David Kay, the former UN weapons inspector has given his testimony before Congress on the hunt for Iraqi WMDs. He has indicated that coalition forces have found significant documentary evidence and have located previously unknown sites in the hunt for WMDs. However, Kay and his team are going to wait to collect and sift through the evidence rather than making a piecemeal release of bits and pieces of evidence.
"The active deception program is truly amazing once you get inside it. We have people who participated in deceiving U.N. inspectors now telling us how they did it," Kay said.
There have been tantalizing glimpses at what Kay may have found in terms of documentary evidence, but prudence dictates that the case be made in full before letting it all out. The Iraqis had a well-orchestrated plan to hide their WMDs from UN inspectors and coalition troops, and when one is talking about an amount of material than can fit into 200 50-gallon drums and be buried in the middle of nowhere, the daunting nature of the hunt becomes obvious.
As always, Congressional Democrats are trying to move the goalposts for success as always:
"If we do not find that they were positioned in a way for imminent use, the credibility of the United States government abroad and the credibility of the United States government with its own people here in the United States will be significantly eroded," said Florida Sen. Bob Graham, former chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee and a Democratic presidential aspirant.
Of course, even a drum of anthrax hidden in the desert can be unburied and deployed in a package or an envelope in a matter of hours. It is clear that the intelligence indicating Iraq could launch chemical or biological weapons within 45 minutes was not accurate, at least not at the time the war began. However, that doesn’t mean that it was not accurate at the time the information was collected, nor does it matter in the larger scheme. Graham’s argument boils down to stating that every single piece of evidence has to be 100% correct or America’s credibility will somehow suffer. Sen. Graham should know better, as 100% accuracy is impossible in dealing with intelligence. With a case as massive as the one against Iraq, there’s a virtual certainty that some inaccurate intelligence will seep in. However, the case in full has been vinidicated with the discovery of the terrorist training center at Salmon Pak, the hundreds of suicide belts found in Baghdad, and the horrible discovery of dozens of mass graves.
The American people aren’t swallowing Sen. Graham’s rhetoric either:
However, Bush may find the public is willing to forgive him about the disputed weapons claims even if congressional Democrats are not. Of those surveyed in the Fox News-Opinion Dynamics poll, only 12 percent said finding weapons of mass destruction was the top priority of the U.S. in Iraq. The largest majority, 41 percent, said establishing a government is the most important goal, while 25 percent said finding Saddam is the top priority.
Indeed, the most pressing issue is not finding Saddam’s weapons. The priority is preparing the people of Iraq for self-rule. Saddam’s hidden arsenal will be found and accounted for sooner than later. Until then, the US needs to focus its energies on the effort on rebuilding a nation shattered by 20 years of brutal tyranny.
The active deception program is truly amazing once you get inside it.
As accurate a portrayal of the Bush Administration as I’ve ever heard…
Using a Fox News poll as a barometer for public opinion is a shady enough concept in itself, but the poll question is skewed to the point of being irrelevant. It’s easy to understand that most people, myself included, feel that establishing a new government and restoring order to Iraq should be our TOP priority at this stage. Does that mean that only 12 percent of Americans think that finding WMD’s in Iraq is important? Highly unlikely. It’s just not their TOP priority.
The situational ethics you and the Bush administration are requesting the American people to embrace in regards to finding WMD’s would probably work if not for the fact that 30 American soldiers continue to be killed there every week, and each day that passes with more American carnage is gonna be a day where more Americans question the legitimacy of this mission since it was based entirely on fabrications.
This line of crap about how the Bush Adminstration fabricated evidence is exactly that, crap. So far the argument is that the Bush Administration lied about WMDs – except their information came from UNSCOM in 1998, and President Clinton himself said that he had the same evidence and he too believes that weapons will be found. Furthermore, every intelligence agency in the world said the exact same thing. So if Bush lied, so did the British, the Germans, the UN, the Iranians, the French, the Italians, and every single intelligence agency that stated that Saddam Hussein had thousands of tons of banned weapons unaccounted for. The argument is prima facie ridiculous on the weight of evidence alone. If that weren’t enough there are the piles of documentary evidence that indicate overwise.
Then there’s the line about Iraq and al-Qaeda, except that it was later discovered that the Mukhabarat did try to contact al-Qaeda and former al-Qaeda fighters were working with the Ansar-i-Islam terrorist group in Northern Iraq.
With outright distortions over the Iranian yellowcake pseudo-scandal and other attempts at playing political ‘gotcha’ by Bush Administration critics it is becoming clear that it is the critics who are engaging in deception and not the administration.
“Furthermore, every intelligence agency in the world said the exact same thing.”
Jay, jay, jay.
Alright then, name one major intelligence agency that argued that Saddam Hussein never had weapons of mass destruction.
the above question is irrelevant. “NEVER” is clearly added to sound like the question on FoxNews about american priorities…
Of course he had some, since WE (western countries in general) sold it to him!!!
the question is: did he had any the day before the US attacked? You can think that the answer is yes if you want, but if all intelligence agencies did come up with the same answer, they wouldn’t have opposed the war!!!
On the other hand, you can stop worrying about “America’s credibility”(with this government)…it’s gone for a long time now.
I find it deceptive that you have edited the original post to remove that line.
Remove what line?