Category Archives: The Shrub War – WMD Lies

Newsweek: How Dick Cheney Sold The War

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An interesting Newsweek feature explaining how Dick Cheney bought into the Shrub War and then proceeded to sell it to everyone else.
Of particular interest is the quote below where Cheney says that “we believe that he [Saddam Hussein] has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons” and then Newsweek clarifies that “Cheney later said that he meant “program,” not “weapons.”
However, in Donald Rumsfeld’s Meet The Press Interview, Rumsfeld claims that “they [Iraq] had programs relating to nuclear weapons that they were reconstituting. Not that they had nuclear weapons. No one said that.
So it looks like somebody did say that Saddam had nuclear weapons, and it was Dick Cheney.

Cheney’s Long Path to War
By Mark Hosenball, Michael Isikoff and Evan Thomas (With Tamara Lipper, Richard Wolffe and Roy Gutman) for Newsweek.

Of all the president’s advisers, Cheney has consistently taken the most dire view of the terrorist threat. On Iraq, Bush was the decision maker. But more than any adviser, Cheney was the one to make the case to the president that war against Iraq was an urgent necessity. Beginning in the late summer of 2002, he persistently warned that Saddam was stocking up on chemical and biological weapons, and last March, on the eve of the invasion, he declared that “we believe that he [Saddam Hussein] has in fact reconstituted nuclear weapons.” (Cheney later said that he meant “program,” not “weapons.” He also said, a bit optimistically, “I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators.”) After seven months, investigators are still looking for that arsenal of WMD.
Cheney has repeatedly suggested that Baghdad has ties to Al Qaeda. He has pointedly refused to rule out suggestions that Iraq was somehow to blame for the 9/11 attacks and may even have played a role in the terrorist bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993. The CIA and FBI, as well as a congressional investigation into the 9/11 attacks, have dismissed this conspiracy theory. Still, as recently as Sept. 14, Cheney continued to leave the door open to Iraqi complicity. He brought up a report–widely discredited by U.S. intelligence officials–that 9/11 hijacker Muhammad Atta had met with an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in April 2001. And he described Iraq as “the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault for many years, but most especially on 9/11.” A few days later, a somewhat sheepish President Bush publicly corrected the vice president. There was no evidence, Bush admitted, to suggest that the Iraqis were behind 9/11.

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Rumsfeld On Meet The Press: More On The WMD (Or Lack Thereof)

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Move along. Nothing to see here. (That you haven’t seen and heard before.)
This clip is just Rummy saying what he’s been saying about the WMD. That it’s unlikely he destroyed them, etc.
So if they can’t find them and Saddam didn’t destroy them. It makes all that much more sense that they never existed to begin with…
This is from the November 2, 2003 program of Meet the Press. (
Complete Video and Photos)

Rumsfeld On The WMD (Or Lack Thereof) (Small – 3 MB)
Tim Russert:
“Could it be that the inspections in fact, did work. That the enforcement of the no-fly zone did work. And that Sadaam in fact no longer had a weapons of mass destruction capability?”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“The theory that he took his weapons, destroyed them, or moved them to some other country. That argument. Is that possible? I suppose it’s possible that he could of hidden them, buried them, or moved them to another country or destroyed them. The “destroyed them” part of it’s the weakest argument. Why would he do that if by not allowing inspectors to see what he was doing and making an accurate instead of a fraudalent declaration? It makes no sense because he was forgoing billions and billions and billions of dollars that he could of had, had he acquiesced and allowed the inspectors into the country in an orderly way such that they could see really what was going on. Other countries have allowed inspectors in. South Africa did. Ukraine did. But he didn’t. He fought it and deceived them consistently. Why would he do that if in fact he was an innocent? Unlikely.”

Rumsfeld On Meet The Press: We Never Said Iraq Had Nuclear Weapons and We’ll Just Keep Interrogating People Until We Find The WMD

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This is from the November 2, 2003 program of Meet the Press.
Rumsfeld: We Never Said Iraq Had Nuclear Weapons and We’ll Just Keep Interrogating People Until We Find The WMD (Small – 6 Mb)
Tim Russert:
“Syria. Iran. North Korea. All harbor terrorists. We were told that Iraq was unique because they possessed Weapons Of Mass Destruction. What if that has proven not to be true?”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“It hasn’t proven not to be true. We’ve seen an interim report by David Kay, and uh it was a thoughtful report. There are some 1,300 Americans there working on the Weapons of Mass Destruction effort. He came back with an interim report that reported on the things he found thus far. It did not prove that there were (he stops) He did not come in a say “here are the weapons of mass destruction” nor did he come in and disprove the intelligence that we had had and that other countries had had before the war. Seems to me that the sensible thing to do is to let them continue their work and produce their final report and when they do, we’ll know.”
Tim Russert:
“But Mr. Secretary, you will acknowledge that there was an argument made by the Administration that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical and biological weapons and could have been well on his way to reconstituting his nuclear program.”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“Um. Hmmm.”
Tim Russert:
“There doesn’t appear to be significant amounts of evidence to document that presentation that was made by the administration.”
Donald Rumsfeld:
“This administration and the last administration and several other countries all agreed that they had chemical and biological weapons and that they had programs relating to nuclear weapons that they were reconstituting. Not that they had nuclear weapons. No one said that. It was believed then (stops) We know they did have them because they used chemical weapons against their own people. So it’s not like it was a surprise that those programs existed.”
“Furthermore, the debate in the United Nations wasn’t about whether or not Sadaam Hussein had chemical and biological weapons. The debate in the United Nations was about whether or not he was willing to declare what he had and everyone agreed that that declaration was a fraudalent declaration. Even those that voted against the resolution agreed with that. So it seems to me that the thing to do is to wait, let the Iraq survey group, David Kay and his team, continue their work. You’re not going to find things by accident in a country the size of California. The only way you’re going to find them is by capturing people who know about them and interrogate them and find out what they think they know as to where these weapons are and what the programs were.”

Donald Rumsfeld On Meet The Press – Complete Video and Photos

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This is from the November 2, 2003 program of Meet the Press.
Highlights separated by subject on the way.
Somehow I had managed to forget to start a “Bye Bye Rummy” category. I’ll still have to go back and recategorize things properly for it.

Rummy On Meet The Press – Part 1 of 3 (Small – 23 MB)

Rummy On Meet The Press – Part 2 of 3 (Small – 23 MB)

Rummy On Meet The Press – Part 3 of 3 (Small – 23 MB)

Rummy On Meet The Press – Complete (Small – 68 MB)









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Donald Rumsfeld On Meet The Press – Link to Complete Directory

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This is from the November 2, 2003 program.
I’ll be blogging this proper-like later in the day, but I gotta go to tai chi and band practice so it’s gotta wait till later.
However, for those of you that have been waiting for this, and don’t need my charming commentary to get what you need out of it, here’s the directory where everything’s already uploaded:

Rummy On Meet The Press
See you later today. Lots of goodies in the kitty…

Rummy On Meet The Press This Morning — And Other Stuff

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No, I don’t have it up yet, but I did get it, and after I finish with the election stuff (things must happen in order, or they, like, don’t happen) I promise I’ll get the Rummy stuff up next.
I just want you to be sure it was in the kitty. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’m assuming he is responding to “the memo.”…
Okay, so, I’m obviously back and about to go on a video rampage. I’ll have to get the Dean on 60 minutes up soon too. And, jeez, what else, just a stack of stuff…Last Saturday’s protest (Oct 25, 2003) still hasn’t gone up yet (it’s captured though…). There’s Dean in SF Wednesday (October 29, 2003) (also captured). There’s Laura Splan’s recent blood painting opening (just in time for halloween…doh!)…and I don’t know what else….but if it’s uploaded to the archive, it’s a-gettin-a-linked.
I’ve fallen into that stupid trap of not taking enough time to blog clips I’ve already crunched and uploaded — and that’s just plain stupid. So allow me to catch up a bit over the next day or two…

Rob Courddry On The Shrub’s Blaming The Navy For “The Sign”

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This clip was shown after this clip on October 29, 2003.


In this clip, Rob Courddry probes further into the familiar pattern of the Shrub’s blaming his mistakes on other agencies he, theoretically, has complete control over as Commander In Chief.
For example, it was the CIA’s fault about the faulty WMD intelligence that was included in his State Of The Union Address. Now it’s the Navy’s fault for following orders and hanging up the “Mission Accomplished” sign at his May 1 press conference.

Rob Courddry On “The Sign” (Small – 6 MB)


(Below: What the sign said.)


(Below: What they meant for the sign to say.)





The Daily Show (The best news on television.)

Shrub Administration Went Around The CIA When Searching For WMD Evidence

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CIA May Have Been Out of Iraq Loop
Top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel says some officials in the administration appear to have bypassed agency in gathering Iraq data.
By Greg Miller for The Los Angeles Times.

Officials in the Bush administration appear to have bypassed the CIA and other agencies to collect their own intelligence overseas on Iraq, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee said Friday…
Making the case for an expanded inquiry, Rockefeller, of West Virginia, the committee’s vice chairman, said some in the administration appeared to have been collecting intelligence “without the knowledge of the Central Intelligence Agency, the State Department or anybody else” in the intelligence community.
Such operations, if verified, would be highly unusual and would bolster critics’ claims that the administration has short-circuited the normal flow of intelligence to search for facts that support its assumptions.
Rockefeller’s comments appeared designed to pressure Republicans to expand the probe’s scope at a time when both parties are struggling to control the course of the investigation as next year’s presidential election looms.
His remarks culminated a week of uncharacteristic outbursts from a committee that has traditionally sought to steer clear of the partisan rancor that often characterizes other legislative panels…
Its activities have been harshly criticized by some in the intelligence community. The office has come under closer scrutiny on Capitol Hill since defense officials acknowledged this year that representatives from Special Plans met with Manucher Ghorbanifar, an Iranian exile and discredited figure involved in the Iran-Contra scandal of the 1980s, shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks.
At the time, officials said Ghorbanifar was part of a group claiming to have information that might be helpful to the U.S. in the war on terrorism, and that Pentagon officials agreed to the meeting merely to assess that information. Asked to explain the matter during an August news conference, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said that “people come in offering suggestions or information or possible contacts, and sometimes they’re pursued.”
But the contacts aroused suspicion on Capitol Hill. According to congressional testimony from the 1980s, Ghorbanifar was among those proposing that money from the Reagan administration’s arms-for-hostages deal with Iran be diverted to aid the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.
Even before that scandal, Ghorbanifar was a notorious figure in the intelligence community. The CIA had issued a “burn notice” to other agencies advising them to have nothing to do with him.

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Former CIA Operations Chief Says Shrub Administration Outed Agent On Purpose

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Naming of Agent ‘Was Aimed at Discrediting CIA’
By Edward Alden for The Financial Times.

The Bush administration’s exposure of a clandestine Central Intelligence Agency operative was part of a campaign aimed at discrediting US intelligence agencies for not supporting White House claims that Saddam Hussein was reconstituting Iraq’s nuclear weapons programme, former agency officials said yesterday.
In a rare hearing called by Senate Democratic leaders, the officials said the White House engaged in pressure and intimidation aimed at generating intelligence evidence to support the decision to make war on Iraq…
Vince Cannistraro, former CIA operations chief, charged yesterday: “She was outed as a vindictive act because the agency was not providing support for policy statements that Saddam Hussein was reviving his nuclear programme.”
The leak was a way to “demonstrate an underlying contempt for the intelligence community, the CIA in particular”.
He said that in the run-up to the Iraq war, the White House had exerted unprecedented pressure on the CIA and other intelligence agencies to find evidence that Iraq had links to Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda and that Baghdad was trying to build a nuclear bomb.
While the intelligence agencies believe their mission is to provide accurate analysis to the president to aid policy decisions, in the case of Iraq “we had policies that were already adopted and they were looking for those selective pieces of intelligence that would support the policy”, Mr Cannistraro said.
In written testimony, he said that Vice-President Dick Cheney and his top aide Lewis Libby went to CIA headquarters to press mid-level analysts to provide support for the claim. Mr Cheney, he said, “insisted that desk analysts were not looking hard enough for the evidence”. Mr Cannistraro said his information came from current agency analysts…
The administration has refused to appoint an independent special counsel on the leak investigation, and Federal Bureau of Investigation officials said this week that John Ashcroft, attorney-general and close political ally of President George W. Bush, was involved in the investigation.
Larry Johnson, a former CIA analyst who said he voted for Mr Bush and contributed to his campaign, said the White House needed to authorise a more independent investigation. “Unless they come up with a guilty party, it will leave the impression that the administration is playing politics.”

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A Husband’s First Hand Account Of Waiting At Home While His Medic Wife Searched for WMD In Iraq

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This disorganized operation continues to needlessly rip apart the lives of many a dedicated individual. This story really drives the point home.
The kicker for me was to learn that the troops themselves are expected to buy the supplies for the goose chase!

Mommy’s Back From Iraq
By John E. Bugay Jr. for the Post Gazette.

My wife, Sgt. Bethany Airel, was a Reserve medic in the 203rd Military Intelligence Battalion, the Army’s contribution to the Iraqi Survey Group, the lead entity in the ongoing search for weapons of mass destruction. For what it accomplished, the 203rd probably ought never to have gone. The Pentagon admitted as much in a “secret report” that, thankfully, was reported on by Rowan Scarborough of The Washington Times on Sept. 3: “Weapons of mass destruction elimination and exploitation planning efforts did not occur early enough in the process to allow Centcom to effectively execute the mission. . . . Insufficient U.S. government assets existed to accomplish the mission.”
We didn’t know this in February, when she was activated, when President Bush and his administration were telling us that war with Iraq was imperative to stop Saddam Hussein from distributing his WMDs to terrorist groups that would bring them to America.
Based on reports of a potential “scorched earth” policy by Saddam, Beth spent the next several months training to don her MOPP (Mission Oriented Protective Posture) gear quickly. I never managed to get beyond a debilitating sense of despondency. Nevertheless, I got into a daily schedule of waking the kids for school, packing lunches, seeing them off and then sitting with my 4-year-old daughter while she cried, “I miss Mommy.”
February was a “lockdown” month, but as the start of the war was delayed, the lockdowns gave way to something like weekends off for the soldiers, and so each weekend for several weeks the kids and I packed up the van to travel the 280 miles to Aberdeen, Md., where the 203rd was stationed. Each trip was potentially “the last time we might see Mommy for a while,” and we treated those weekends with all due reverence. We also spent hundreds of dollars in hotel and travel costs over five such weekends.
Recently there have been reports that soldiers have had to purchase equipment and supplies with their own money, and our family has been no different. We “supported the troops” with the purchase of medical supplies she would need to do her job as a medic, and more mundane items she would need in Iraq, such as a foot locker, a laundry tub, mosquito netting and batteries for flashlights, which the Army didn’t provide.
Finally, in mid-April, we did spend our last tearful weekend, and then Beth left for Kuwait and Iraq. The most striking thing about the next few months was the fact that virtually the whole battalion spent all of May and early June in Tallil, near Nasiriyah, “without vehicles, gear, tents, or computers and equipment,” as she wrote to me. The people had been sent by plane, the equipment by boat. “I can’t understand why we’d have everyone move to Iraq and not be able to do any work.”
Beth and I each fell into a deep depression. I went into therapy; she tried to immerse herself in her work. It is often said that soldiers complain about everything and that you shouldn’t make much of it. In a letter dated July 7, she wrote, “the country [Iraq] has a way of making you feel raped and lost.” As a woman, she doesn’t use the word “rape” lightly. The letter was so bad she didn’t send it at the time, because she didn’t want to worry me. I never received another letter from her, even though she had written once a week or so before that…
It is said that the mood of the soldier depends on the mood of the family at home, but the reverse is true as well. The thought of my wife in a country like Iraq was incredibly hard when I thought it was necessary to defend the country from mushroom clouds over New York.
But in the intervening months, I rarely heard from her, though I knew of her depression. It began to look as if the war was more of a bodybuilding flex designed to satisfy the imperial foreign policy cravings of the hawks in the administration, and, well, that gave the whole thing a different sensation.

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