Phase II: the need to invent the “yellow cake” story

[kpete]

Page 8/172 about Cheneys August 26th, 2002 claim that Iraq was pursuing nuclear program.

According to a DIA report, the intelligence community continued to assess that it would take five to seven years from the commencement of a revived nuclear program for the Iraqi government to indigenously produce enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon. This same report repeated the assessment that a nuclear weapon could be constructed much faster if adequate fissile material was acquired from a foreign source, though an earlier CIA assessment noted that “we have not detected a dedicated Iraqi effort to obtain fissile material abroad.

Thus the need to invent the “yellow cake” story.

page16-17/172 Conclusion to Statements given by Cheney and others regarding Nuclear Weapons.

Conclusions
(U) Conclusion 1: Statements by the President, Vice President, Secretary of State and the National Security Advisor regarding a possible Iraqi nuclear weapons program were generally substantiated by intelligence community estimates, but did not convey the substantial disagreements that existed in the intelligence community.

Prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate, some intelligence agencies assessed that the Iraqi government was reconstituting a nuclear weapons program, while others disagreed
or expressed doubts about the evidence. The Estimate itself expressed the majority view that the program was being reconstituted, but included clear dissenting views from the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research, which argued that reconstitution was not
underway, and the Department of Energy, which argued that aluminum tubes sought by Iraq were probably not intended for a nuclear program.

39 National Intelligence Estimate, Iraq’s Continuing Programs for Weapons of Mass Destruction, October 2002.
15
Postwar Findings
(U) Postwar findings revealed that Iraq ended its nuclear weapons program in 1991, and that Iraq’s ability to reconstitute a nuclear weapons program progressively declined after that date.

The Iraq Survey Group (ISO) found no evidence that Saddam Hussein ever attempted to restart a nuclear weapons program, although the Group did find that he took steps to retain the intellectual capital generated during the program. That intellectual capital decayed between 1991 and 2003, however, and the ISO found no evidence that the relevant scientists were involved in renewed weapons work.

(U) Postwar findings confirmed that the high-strength aluminum tubes sought by Iraq had been intended for a conventional rocket program, and found no evidence that other dual-use technologies (magnets, high-speed balancing machines, and machine tools) were intended for
use in a nuclear weapons program. Various ongoing activities at former nuclear sites were apparently unrelated to any weapons program, and construction observed at the al-Tahadi highvoltage and electromagnetic facility also had no apparent connection to any nuclear weapons
program.

(U) Postwar surveys found no evidence that Iraq sought uranium from any foreign sources after 1991.

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/06/05/phase-ii-report-working-thread/

[Supersedeas]

1. Condi still pointing her finger toward the bowels of the Administration??

[lonestarnot]

2. All they had to do to locate it was scrape McSame's teeth.

[Peace Patriot]

3. It's so important to understand these lies, because the lies CONTINUE...

...about any country, democratic or otherwise, that controls LOTS OF OIL.

They are using the SAME TACTICS NOW, as they used for Iraq WMDs, against Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela, and Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador--both of whom control major oil reserves of the western hemisphere, both countries members of OPEC, and both with leftist, social justice governments. Deja vu all over again. They are "terrorists." They are "dictators." The fascists who are plotting to split off the oil-rich provinces of these countries (organized, funded and armed by the Bush Junta) are "democrats" and "freedom lovers" (i.e., Ahmed Chalabi). The slander, lies and psyops, and the putrid alliances, follow a hauntingly similar pattern. And the slander is even worse, and more mind-boggling, because there is not one shred of evidence that either Chavez or Correa are "dictators"--the opposite is true, they are EMPOWERING the people--and, as for "terrorists," it depends on whether or not you believe Alvaro Uribe of Colombia ($5.5 BILLION in Bush/U.S. military aid) whose death squad pals chainsaw union leaders and throw their body parts into mass graves, and have slaughtered thousands of union leaders, community organizers, small peasant farmers, dissenters, human rights workers and journalists. He says Chavez and Correa support "terrorists." And, hey, George Bush, believes him! And the corporate 'news' monopolies can't promote these lies enough.

All over again. Oil War II: South America.

Iran, of course, is another example--a country that has invaded no one--and appears to have no territorial ambitions, and which, further, has shown considerable restraint, in view of the disaster visited by the U.S. on its next door neighbor. They fear Israel because Israel has nukes. And they fear the U.S. for the same reason, and because, look the hell what the U.S. did to Iraq! They have reason for fear. And they know that U.S. intentions toward them have always been bad--going way back to U.S. destruction of their democracy in 1954, and infliction of the horrible Shah of Iran, for 25 years of torture and oppression, in the interest of U.S. and British oil corporations. The Bushites are inventing this threat. The Bushites themselves are more of a threat to us than Iran is.

And, as for Venezuela and Ecuador, they are not only not a threat to the people of the United States, they are FRIENDS. Democratic friends! Their crime is that their leaders believe in using their countries' oil wealth to benefit the poor! They are a threat to Exxon Mobil--our REAL enemy--not to us.

[countryjake]

4. Exactly! Imperialism at its finest!

Great post, Peace Patriot! This point needs to be made, over and over again.

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

Thanks, kpete

[countryjake]

6. Kick!

[sicksicksick_N_tired]

7. AND outright LIE about AQ connections AND outright LIE about 9/11 ties.

THEY COMMITTED FRAUD AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE,...ON PURPOSE!!!

Okay. The foregoing is not "news" to those of us paying attention.