Is Rumsfeld an honest man?

@F_alk:

(1) The Iraq - Al Qaeda connection:
Richard Perle insists that iraqi agent Ahmad al-Ani met Mohammed Atta in Prague in april 2001.
Juli 2003: No evidence found for a cooperation between SH and alQ. In autumn 2003 czech president Havel sent a note that such a meeting did not take place. al Ani was captured by US troops on 2nd July 2003: he denies that such a meeting took place.

(2) Niger
state of the union address (Jan 2003), GWB claims the Iraq has received a substantial amount of uranium for building nuclear weapons.
Juli 2003: In Jan 2002 the CIA classified the reports of the Iraq buying Uranium from Niger as “false”. 7th March 2003 Mohammed el-Baradei of the IAEO showed the documents were blun and blantant forgeries. 9th July, the US gov’t admits that they knowingly have used unproven information.

(3) 45 min (a Blair thing)
talking to the house of commons on 24th Sept 2002, Blair claims that the Iraq produces WMDs, that biological and chemical weapons could be readied by the Iraq in 45 minutes.
July 2003: a UK secreat service member admits that this passage was added due to orders/pressure from gov’t. A. Ingram (of the ministry of defense) admits that the “45 minutes” is from a single source and could not be proven/secured as true information.

(4) WMDs
Upon inauguration, GWB claims on 19th Jan 2001 that the Iraq possesses WMDs. Since then this has been repeated and repeated.
July 2003: Neither the UN-inspecotrs under Blix nor the 1400 men of the Iraq Survey Group under Gen. Keith Dayton have found neither any WMDs nor hints for their production.

(5) biological weapons
Colin Powell claimed on 5th Feb 2003 in front of the UN Security Council:
Saddam Hussein has research running on dozens of bacteria and virusses, like Anthrax, Plague, Cholera, Pocks etc., holding up a small glas tube into the camera.
July 2003: It is said that, when Powell first read the script, he threw all the papers in the air and said “i will not say this, it’s BS”.
No traces of biological wepaons hve been found in the Iraq.

(6) long range missiles
Januar 2002, US intelligence said the Iraq probably will use it’s experierence with teh SCUD to produce rockets of 650 km range, 900 km range or even longer. British intelligence gave evidence for the existance of rockest with a range of more than the allowed 150 km in Sept 2002
July 2003: The rockets with range of 200km (al Samud) were known to the UN inspectors and dismantled as a breach of the 1991 resolution. Since then, neither the UN nor the US army inspectors could find rcokets that would fit to the above descriptions.

(7) high precision bombs
before the war started, the US department of defense said that 80% of all rockets, bombs and cruise missiles would be high precision weapons to save civilian lifes.
July 2003: US air force says, that more than 2/3 of the bombs used were high precision bombs (19948 of 29199, 68%) Pentagon admits the use of 1500 “spraying bombs” (i don’t know the correct english word for that, sorry, bombs that have a huge radius of effect and are most effective against soft targets). UK arti used 2000 of these around Basra. Amnesty International reckons that about 9000 highly explosive “duds” are left in Iraq.

(8) Jessica Lynch
NY Times said (4th April), she had put up fierce resistance before being captured, fighting on after being injured by several bullets. Later she was “mistreated” in hospital and freed by a US special unit. Pentagon handed out some nice videos of that action.
July 2003: Lynch drove against another vehicle, she had a broken leg and was bleeding severly. She has the (ask CC) rare blood type “Zero positive”. Members of the family of Dr. Saad Abdul Razak (who treated her) donated blood. Tries of the hospital to contact the US troops were unsuccessful: the US soldiers opened fire when the ambulance coach with Lynch approached them. When the US stormed the hospital, there were no iraqi troops around, no resistance. The “journalist” who shot the movie came from Hollywood and was assistant to Ridley Scott when they made “Black Hawk Down”.

(9) the bunker
20th March, Rumsfeld declared the successful bombing of a bunker in Bagdadm were SH or his son were suspected to be.
July 2003: CIA and US Colonel Tim Madere examined that area. They found a huge crater, but there never was a bunker nor did they find any human remains, as Madere reported.

So, we have a handful of lies before the war, during the war, a handful of dubious connections and interest groups involved…… but well, as i said, you will not believe that, it would only disturb your way to see the world …
do you have the saying “to see the world through blinkers”, btw?

this is a nice summary. Of course it is the “al queda” connection, the “45 minutes” line and the “uranium” buys that get me the most. If it were not for these 3 things, there would never be a war in Iraq - at least not one that did not result in the plummeting of Bush-Blair’s popularity even worse.

@Deviant:Scripter:

Huh?

Nobody is claiming that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. Not even President Bush said that! (I said not even, because a few people here believe that Bush likes to exaggerate things… :wink:)

that’s interesting. I had understood that Iraq had been linked to al queda and the 9/11 bombings and that this had bought much in political equity to exercise the will to go into Iraq. This struck me as odd given that it was well known that Hussein and Bin Laden were enemies and Bin Laden’s reference to Hussein were merely intended to inflate America’s wrath against his foe.
also why then, did you say

Okay, just becuase you don’t believe the al-Qaeda connection doesn’t make it false.

?

@Deviant:Scripter:

I’ve heard Bush (or some other senior leader perhaps) make the connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, but I’m not sure that I remember a relationship being drawn between Iraq and 9/11 specifically.

However, (as usual :wink:), I may be wrong–so feel free to give me a source. :P

About the second part, when you said that it “gets you,” was I assuming that you meant it was false like the 45 minutes and the uranium. That’s why I was saying that it’s hasn’t neccessarily been proved false. In fact, did you hear about the 9/11 survivor’s family who was awarded Bin Laden and Hussein’s money in court? The judge found enough compelling evidence to link Saddam, al-Qaeda, and terrorism together in order to award the family millions of dollars. :o

same judge who gave that lady who spilled McDonald’s coffee on her lap millions of dollars? i mean really, these guys are lawyers voted for by a public who ostensibly voted for Bush (and have difficulty marking an election ballot by the look of things . . . ).

@Deviant:Scripter:

I’ve heard Bush (or some other senior leader perhaps) make the connection between Iraq and Al-Qaeda, but I’m not sure that I remember a relationship being drawn between Iraq and 9/11 specifically.

fair enough.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0314/p02s01-woiq.html

• maybe not the most reliable source, but it provides an interesting take.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/04/september11/main520830.shtml - shows Rumsfeld’s lack of discernment between the 2.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/nightline/US/globalshow_030425.html

• basically this provides emphasis on the need to go to war - you can yell 9/11 loud enough and justify anything.

at the same time, there is some controversial evidence that Iraq has been working with Al Queda as well - at least the secret service - which contradicts what i’ve read about SH and OBL’s hatred of each other:
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/comment-mylroie052902.asp
http://www.intelmessages.org/Messages/National_Security/wwwboard/messages/814.html