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November 03, 2006
Then and Now
The New York Times, today:
The Web site, “Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal,” was a constantly expanding portrait of prewar Iraq. Its many thousands of documents included everything from a collection of religious and nationalistic poetry to instructions for the repair of parachutes to handwritten notes from Mr. Hussein’s intelligence service. It became a popular quarry for a legion of bloggers, translators and amateur historians.(Emphasis mine) Thanks to Lexis/Nexis, The New York Times, October 5, 2004: (no link available)Among the dozens of documents in English were Iraqi reports written in the 1990s and in 2002 for United Nations inspectors in charge of making sure Iraq had abandoned its unconventional arms programs after the Persian Gulf war. Experts say that at the time, Mr. Hussein’s scientists were on the verge of building an atom bomb, as little as a year away.
Of all the justifications that President Bush gave for invading Iraq, the most terrifying was that Saddam Hussein was on the brink of developing a nuclear bomb that he might use against the United States or give to terrorists. Ever since we learned that this was not true, the question has been whether Mr. Bush gave a good-faith account of the best available intelligence, or knowingly deceived the public. The more we learn about the way Mr. Bush paved the road to war, the more it becomes disturbingly clear that if he was not aware that he was feeding misinformation to the world, he was about the only one in his circle who had not been clued in...And again here, October 7, 2004:...If Ms. Rice did her job and told Mr. Bush how ludicrous the case was for an Iraqi nuclear program, then Mr. Bush terribly misled the public. If not, she should have resigned for allowing her boss to start a war on the basis of bad information and an incompetent analysis.
Even after U.N. inspectors left Iraq in 1998, a period when Western intelligence experts assumed the worst might be happening, the Hussein regime made no active efforts to produce new weapons of mass destruction. The much-feared nuclear threat -- that looming mushroom cloud conjured by the administration to stampede Congress into authorizing an invasion -- was a phantom. Mr. Duelfer found that even if Iraq had tried to restart its defunct nuclear program in 2003, it would have needed years to produce a nuclear weapon.And yet again, June 27, 2003:Since any objective observer should by now have digested the idea that Iraq posed no imminent threat to anyone, let alone the United States, it was disturbing to hear President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney continue to try to justify the invasion this week on the grounds that after Sept. 11, 2001, Iraq was clearly the most likely place for terrorists to get illicit weapons. Even if Mr. Hussein had wanted to arm groups he could not control -- a very dubious notion-- he had nothing to give them.
American officials were quite right to stress that the discovery of nuclear-related components and plans buried in an Iraqi scientist's garden in Baghdad is not a "smoking gun" that proves that Iraq had a nuclear weapon or an active program to develop one. Indeed, it looks more like the opposite, namely evidence that Iraq had abandoned for more than a decade its efforts to build a nuclear weapon but was hoping to start the program again later...So, which is true?...Iraq's nuclear program was apparently in deep hibernation. The new discovery, then, falls far short of validating the Bush administration's pre-invasion claims that Iraq had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program.
Either they were on the brink of building a bomb and the Bush administration was reckless in allowing the documents to be put on the web, or they weren't even close and the Bush administration deceived the public in its relentless march to war with Iraq.
Which is it?
UPDATE - Allah's got the round-up.
Posted by slublog at November 3, 2006 09:45 AM
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Comments
It sure was a politically motivated boneheaded maneuver to put nuke specs on the web. The documents all seemed to be from 1991 or prior. Do I have that right? How would that justify an invasion twelve years later?
I think the constant hysteria is overdone.
Posted by: Tom at November 3, 2006 12:16 PM
That's why I highlighted the relevant passage in today's article. It seems to contradict the earlier doubt that Saddam was close.
Posted by: Slublog at November 3, 2006 12:25 PM
Crap - should have added - those documents included ones written in 2002.
Posted by: Slublog at November 3, 2006 12:27 PM