Jordan/Iraq/Chemicals Weapons

by Yerusalyim 17 Replies latest social current

• 

  blacksheep

  Oh, and on a related note, just opened the Wall Street Journal. And interesting Op-Ed piece points out how, ironically, Bob Woodward's new book actually shows Bush as a thoughtful, intelligent critical thinker with regard intelligence which he received.

  "Mr. Woodward describes a Decembers 2002 Oval Office meeting in which CIA Director George Tenent and a deputy brief the the President, National Security Adviser and White House Chief of Staff on the status of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Acoording to the Woodward account, so far undisputed, Mr. Bush responded to the presentation by calling it a "nice try" but "not something that Joe Public would understand or would gain a lot of confidence from."

  "The President continued, "I've been told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we've got?" At which point Mr. Tenet is said to have thrown his hands in the air and remarked "It's a slam-dunk case!" Mr. Bush pressed again, "George how confident are you?" Mr. Tenet" Don't worry, it's a slam dunk!"

  "It isn't a shcok, of course, that the CIA believed Iraq possessed stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The Clinton Administration bombed Iraq for four days in December 1998 based on that assessment. Every other major intelligence agency in the world believed the sam. What in new is the Woodword account is the extent to which Mr. Bush appears to have been a thoughtful and critical consumer of such intelligence. The President reportedly told Mr. Tenant several times, "Make sure no one stretches this to make our case."

  ..."We suppose Mr. Bush can be faulted for his continuinly loyalty to Mr. Tenet in the face of faulty U.S. intelligence, but that's a subject for another day. the bottom line is that Mr. Woodward has revealed teh campaign to accuse Mr. Bush of lying about Iraq to be false. Let's be generous and say Messrs. Kennedy and Kerry and their media friends were themselves only "misleading" Americans about their accusation based on faulty information. But is they make the charge again we'll know that they are the ones who are lying."'

  Cracks me up that the Richard Clarke and Bob Woodward money-making books are only disproving the hysterical accusations about Bush.
• 

  Realist

  The President reportedly told Mr. Tenant several times, "Make sure no one stretches this to make our case."

  LOL
• 

  Realist

  has anyone seen Bill Maher the other day on Jay Leno? that guy is good!
• 

  Leolaia

  I don't know how reliable this is, but on CNN yesterday they were saying that the chemicals were mostly hydrocloric acid (I think) purchased legally, and not weaponized chemical weapons, and the investigators were thus not sure at first whether these were meant to heighten the conventional explosion or were meant to produce poison gas, but then learned their purpose from talking with the arrested terrorists. Again, that is what I heard yesterday....
• 

  patio34

  Simon, I suspect that if a Nuclear Bomb were discovered today, you'd dismiss it.--Yeru

  I object, your Honor. Irrelevant and baiting.

  Pat
• 

  Yerusalyim

  OF COURSE you object...silly.

  Six,

  You say there were other options...what were those options?

  Everyone accusses the US of being after Iraq's oil...now we find out the whole reason France and Russia oppossed the war was...for Iraq's oil....yet the left ain't yelling about that one...nor the BILLIONS of dollars Saddam stole...some of which went to the french and russians.
• 

  blacksheep

  Everyone accusses the US of being after Iraq's oil...now we find out the whole reason France and Russia oppossed the war was...for Iraq's oil....yet the left ain't yelling about that one...nor the BILLIONS of dollars Saddam stole...some of which went to the french and russians.

  Yeah, quite a few with an agenda just seem to gloss over that one. As they seem to be glossing over THIS issue. From todays WST, comes just that observation:

  "Anonymous US officials have been quoted plyaing down the WMD wrinkle, suggesting the chemicals may have been meant to merely amplify a conventional explosion. But then much of our "intelligence" bureaucracy is still wedded to the discredited notion that secular tyrants and fundamentalist terrorists don't cooperate (see Hezbola)."

  ...."The provenance of the operation is also of not. The bomb trucks and funds are said to have entered Jordan via Syria. Last fall General James R. Clapper, Jr., director of satelliteinteligence for the Pentagon, said there had been an unusual amount of traffic--including possibly WMDs--beween Iraq and Syria that lead up to the war."

  "The teror cell's ringleader, Jordanian Azmi Jayyousi, said he was acting on the orders of Zarqawi, whom he first met at an Al Queda training camp in Afghanstan: "I took the courses, poisons high level, then I pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. [He] said the attack had been plotted from Zarqawi's new base of operations in Iraq."

  So of COURSE, it was obviously impossible that WMD that there could by ANY type of Al Quaeda/Iraqi connection. Even Kerry, whose basically based his entire campaign on the "lies" GWB told about Iraq and WMD, is now leaving open the possiblity that connections will be found...

  People are so anxious to jump on anything to discredit the president should be a bit more intelligent than to flatly deny that something will "never be found."
• 

  ThiChi

  ""It's quite a turnaround for Kerry, who just a few weeks ago was complaining, "George Bush sold us on going to war with Iraq based on the threat of weapons of mass destruction. But we still haven't found them . . . . We were misled about weapons of mass destruction."

  Key Kerry backer Howard Dean has been even more adamant, insisting to CNN earlier this month, "There were no weapons of mass destruction . . . This is Bushgate, which is far more serious than Watergate."

  But Tuesday night on MSNBC's "Hardball," Kerry retreated.

  "It appears, as they peel away the weapons of mass destruction issue - and we may yet find them," he told host Chris Matthews. "Look, I want to make it clear. Who knows if a month from now, three months from now, you find some weapons? You may."

  Coincidentally or not, Kerry's reversal came a day after the Jordanian government announced that WMDs from Syria were part of an al Qaida plot to kill 80,000 people in Amman with poison gas. At least one of the plotters has admitted he was trained in Iraq.

  The top Democrat's flip-flop also followed news that a suspected weapons of mass destruction production facility in Baghdad - disguised as a perfume factory - unexpectedly blew up, killing two GI's who were searching the plant. ""