Intelligence made it clear Saddam was not a threat, diplomat tells MPs

[cal04]

Source: The Guardian

• Government left 'paper trail' in build-up to war
• More facts still to come to light, says former envoy

A former diplomat at the centre of events in the run-up to the Iraq war revealed yesterday that the government has a "paper trail" that could reveal new information about the legality of the invasion.

Carne Ross, who was a first secretary at the United Nations in New York for the Foreign Office until 2004, told MPs: "A lot of facts about the run-up to this war have yet to come to light which should come to light and which the public deserves to know." There were also assessments by the joint intelligence committee which had not been disclosed, Ross told the Commons public administration select committee.

He told the inquiry that the intelligence made it "very clear" that Saddam Hussein did not pose a significant threat to the UK, as was being claimed at the time by ministers, and that tougher enforcement of sanctions could have brought his regime down.

He said he tried to inform ministers about his misgivings over the developing momentum towards war, taking them aside during their visits to New York or having brief conversations in their car to the airport.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/20/saddam-hussein-iraq-war-legality

[aquart]

1. Any intelligence above lab rat knew that.

[Jefferson23]

2. lol, so true.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. All this goes to show that we the people will allow criminality in

high places, not only that but there is little we can do about it.

[LynnTheDem]

4. Most the world knew that long before the bush regime's invasion of a

broken-down defenseless little nation.


"None of us in the officers' mess believed in the weapons of mass destruction nonsense"
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2432462.ece

SUMMER, 2002 – CIA WARNINGS (about lack of "WMD") TO WHITE HOUSE EXPOSED
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0630selling.htm

SEPTEMBER, 2002 – DIA TELLS WHITE HOUSE NO EVIDENCE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS
http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/Pentagon/us-dod-iraqchemreport-060703.htm

SEPTEMBER 20, 2002 – DEPT. OF ENERGY TELLS WHITE HOUSE OF NUKE DOUBTS (aluminum tubes for conventional rockets, NOT nukes)
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2004_01/003147.php

OCTOBER 2002 – CIA DIRECTLY WARNS WHITE HOUSE

"The CIA sent two memos to the White House in October voicing strong doubts about a claim President Bush made three months later in the State of the Union address that Iraq was trying to buy nuclear materials in Africa."

OCTOBER 2002 — STATE DEPT. WARNS WHITE HOUSE ON NUKE CHARGES
http://www.carnegieendowment.org/

OCTOBER 2002 – AIR FORCE WARNS WHITE HOUSE (against "drones")
The government organization most knowledgeable about the United States' UAV program -- the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center -- had sharply disputed the notion that Iraq's UAVs were being designed as attack weapons" – a WMD claim President Bush used in his October 7 speech on Iraqi WMD, just three days before the congressional vote authorizing the president to use force.
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/kfiles/b24889.html

http://www.independent-media.tv/item.cfm?fmedia_id=2755&fcategory_desc=Under%20Reported

JANUARY, 2003 – STATE DEPT. INTEL BUREAU REITERATE WARNING TO POWELL

"The Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), the State Department's in-house analysis unit, and nuclear experts at the Department of Energy are understood to have explicitly warned Secretary of State Colin Powell during the preparation of his speech that the evidence was questionable. The Bureau reiterated to Mr. Powell during the preparation of his February speech that its analysts were not persuaded that the aluminum tubes the Administration was citing could be used in centrifuges to enrich uranium."

FEBRUARY 14, 2003 – UN WARNS WHITE HOUSE THAT NO WMD HAVE BEEN FOUND
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/14/sprj.irq.un /

FEBRUARY 15, 2003 – IAEA WARNS WHITE HOUSE NO NUCLEAR EVIDENCE
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/kfiles/b24889.html

FEBURARY 24, 2003 – CIA WARNS WHITE HOUSE ‘NO DIRECT EVIDENCE’ OF WMD
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/3340723 /

MARCH 7, 2003 – IAEA REITERATES TO WHITE HOUSE NO EVIDENCE OF NUKES
http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/kfiles/b24889.html

Doubts, Dissent Stripped from Public Version of Iraq Assessment
The public version of the U.S. intelligence community's key prewar assessment of Iraq's illicit arms programs was stripped of dissenting opinions, warnings of insufficient information and doubts about deposed dictator Saddam Hussein's intentions, a review of the document and its once-classified version shows.

As a result, the public was given a far more definitive assessment of Iraq's plans and capabilities than President Bush and other U.S. decision-makers received from their intelligence agencies.
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0210-02.htm

CIA to Bush: 'No clear Evidence of WMD'
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/120103A.shtml

Why the CIA thinks Bush is wrong
The president says the US has to act now against Iraq. The trouble is, his own security services don't agree.
http://www.sundayherald.com/28384

CIA in blow to Bush attack plans
The letter also comes at a time when the CIA is competing with the more hawkish Pentagon, which is also supplying the White House with intelligence on the Iraqi threat.

White House 'exaggerating Iraqi threat'
Bush's televised address attacked by US intelligence
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2002/oct/09/iraq.usa


France & Russia knew;

'French intelligence was telling us that there was effectively no real evidence of a WMD program That's why France wanted a longer extension on the weapons inspections. The French, the Germans and the Russians all knew there were no weapons there -- and so did Blair and Bush as that's what the French told them directly. Blair ignored what the French told us and instead listened to the Americans.'

The debate on Iraqi WMD continues. For example, Russia was not convinced by either the September 24, 2002 British dossier or the October 4, 2002 CIA report. Lacking sufficient evidence, Russia dismissed the claims as a part of a "propaganda furor."


The UK knew;

"They also ignore the statements of Robin Cook, the former British foreign secretary who resigned on the eve of the war to protest Prime Minister Tony Blair’s war policy. Cook was quoted in the June 18, 2003 Guardian newspaper as saying: “I think it would be fair to say that there was a selection of evidence to support a conclusion. I fear we got into a position in which the intelligence was not being used to inform and shape policy, but to shape policy that was already settled.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/

Public opinion polls indicate that the most Britons strongly oppose an invasion of Iraq
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines02/0908-04.htm


Hell, even the majority of AMERICANS knew that:

December 17, 2002
Poll: Bush hasn't made case for Iraq war
More than two-thirds of Americans believe the Bush administration has failed to make its case that a war against Iraq is justified...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-12-17-iraq-poll_x.htm




January 13, 2003
Poll: Majority of Americans oppose unilateral action against Iraq
A robust majority of Americans - 83 percent - would support going to war if the United Nations backed the action and it was carried out by a multinational coalition. But without U.N. approval and allies, only about a third of the public would support a war with Iraq.
http://talkleft.com/new_archives/001415.html



Dear MFing freepers; did you think we just had a lucky GUESS??? WE KNEW. The majority of the entire world KNEW.
And we didn't want American citizens who happen to wear a military uniform to KILL AND BE KILLED for a politician's LIES.

THAT, you MFing stupid bastards is SUPPORTING OUR TROOPS.

[patrice]

5. Lynn . . . this is . . .

GREAT!

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I really needed this reminder. I remember now, how I felt. I remember thinking "It's going to be okay. The people are against this. They won't do it!" In spite of everything, I was actually surprised by Bush's announcement, thought he was really thinking it over and listening to the will of the People. WRONG!

[Titonwan]

7. Well said, Lynn

More Americans should get wise to this fact and PUSH for Cheney, Rumsfeld and their smirking chimp Bush to be prosecuted and CONVICTED AND SENTENCED.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/

GET INVOLVED! HELP, DAMMIT!

[Prometheus Bound]

11. Hats off to Lynn the Dem.

Excellent references.

[MadMaddie]

6. If it walks like a War Crime

Sounds like a War Crime, Paper trail indicates it's a War Crime....geeze it's gotta be a War Crime.

The more that comes out, the more the window closes on the * Admin to wiggle out of being charged with War Crimes!!

[Doctor Cynic]

8. He'd better not ride on any small airplanes.

[valerief]

9. No, BushCo was the threat. nt

[Robbien]

10. The general uninformed public will never get this news

unless it was repeated 24/7 for about a week or so.

Since that is not going to happen, the uninformed will continue to believe that removing Saddam was a valid reason for the U.S. invading a country and killing over a million Iraqis.

[defendandprotect]

12. CIA said that repeatedly . . ..

[ConcernedCanuk]

13. Canuk here says "DOH"

.
.
.

"Intelligence" wizards WANTED this war

Just for War's sake

And also,

The USA had a lot of new killing toys they wanted to test out

Iraqis were/are the guinea pigs

[Solly Mack]

14. K&R

[gratuitous]

15. There was no stopping the Bush administration

They wanted their war and they were going to get it. Anyone who got in the way was marginalized or eliminated from the public discussion. The intimidation and strong-arm tactics worked very, very well. Major media outlets, discerning the seeming inevitability of war decided that it was far more profitable to them to get on the bandwagon than to report the facts fairly. The New York Times published every little squib from the pen of Judith Miller and every little valentine to the Bush administration from Elisabeth Bumiller, extolling the virtues and ignoring the vices of the Bush Doctrine.

MSNBC pulled its highest-ranked show because Phil Donahue just wasn't getting with the war program. Millions of people demonstrating in the streets all over the country, and indeed all over the world, were reduced to a caricature of a guy in a rainbow fright wig by every media outlet. Compare and contrast with recent coverage of the handful of cranks holding their tea bag temper tantrums.

[No Elephants]

16. And yet, George Tenet supposedly said "slam dunk" and Colin Powell

went before the United Nations and God, and all of Busco, including Colon, went on every weekday morning "news" show and every Sunday talking heads show. And Condi was on George Rose the other night, still defending the invasion with steely eyes (She even slipped a few times and called it an invasion, too.)


Lord, forgive me, but I hate these c0-conspirators, on both sides of the Pond.

[go west young man]

17. There is still so much info yet to come to light.

It's a sad disgrace that Jack Straw has hidden the information from the public.

Video Link to House of Commons footage of whistleblower meetings: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Main/VideoPlayer.aspx?meetingId=3724&rel=ok