent article, and thanks for posting. This has been a bit of a mystery for those of us who actually did follow the thing and it is particularly irritating to hear the "Bush lied" stuff repeated here on FR. This, for example:

Indeed, those who had long followed the issue knew that the ISG’s conclusion couldn’t possibly be true—because the U.N. Special Commission (UNSCOM) destroyed tons of proscribed Iraqi material in the years after the [First Gulf] war.

That's the only part I can personally attest to. Got out of the intel biz shortly afterward. I was gone for this, for example:

In October 2003, [Gen] Clapper met a group of journalists, telling them that “satellite imagery showing a heavy flow of traffic from Iraq into Syria, just before the American invasion in March, led him to believe that illicit weapons material ‘unquestionably’ had been moved out of Iraq,” the New York Times reported then.

Moshe Ya’alon, Israel’s Defense Minister, was Chief of Staff of the Israel Defense Force during OIF. Gen. Ya’alon subsequently said much the same as Gen. Clapper: on the war’s eve, Saddam “transferred the chemical agents from Iraq to Syria. No one went to Syria to find it.” That view was echoed by Iraqi general Georges Sada, former Deputy Chief of Saddam’s Air Force.

Actual pictures from national assets are seldom shown because they tend to give away too many capabilities and the MSM will dismiss them anyway; however, dismissing this sort of stuff can get people killed.

The article (and, of all sources, the Daily Beast) states that it was Karl Rove's decision not to pursue the matter in the administration's defense, which, if true, would constitute a political and military miscalculation of the first order. But those of us who have been spattered trying to pee against the "Bush lied" wind have to feel a little vindicated, even if too little, too late.

Hillary voted for the Iraq War resolution. NYT is trying to innoculate Hillary for this.

Your comment has a lot of merit. Panetta has been doing this as well.

I agree they would have pushed back - but if Bush himself had STRONGLY defended himself (not just a half hearted statement or two) they would at least have had to report it.

Obama is toast. The media is the toaster. The Clintons plugged it in.

I’m going to go out on a limb and make a wild guess.

We’re getting ready to be hit with a WMD attack from ISIS, probably some type of bio attack, and it will be Bush’s fault for lying about the WMD’s in Iraq.

Had Bush not lied about the WMD’s in Iraq, ISIS couldn’t have got their hands on them.

The Left reminds me of what they used to tell us about writing book jacket copy: Don’t describe the actual book. Envision the book you wish it had been, and write the flap copy based on that.

They decide at some central location what they wish the truth were and then they promulgate that as if it were true.

Book publishers are just trying to sell some crappy book. Not sell their country down the river.

Bush was silent on this and the Pentagon kept silent on this. Top brass knew about it. Soldiers were there and knew about it, but not a thing was done to clean it up and it’s now:

1. News.

2. In the hands of Islamic radicals.

This is a government made mess from top to bottom. Bush to Obama and perhaps even beyond.

Why is Rove twisted?
"In December 1969, the man Rove had known as his father left the family,
and divorced Rove's mother soon afterwards.[8][9] After his parents' divorce,
Rove learned from his aunt and uncle that the man who had raised him
was not his biological father .....
On September 11, 1981, Rove's mother committed suicide in Reno, Nevada
In the fall of 1970, Rove used a false identity to enter the campaign office
of Democrat Alan J. Dixon, who was running for Treasurer of Illinois."

So there it is: Rove is a Democrat and a liar.

The Times story says the wmd were all from the Iran-Iraq war era, much earlier than GWB’s wmd claims...

Ed

Hussein maintained no Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)

Note how a better-knowing, lying wordsmith has tried to make it appear Iraq had no weapons when said person attempts a misleading truth in recognition of Saddam's avoidance of doing proper maintenance for his stockpiles of WMDs, because such features of maintenance will be the very things the Scott Ritter-type weapons inspectors will identify to successfully come to inspect and find those stockpiles.

HF