Buried on page 32, Le Monde says no.
Thérèse Delpech, an advisor at the Centre d’Études et Recherches Internationales and a UNMOVIC commissioner reminds us of certain elements in UNMOVIC’s report of March 6, 2003. “The inspectors were never able to check what happened to 3.9 tons of VX … In March 2003, UNMOVIC concluded that very likely, there still existed 10,000 liters of anthrax that Iraq had not destroyed.” …
So all those "lies" that Bush and Blair spouted weren’t lies… they were the assessments of the UN based upon the best possible information at the time. Of course, those who have actually remember the information presented in the run-up to the war this is no surprise, but many appear to have forgotten.
Eric Svane has more on the subject. Just don’t expect such trifles as the truth from getting in the way of France’s constant anti-Americanism…
Jay,
I’m glad to see that you’re reading Le Monde, but I’m affraid you still don’t understand it. For example, let start with the title of the article you’re quoting:
” Dans la revue “Politique étrangère”, cinq experts alimentent le débat sur l’existence des ADM”=> “From the “foreign policy” magazine, 5 experts debate about WMDs”.
This article was not a definitive answer to the question of WMDs in Irak, neither an important breaking news, it was more of a point of view sharing by different people, because it’s an interesting topic. No need to have the forum on the front page, right?
And whatever you can say, Jay, even if France DID think that Irak had WMDs at a certain moment of history, we certainly didn’t consider it enough of an evidence to go to war for that, as most of the world. Ask Colin Powell about the intelligence that led to war, and come back after with yours experts talks we’re all already aware of: “they had weapons, and now they don’t…but they lied before”
No they did not “lie” before. If I say “it’s going to rain tomorrow” and it doesn’t, that makes me wrong, not a liar. Certainly some of our intelligence about Iraq’s WMDs were wrong. Most of it can’t be proven. We know that the Iraqis were moving *something* in trucks from suspected weapons sites to elsewhere. We know that Iraqi commanders had prepared to use WMDs. We know that the scientists who would know about the WMD programs are being killed, and those who are still alive aren’t talking.
Calling the arguments about Iraq’s WMDs a “lie” is to ignore the evidence which still exists and the evidence which existed at the time – which is exactly what Dr. Delpech was pointing out.