- Niger Uranium Known to be a Hoax before the war
Do a quick google
search on these keywords; "bush knew niger uranium" and you will quickly find
reports (pre-war) from all sorts of news agencies that assert that he knew
this was false. The agencies include CNN, the LA Times, the BBC, and hundreds
of others. Yet, no investigation.
- Iraq Known to be Years Away from Nuclear Technology before the war
Try these keywords; "bush iraq nuclear". Again a whole slew of reports
(pre-war) that show that Bush knew that Iraq was not a nuclear threat and that
his statement that Iraq was on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon was
false.
- Aluminum Tubes Known to Not be useful for Nuclear Weapons before the
war
How about these keywords; "aluminum tubes IAEA". The first result is
simply titled Al Tubes here is the pertinent information boiled down to one
line: In his February 7, 2003 (pre-war) report to the UN Security Council,
Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA's Director General, said: "Based on available
evidence, the IAEA team has concluded that Iraq's efforts to import these
aluminum tubes were not likely to have been related to the manufacture of
centrifuges." IAEA stands for International Atomic Energy Agency, they have a
bit more experience with such things than the CIA.
Those of us who were paying attention back then knew this stuff.
- Weapons Inspectors Were in Iraq and Iraq Was Cooperating
How
about this bit about weapons inspectors not being allowed into Iraq (google
search: hans blix un report march) CNN has the transcript of Hans Blix report
to the UN from March 7 (pre-war) where he states, "In matters relating to
process, notably prompt access to sites, we have faced relatively few
difficulties, and certainly much less than those that were faced by UNSCOM
[U.N. Special Commission] in the period 1991 to 1998." ... "Initial
difficulties raised by the Iraqi side about helicopters and aerial
surveillance planes operating in the "no-fly" zones were overcome." ... "This
is not to say that the operation of inspections is free from frictions, but at
this juncture we are able to perform professional, no-notice inspections all
over Iraq and to increase aerial surveillance." It goes on like this.
- No Ties to Al Queda
"Allies Find No Links Between Iraq, Al Qaeda
Evidence isn't there, officials in Europe say, adding that an attack on
Hussein would worsen the threat of terrorism by Islamic radicals." - LATimes
Nov 4, 2002 (pre-war)
Press Conference with Tony Blair and G.W. Bush Jan 31, 2003 (mid-war)
- QUESTION: One question for you both. Do you believe that there is
a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on
September the 11th?
- G.W. Bush: I can't make that claim.
- Tony Blair: That answers your question.
"Federal authorities have concluded that there is no evidence that Mohamed
Atta, the suspected ringleader of the Sept. 11 attacks, met with an Iraqi
intelligence officer before the hijackings." - NYTimes May 2, 2002 (mid-war)
"I have not seen smoking-gun, concrete evidence about the connection," Mr.
Powell said, in response to a question at a news conference. "But I think the
possibility of such connections did exist, and it was prudent to consider them
at the time that we did." - Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, Jan 2004
(mid-war)
So, basically Bush said, "Prove to us you have no weapons or we're coming in
with guns blazing!" To which Saddam quite logically responded, "I've given the
inspectors every cooperation, they can't find any weapons, what more can we do
to prove that we don't have them?" Bush saw that as beligerance and took our
country to war.
To date, the only violation of the UN weapons embargo that could be found in
Iraq were missiles that it is believed (I don't think anyone has launched one to
prove this) could go 180km. The sanctions limited Iraq to missiles capable of
150km. Wow! That's a real threat to the American way of life isn't it. I'm sure
that he could launch those at... uhmm... oh, guess there is nothing that the US
has within 180km of Iraq.
No chemical threats, no nuclear threats, and no long range ballistic
missiles. What was the case for war again?
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