posted                   

quote:

---

Originally posted by Veers:
"Oh, it was Saddam's job to give the inspectors his WMDs when they came" are just looking for excuses, because he could not have done that because he did not have the weapons.

---

quote:

---

And, on another note, it seems that there is much speculation about whether those "mobile chemical lab trailers" or whatever were what they are said to be. So, if that is the case and they were not weapons trailers, then our administration has been lying to us AGAIN for the past several days.

---

posted                   

quote:

---

Originally posted by TSN:

"1980's: We haten the Iranians more. They hated us more, too. The Iraqis hated the Iranians. They also hated the Communists. This made their leadership seem slightly less evil than the rest of the Middle East."

So, really, how "evil" a government is has nothing to do w/ how it treats its citizens or anything like that. It's simply based upon how many points of international contention they agree with us on?

---

posted                   

quote:

---

Questions over the claimed purpose of trailer for making biological weapons include:

� The lack of any trace of pathogens found in the fermentation tanks. According to experts, when weapons inspectors checked tanks in the mid-Nineties that had been scoured to disguise their real use, traces of pathogens were still detectable.

� The use of canvas sides on vehicles where technicians would be working with dangerous germ cultures.

� A shortage of pumps required to create vacuum conditions required for working with germ cultures and other processes usually associated with making biological weapons.

� The lack of an autoclave for steam sterilisation, normally a prerequisite for any kind of biological production. Its lack of availability between production runs would threaten to let in germ contaminants, resulting in failed weapons.

� The lack of any easy way for technicians to remove germ fluids from the processing tank.

One of those expressing severe doubts about the alleged mobile germ labs is Professor Harry Smith, who chairs the Royal Society's working party on biological weapons.

He told The Observer 'I am concerned about the canvas sides. Ideally, you would want airtight facilities for making something like anthrax. Not only that, it is a very resistant organism and even if the Iraqis cleaned the equipment, I would still expect to find some trace of it.'

His view is shared by the working group of the Federation of American Scientists and by the CIA, which states: 'Senior Iraqi officials of the al-Kindi Research, Testing, Development, and Engineering facility in Mosul were shown pictures of the mobile production trailers, and they claimed that the trailers were used to chemically produce hydrogen for artillery weather balloons.'

Artillery balloons are essentially balloons that are sent up into the atmosphere and relay information on wind direction and speed allowing more accurate artillery fire. Crucially, these systems need to be mobile.

The Observer has discovered that not only did the Iraq military have such a system at one time, but that it was actually sold to them by the British. In 1987 Marconi, now known as AMS, sold the Iraqi army an Artillery Meteorological System or Amets for short

---

posted                   

quote:

---

On Sunday, Condoleezza Rice admitted that President Bush had used a forged document in his State of the Union speech to prove Iraq represented a nuclear threat: "We did not know at the time � maybe someone knew down in the bowels of the agency � but no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery. Of course it was information that was mistaken."

Robert Scheer, Los Angeles Times

---

quote:

---

President Bush said Monday he is "absolutely convinced" that the United States will find proof that Iraq had an illegal weapons program, but he stopped short of saying that actual biological or chemical agents will be uncovered.

Bush's comments were among the most forceful he has made on the subject since the postwar search for banned weapons began to emerge as a troubling political issue for the White House.

But his remarks were also carefully calibrated, in contrast to categorical statements he and other senior administration officials made before the war asserting Iraq had illegal weapons.

"Iraq had a weapons program," Bush said Monday in a brief exchange with reporters at the White House. "Intelligence throughout the decade showed they had a weapons program. I am absolutely convinced, with time, we'll find out that they did have a weapons program."

The emphasis on the word "program" marks a subtle shift by the president, whose administration made Iraq's alleged stocks of banned weapons the centerpiece of its case for going to war against Saddam Hussein.

---

quote:

---

Before the war, Bush was often unequivocal in alleging that Iraq possessed banned weapons.

In a key speech in Cincinnati on October 7, Bush said that Iraq "possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons" and suggested it was perilous for the United States to delay disarming Baghdad.

"If we know Saddam Hussein has dangerous weapons today � and we do � does it make any sense for the world to wait to confront him as he grows even stronger and develops even more dangerous weapons?" the president had said.

Greg Miller, Los Angeles Times

---

posted                   

quote:

---

Originally posted by Veers:
"The Lusitania" and the "Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo" reasons seem like legitimate reasons for a war.

---