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US report finds no WMDs
LONDON: US arms experts are to confirm in the next fortnight that Saddam Hussein
's regime had no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction when it was invaded
last year, the daily Guardian said yesterday.
In a report, it said it has learned that Iraq Survey Group set up by the US
administration - charged with finding proof of Saddam's quest for chemical,
biological and nuclear weapons - will deliver its report "in two weeks' time".
"It will draw the final conclusion that there are no WMD in the country,
although the threat of Saddam was real," it said.
The Iraq Survey Group, comprising more than 1,000 mainly US intelligence and
weapons experts, fanned out across Iraq in July 2003, four months after the
US-led invasion that toppled Saddam.
In an interim report in October last year, its chief David Kay told the US
Senate it had yet to find stocks of WMD, but added that it was not at a point
where it could say definitely that such weapons did not exist.
Kay reiterated his position when he resigned three months later.
The Guardian said the release of the conclusions would put British Prime
Minister Tony Blair in an awkward position just as his governing Labour Party
holds it annual conference.
Blair sought to justify taking Britain into the Iraq war by citing the threat of
Iraqi WMD and the danger they might fall into terrorist hands.
In July, a British inquiry into pre-war intelligence said Iraq - which under
Saddam defied a string of UN resolutions on WMD - most likely possessed no
useable weapons of mass destruction before the March 2003 invasion.
Latest Iraqi studies find no evidence of illicit weapons: Paper
Xinhua, China - 3 hours ago
WASHINGTON, Sept. 17 (Xinhuanet) -- The latest report on Iraq's illicit weapons
found no evidence that the country was in possession ...
Study: Iraq Had No WMD
NPR (audio) - 3 hours ago
Description: A report by a top US weapons inspector says there are no stockpiles
of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
Saddam had No Weapons
The Age, Australia - 5 hours ago
By Douglas Jehl. A businessman in Chicago walks through 1022 pairs of combat
boots, representing the US soldiers killed in Iraq. ...
Draft Report Expected to Say No WMD In Iraq
Voice of America, DC - 9 hours ago
US media reports say a document being drafted by the top US weapons inspector in
Iraq will say that no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction have been ...
No mass weapons in Iraq: US report
Toronto Star, Canada - 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON-Drafts of a report from the top US inspector in Iraq conclude there
were no weapons of mass destruction. Charles Duelfer ...
Saddam 'had no WDM stockpile'
News24 (subscription), South Africa - 11 hours ago
Washington - Drafts of a report from the top US inspector in Iraq conclude there
were no weapons of mass destruction stockpiles, but say there were signs that
....
Drafts say no arms stockpiles in Iraq
Newsday, NY - 11 hours ago
WASHINGTON - Drafts of a report from the top US inspector in Iraq conclude
there were no weapons stockpiles...
Group says no cache of ready weapons in Iraq
Miami Herald (subscription), FL - 12 hours ago
The top US weapons inspector says in a draft report that Iraq had no
weapons of mass destruction. ...
US Weapons Inspector: Iraq Had No WMD
ABC News, United States - 12 hours ago
WASHINGTON Sept. 17, 2004 - Fallen Iraqi President Saddam Hussein
did not have stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction,
New report discounts Iraqi weapons threat
Seattle Times, WA - 12 hours ago
By Seattle Times news services. WASHINGTON - A draft report by the
top US weapons inspector in Iraq concludes no stockpiles of ...
Official report set to declare Iraq WMD-free
Sydney Morning Herald (subscription), Australia - 13 hours ago
Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction stockpiles when US forces invaded,
a top US inspector has concluded. Sources told Associated ...
US inspector in Iraq: Saddam had no WMD
Albawaba Middle East News, Middle East - 13 hours ago
Drafts of a report from the top US inspector in Iraq indicate there were no
stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction, according to The AP. ...
'No WMD stockpile find' in Iraq
BBC News, UK - 13 hours ago
By Justin Webb. Bush administration officials say a draft report has concluded
there were no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction to be found in Iraq. ...
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James Tompson wrote:
On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 17:14:20 -0600, "S. O. Damocles"
<so@damocl.es>
wrote:
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THE 1997 SPEECH THAT DAMNS JOHN KERRY: The other day Matt Drudge
caused a bit of a stir by linking to an item in John McCaslin's
Washington Times which said that in a 1997 debate with Representative
Peter King, John Kerry called for preemptive military action against
Saddam Hussein.
(Incidentally, today McCaslin runs a semi-retraction - or
clarification, if you prefer - to the effect that the quote attributed
to Kerry by Mr. King was incorrect, but his paraphrasing of Kerry's
comments during the 1997 Crossfire debate was accurate. )
Some are suggesting that, if true, Kerry's call for preemptive
military action against Iraq would represent the "ultimate
flip-flop."And they'd be right, of course.
The reason this entire episode doesn't surprise me, however, is
because it absolutely IS true. I've already written about it twice, so
maybe the third time will be the charm to get this story the attention
it deserves.
On November 9, 1997 Kerry gave a speech of his own free will on the
floor of the United States Senate that was entered into the
Congressional Record with the title, "We Must Be Firm With Saddam
Hussein."
In the speech Kerry not only laid out the case for aggressive military
action against Saddam Hussein, he cited Saddam's pursuit of WMD as the
main rationale for action:
Kerry went on to argue that the threat posed by Saddam was so grave
and so real that the United States should act unilaterally, if
necessary:
Let's put these remarks in some context. Kerry gave this blistering
speech in response to the fact that on October 29, 1997, Saddam
Hussein kicked U.S. weapons inspectors out of Iraq. Kerry argued it
was "unthinkable" that Saddam be allowed to scuttle the inspection
process and defy the will of the international community.
Yet despite more resolutions by the UN Security Council AND the
passage of a law by Congress making regime change in Iraq the official
policy of the US government AND a four-day bombing campaign against
Saddam Hussein in late 1998, weapons inspectors did not set foot on
Iraqi soil again until the Bush administration forced them back in in
November 2002.
In the intervening four years America suffered terrorist attacks on
her embassies in Africa, on her warship in Yemen, and on her homeland
on September 11.
So is it plausible for John Kerry to have believed in 1997 that Saddam
was a grave threat requiring the use of significant, preemptive, and
unilateral military force but to now, more than five years later and
in a post-9/11 world, stand before us and argue the opposite? It is
not.
John Kerry's own words both then and now damn him as a man who changes
his beliefs and positions based on political expediency and nothing
more. - T. Bevan 12:15 pm
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