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Accumulation and marketing of phony evidence of Saddam Hussein’s intentions and development of WMD, in order to support war in Iraq
The efforts to tie Saddam Hussein to the 9-11 attacks on our country were initiated remarkably quickly, especially considering the amazingly slow response mounted against the attacks themselves. Within two days of 9-11, the following occurred:
9-11-01: Five hours following the attacks on the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon, minutes taken by a Rumsfeld aide stated “Best info fast. Judge whether good enough {to} hit SH {Saddam Hussein}…”
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/03/13/173409.php9-12-01: Bush tells counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke, “I want you, as soon as you can, to go back over everything, everything. See if Saddam did this.” Bush asks for “any shred” of evidence that Saddam was involved.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq_492Nevertheless:
9-21-01: Bush briefed by intelligence community that there is no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the 9-11 attacks.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a092101noconnectionBut despite this, the Bush administration proceeded with its plans.
In order to make the subsequent efforts of the Bush administration to gather and market evidence of the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capabilities of Saddam Hussein easier to follow, the following is a description of overlapping time lines according to subject area:
Efforts to obtain information through torture
January 2002: Captured Al Qaeda operative, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, states while being tortured that Al Qaeda has received chemical weapons from Iraq.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051226/scheer1214February 2002: Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) intelligence summary says that al-Libi’s statement about Al Qaeda receiving chemical weapons from Iraq lacks pertinent details and that it is most likely false and based solely on his desire to stop being tortured. Report also notes that it is unlikely that Saddam would provide assistance to Al Qaeda.
http://www.rense.com/general69/dia.htm4-9-02: Bush speaking to CIA Director George Tenet about captured Al Qaeda operative Abu Zubaydah: “I said he was important, you’re not going to let me lose face on this are you?... Do some of those harsh methods really work?” Zudaydah is then tortured and speaks of several plots.
http://www.peterlevine.ws/mt/archives/cat_press_criticism.htmlClaim that Iraq purchased enriched uranium from Africa
The most serious threat that the Bush administration tried to establish was that Saddam Hussein was making a concerted effort to develop a nuclear weapons program. A major component of that effort was the allegation that he had purchased enriched uranium (often referred to as “yellowcake”) from Niger. The Bush administration clung to that claim despite a great deal of evidence against it:
3-5-02: Joe Wilson tells CIA that there is no indication that Iraq is buying yellowcake.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htmSummer 2002: The French debunk the theory that Iraq tried to obtain yellowcake from Niger: “We told the Americans, ‘Bullsh**t. It doesn’t make any sense’”.
http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060606fege02October 2002: National Intelligence Estimate report states “claims of Iraqi pursuit of natural uranium {i.e., yellowcake} in Africa are highly dubious.”
http://www.fas.org/irp/cia/product/iraq-wmd.html10-6-02: NSC memo to White House on the claim that Iraq attempted to obtain uranium from Niger: “The evidence is weak… the Africa story is over-blown.
3-3-03: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) tells U.S. that the Niger uranium documents were forgeries.
http://www.answers.com/topic/yellowcake-forgery3-7-03: IAEA: After three months of intrusive inspections, we have to date found no evidence or plausible indication of the revival of a nuclear weapons program in Iraq.”
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/07/sprj.irq.un.transcript.elbaradei/3-8-03: Joe Wilson on CNN: “I think it’s safe to say that the U.S. government should have or did know that the {Niger documents were} fake before Dr. ElBaradei mentioned it in his report at the U.N. yesterday.”
But despite all that, on 12-7-02, the Bush administration discredited a report by Iraq to the United Nations, documenting all of its unconventional arms, on the basis that the report didn’t mention the alleged uranium that it acquired from Niger, and it used that discredited allegation as one of its major excuses for going to war.
http://www.acronym.org.uk/docs/0301/doc22.htmClaim that Iraq intended to use aluminum tubes to produce enriched uranium for use in a nuclear weapon
The other major alleged evidence pointing to a nuclear weapons program in Iraq was the Iraqis’ purchase of aluminum tubes, which the Bush administration claimed was proof that they intended to use them to enrich uranium for use in a nuclear weapon. In September of 2002, the Bush administration began to push that bogus claim:
9-7-02: Bush claims a new U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report states Iraq is six months from developing a nuclear weapon – though no such report existed.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0927-08.htm9-8-02: Judith Miller of the New York Times cites anonymous administration officials as saying that Saddam has repeatedly tried to acquire aluminum tubes “specially designed” to enrich uranium.
http://www.realdemocracy.com/abomb.htm9-8-02: Cheney on Meet the Press: “We do know, with absolute certainty, that he is using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs in order to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon.”
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/bush/meet.htmThey pushed that claim to the end, despite a great deal of evidence to the contrary:
9-23-02: Institute for Science and International Security releases report calling the aluminum tube intelligence ambiguous and warning that “U.S. nuclear experts who dissent from the Administration’s position are expected to remain silent…”
http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iraq/al_tubes.html1-9-03: IAEA says that the aluminum tubes sought by Iraq are likely for artillery rockets, rather than centrifuges for uranium concentration.
1-24-03: IAEA to Washington Post: “It may be technically possible that the tubes could be used to enrich uranium, but you’d have to believe that Iraq…”
http://www.isis-online.org/publications/iraq/al_tubes.htmlAnd then, in Bush’s January State of the Union speech he put both the yellow cake and the aluminum tubes claims together to scare his country into believing that Iraq posed a nuclear threat to us:
1-28-03: Bush State of the Union speech: “The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.”… “Saddam has tried to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production and has mobile biological weapons labs.”
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030128-23.htmlClaims by “Curveball” for Iraqi WMD programs
Another major claim of the Bush administration, for the existence of a biological weapons program in Iraq, was based on the allegations of an Iraqi defector who went by the code name of “Curveball”. Again, this claim was maintained by the Bush administration to the end, despite substantial and accumulating evidence against it:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/24/AR2006062401081.htmlMay 2002: DIA says that Curveball’s claims that Iraq has mobile weapons labs are likely lies.
September 2002: Germans warn CIA that Curveball is “crazy” and “probably a fabricator”.
2-4-03: CIA agent e-mail regarding the validity of information coming from Curveball: “We sure didn’t give much credence to this report when it came out. Why now?” (Response from CIA Iraqi Task Force was “Let’s keep in mind the fact that this war’s going to happen regardless of what Curveball said or didn’t say…”)
2-8-03: U.N. team searches Curveball’s former work site and disproves many of his claims.
But despite all this, Secretary of State Colin Powell used Curveball’s evidence in his speech to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, to justify a U.S. invasion of Iraq.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/08/19/powell.un/...