Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Do you think the US has a plan to attack Iran?

host · 04-12-2006, 08:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ustwo

.....That I would have to say is no, the American people have been demoralized by the constant attacks on the Iraq invasion by the left and their press-allies long enough that it has crippled our ability to react militarily to any conflict. This also shows how the whole 'weapons of mass destruction' doesn't really matter to the left. Saddam did or didn't have them depending on who you want to believe, but they were not found, hense we had 'no reason' to invade Iraq to the leftist mind (not that it mattered then). Now Iran, an equally wack job nation is openly working on building nuclear weapons, and that doesn't matter to them either. I'm not sure what matters to them beyond self-loathing and blaming republicans for all the worlds problems. Imaginary plots by GWB are high on their minds, terrorist supporting nations building nuclear weapons, not so high. I don't understand it.........

Ustwo, I want to help you understand it. There is a record of the quotes that members of the Bush admin. made, after the March, 2003 invasion of Iraq, where they referenced trailers found in Iraq that they linked to the manufacturing or processing of biological weapons. They, including POTUS Bush. made these statements, even after the time that they appear to have known that this "story" was not confirmed by their own investigators in the field...in Iraq, and....even after intelligence reports told them that no such trailers existed.

The Duelfer report on the ISG search of Iraq for WMD, did not discover any trailers linked to biological weapons making. Scott McClellan's Jan. ,2005 confirmation is displayed at the bottom of this post.

I invite you, again, to consider not posting accusations and assertions, concerning the opinions and their alleged impact on U.S. policy, of those of us who you disagree with, since you make no effort to back up your "A and A's" with references.

Quote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...041101888.html
Lacking Biolabs, Trailers Carried Case for War
Administration Pushed Notion of Banned Iraqi Weapons Despite Evidence to Contrary

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 12, 2006; Page A01

.....A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.

The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.

The authors of the reports were nine U.S. and British civilian experts -- scientists and engineers with extensive experience in all the technical fields involved in making bioweapons -- who were dispatched to Baghdad by the Defense Intelligence Agency for an analysis of the trailers. Their actions and findings were described to a Washington Post reporter in interviews with six government officials and weapons experts who participated in the mission or had direct knowledge of it.

None would consent to being identified by name because of fear that their jobs would be jeopardized. Their accounts were verified by other current and former government officials knowledgeable about the mission. The contents of the final report, "Final Technical Engineering Exploitation Report on Iraqi Suspected Biological Weapons-Associated Trailers," remain classified. But interviews reveal that the technical team was unequivocal in its conclusion that the trailers were not intended to manufacture biological weapons. Those interviewed took care not to discuss the classified portions of their work.......

Because the folks quoted below made all of the displayed statements, cited as "proof" that WMD had been found in Iraq after the March, 2003, U.S. invasion, and it is now known that none of the statements were accurate, some of us don't believe anything that these folks tell us, anymore.....

....We were taught, since we were little children, that people who tell lies, hurt themselves, because, after a while, no one believes what they say, anymore. That's what happened to Mr. Bush and to his friends. It's sad....but it isn;t our fault, it's theirs.....

Quote:

BUSH: We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:1rrV_XdVWFYJ:www.whitehouse.gov/g8/interview5.html+%22We+found+the+weapons+of+mass+destruction.+We+found+biological+laboratories.%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1">[Bush on Polish TV, 5/29/03]</a>

RUMSFELD: We have teams of people that are out looking. They've investigated a number of sites. And within the last week or two, they have in fact captured and have in custody two of the mobile trailers that Secretary Powell talked about at the United Nations as being biological weapons laboratories. We have people who are telling that they worked in these vehicles. And they look at panels and say, 'That was my work station in that panel, and that's what it's for.'<a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030529-secdef0230.html"> [5/29/03]</a>

WOLFOWITZ: We have found those biological vans that the defector in Germany told us about. They seem to be exactly what he said they would be. And I would think that would pretty well corroborate the rest of his story which is they were for the production of biological weapons. <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030531-depsecdef0234.html"> [5/31/03]</a>

WOLFOWITZ: We -- as the whole world knows -- have in fact found some significant evidence to confirm exactly what Secretary Powell said when he spoke to the United Nations about the development of mobile biological weapons production facilities that would seem to confirm fairly precisely the information we received from several defectors, one in particular who described the program in some detail. But I wouldn't suggest we've gotten to the bottom of the whole story yet.<a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030603-depsecdef0242.html">[6/03/03]</a>

FEITH: Now in time, we'll learn the truth about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction. But given what we knew the Iraqi regime had and did -- for example, its use of poison gas against Iranians and Kurds, its program to deceive the U.N. inspectors, its cooperation with terrorist groups, including al Qaeda, and its failure to account for known WMD items, including the mobile biological weapons labs -- the danger of WMD in Saddam's hands appeared grave.<A HREF="http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030707-0362.html">[7/7/03]</a>

POWELL: We have already discovered mobile biological factories of the kind that I described to the Security Council on the 5th of February. We have now found them. There is no question in our mind that that’s what their purpose was. Nobody has come up with an alternate purpose that makes sense. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:IxKhJNRGEMwJ:lists.state.gov/SCRIPTS/WA-USIAINFO.EXE%3FA2%3Dind0306a%26L%3Dus-iraqpolicy%26H%3D1%26O%3DD%26P%3D2373+We+have+already+discovered+mobile+biological+factories+of+the+kind+that+I+described+to+the+Security+Council+on+the+5th+of+February.+We+have+now+found+them.+There+is+no+question+in+our+mind+that+that%27s+what+their+purpose+was.+Nobody+has+come+up+with+an+alternate+purpose+that+makes+sense.&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a">[Powell, 6/2/03]</a>

WOLFOWITZ: We — as the whole world knows — have in fact found some significant evidence to confirm exactly what Secretary Powell said when he spoke to the United Nations about the development of mobile biological weapons production facilities that would seem to confirm fairly precisely the information we received from several defectors, one in particular who described the program in some detail. <a href="http://www.defenselink.mil/transcripts/2003/tr20030603-depsecdef0242.html">[Wolfowitz, 6/3/03]</a>

RICE: But let’s remember what we’ve already found. Secretary Powell on February 5th talked about a mobile, biological weapons capability. That has now been found and this is a weapons laboratory trailers capable of making a lot of agent that–dry agent, dry biological agent that can kill a lot of people. So we are finding these pieces that were described. … This was a program that was built for deceit and concealment. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:IESHKYdi6PIJ:www.bushoniraq.com/rice4.html+That+has+now+been+found+and+this+is+a+weapons+laboratory+trailers+capable+of+making+a+lot+of+agent+that%E2%80%93dry+agent,+dry+biological+agent+that+can+kill+a+lot+of+people&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a">[CNBC, 6/3/03]</a>

JOHN BOLTON: And I think the presentation that Secretary Powell made to the Security Council some months ago, which he worked on day and night for four or five days before going up to New York, is actually standing up very well to the test of reality as we learn more about what was going on inside Iraq. He explained to the Security Council and, indeed, showed diagrams of mobile biological weapons production facilities. We have already found two such laboratories. <a href="http://www.iranwatch.org/government/US/Congress/Hearings/hirc-060403/us-hirc-postiraqnonprolif-060403.htm">[Testimony before House International Relations Committee, 6/4/03]</a>

BUSH: We recently found two mobile biological weapons facilities which were capable of producing biological agents. <a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030605-1.html">[Bush, 6/5/03]</a>

POWELL: And I would put before you exhibit A, the mobile biological labs that we have found. Now, people are saying, well, are they truly mobile biological labs? Yes, they are. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:kN8MY_tWOBAJ:www.taipeitimes.com/news/2003/06/10/story/2003054699/+%22Now,+people+are+saying,+well,+are+they+truly+mobile+biological+labs%3F+Yes,+they+are%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a">[Fox News Sunday, 6/8/03]</a>

POWELL: I believe that they did have them and still have them, and I am confident that as we continue our efforts we will find these weapons, as well as the programs that supported these weapons. The mobile biological laboratories that were found and presented to the world, I think, is a further evidence of this. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:vBnTM3OdX2gJ:www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2003/21962.htm+%22The+mobile+biological+laboratories+that+were+found+and+presented+to+the+world,+I+think,+is+a+further+evidence+of+this%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3&client=firefox-a">[Powell on al-Arabiyya, 6/23/03]</a>

POWELL: [The State Department’s intelligence analysts’] confidence level is increasing. … And so we have been in complete open analysis with, you know, having a complete open analysis with the CIA, and the Director of Central Intelligence remains confident of his judgment. And frankly, I haven’t seen anything to suggest that that judgment is wrong. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:U-fp_vV1My0J:www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2003/21984.htm+%22Their+confidence+level+is+increasing.+They+still+have+some+questions,+and+those%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a">[Powell, 6/26/03]</a>

POWELL: I reviewed that presentation that I made on the 5th of February a number of times, as you might imagine, over recent weeks, and it holds up very well. It was the solid, coordinated judgment of the intelligence community. Some of the things that I talked about that day we have now seen in reality. We have found the mobile biological weapons labs that I could only show cartoons of that day. We now have them. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:zJDUbQmGkioJ:www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2003/22047.htm+%22We+have+found+the+mobile+biological+weapons+labs+that+I+could+only+show+cartoons+of+that+day.+We+now+have+them%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a">[NBC Today Show, 6/30/03]</a>

CHENEY: We had intelligence reporting before the war that there were at least seven of these mobile labs that he had gone out and acquired. We’ve, since the war, found two of them. They’re in our possession today, mobile biological facilities that can be used to produce anthrax or smallpox or whatever else you wanted to use during the course of developing the capacity for an attack. <a href="http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080244/">[Meet the Press, 9/14/03]</a>

POWELL: And even though there are differences within the overall intelligence community, the Director of Central Intelligence, examining all of the material with respect to that van and examining counter-arguments as to what it might be, stands behind the judgment that what we found was positive evidence of a mobile biological weapons lab, and it has not been discounted sufficiently. <a href="http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:TMS3pkJURR0J:www.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/2003/24597.htm+%22behind+the+judgment+that+what+we+found+was+positive+evidence+of+a+mobile+biological+weapons+lab,+and+it+has+not+been+discounted+sufficiently%22&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=2&client=firefox-a">[ABC This Week, 9/28/03]</a>

Quote:

<a href="http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050112-7.html#1">http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050112-7.html#1</a>

Excerpt from Scott McClellan Press Briefing, Jan. 12, 2005

Q The President accepts that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, he said back in October that the comprehensive report by Charles Duelfer concluded what his predecessor had said, as well, that the weapons that we all believed were there, based on the intelligence, were not there. And now what is important is that we need to go back and look at what was wrong with much of the intelligence that we accumulated over a 12-year period and that our allies had accumulated over that same period of time, and correct any flaws.

Q I just want to make sure, though, because you said something about following up on additional reports and learning more about the regime. You are not trying to hold out to the American people the possibility that there might still be weapons somewhere there, are you?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, I just said that if there are -- if there are any other reports, obviously, of weapons of mass destruction, then people will follow up on those reports. I'm just stating a fact.