Fresh evidence is revealed today (Yesterday) about how MI6 and the CIA were told through secret channels by Saddam Hussein’s foreign minister and his head of intelligence that Iraq had no active weapons of mass destruction.
Tony Blair told parliament before the war that intelligence showed Iraq’s nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programme was “active”, “growing” and “up and running”.
A special BBC Panorama programme tonight (Last night actually) will reveal how British and US intelligence agencies were informed by top sources months before the invasion that Iraq had no active WMD programme, and that the information was not passed to subsequent inquiries.
It describes how Naji Sabri, Saddam’s foreign minister, told the CIA’s station chief in Paris at the time, Bill Murray, through an intermediary that Iraq had “virtually nothing” in terms of WMD.
Sabri said in a statement that the Panorama story was “totally fabricated”.
However, Panorama confirms that three months before the war an MI6 officer met Iraq’s head of intelligence, Tahir Habbush al-Tikriti, who also said that Saddam had no active WMD. The meeting in the Jordanian capital, Amman, took place days before the British government published its now widely discredited Iraqi weapons dossier in September 2002.
Lord Butler, the former cabinet secretary who led an inquiry into the use of intelligence in the runup to the invasion of Iraq, tells the programme that he was not told about Sabri’s comments, and that he should have been.
Butler says of the use of intelligence: “There were ways in which people were misled or misled themselves at all stages.”
When it was suggested to him that the body that probably felt most misled of all was the British public, Butler replied: “Yes, I think they’re, they’re, they got every reason think that.”
This broadcast comes on the heels of Rachel Maddow's brilliant documentary "Hubris" which examined how we in the US were lied into believing that Saddam Hussein presented a threat as well.
With so much new information coming out, and the reexamination of that evidence with clear eyes, it is almost making me hopeful that we will finally see some accountability.
Not that I expect to see George W, Bush,. Dick Cheney, or Tony Blair taken away in handcuffs (Though a boy can dream can't he?), but perhaps something will happen that will prevent such an atrocity from EVER happening again.
After all I thought after the Vietnam War that we had learned our lesson about war, but such was not the case.
If you REALLY want to get even more pissed off over the Iraq mess, watch The World According to Dick Cheney on Showtime. The man should be in jail. No regrets, would do it all over again. Disgusting.
ReplyDeleteAnd Cutler, who made the documentary, thinks that Cheney's intransigence is just fine, in fact, he thinks that it is admirable.
DeleteBeaglemom
Gryphen, the Will to Power and the accompanying Hubris prevent any learning from history. Though I am always to entertain hopeful thoughts, it has become more difficult to do so.
ReplyDeleteThe Vietnam lessons weren’t learned correctly. They were twisted into “fight with enough force to win” and “have an exit strategy.” The simple truth of “locals don’t like invaders” eluded most people. A family friend was in Vietnam recently, and the country is thriving, but not because of us. Most of the population is young and they don’t remember the war. What a waste.
ReplyDeleteCheney, et al should be in jail for this! Think of the lives taken and the costs! Sickening! How easily we were duped. The national media did NOT do their work in this either. What is wrong w/America?
ReplyDeleteFirst W told us something like: I looked into Putin's eyes and saw his soul, and here we have another picture of a "look deeply into my eyes" bromance. Or is it the look of two conspirators who know they have evaded detection? Arrrgh...
ReplyDeleteIt is really good to finally see all this coming out by credible sources, Tony Blair had to be up to his eyeballs in all the lies along with Bush, they were BFFs. Condi Rice sure gets a free pass when you hear how she is respected, blah, blah, blah...and a paid speaker. Her hands are covered in blood along with Rumsfeld, Cheney and puppet Bush. I feel such an overwhelming sadness for the families whose loved ones were murdered for nothing...including the Iraqy people. This disgusting GOP Congress still fighting against any benefits for these victims of their wars, which brings me to another point today.
ReplyDeleteDid anyone catch the fantastic news flash yesterday by Ryan and Boehner????? They both agreed on national TV there IS NO DEBT CRISIS!!!! They both agree with Obama that it is not the immediate problem, but is "looming" somewhere out there in years to come. It is hard to believe this Congress is even worse than the last one. When you think this recession would have been over if they just put people back to work improving our infrastructure and schools. Just the billionaires of Walmart would boost the entire economy by paying their workers $10/hr...decreasing the massive need for food stamps by these poor working families. This massive redistribution of wealth to the 1% started with "Saint Reagan" and Bush just put the cherry on top...finally it is main stream knowledge, well to the intelligent population anyway.
10 Years Later: Morning Joe Spars Over ‘Very Large Deception,’ ‘False Claims’ That Led To Iraq War
ReplyDeleteWith the 10-year anniversary of the war in Iraq upon us, an expected topic of discussion when reflecting is how we began the war in the first place — the reports and information leading up to it. Morning Joe was among those tackling that debate this morning, and it was, indeed, a debate. While some of the panel spoke of “deception” and “false claims,” other took issue with that assertion.
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/10-years-later-morning-joe-spars-over-very-large-deception-false-claims-that-led-to-iraq-war/
As one who was openly against the Iraq invasion I was branded a traitor to the United States by too many of my "Bush loving friends". The arguments for going to war repeated from the Fox pundits by these "friends" (yellowcake, aluminium casings, etc) still ring in my ears.
ReplyDeleteI happened to be attending a Community College in the spring of 2003. One student said in my English Comp 101 class said "We should trust the president as he had information we were not privy to."
As the old man of the class who escaped serving in Vietnam by 10 lottery numbers in 1971, I was incredulous. I tried to explain how those of my generation would have never trusted the president so blindly. Those kids treated me like I was from Mars. I wish I could have engaged them into a discussion of the anti war riots and Kent State.
While I'm happy to have been proven to have been on the "right side" I lament the losses for all involved. What a tragic waste of resources.
If I knew that they didn't have WMD, then they knew they didn't have WMD.
ReplyDeleteAnd I told my husband that there were no WMD the very DAY he came home from the grocery store all excited because we were bombing Iraq. These weapons are not built to sit on a shelf and wait to be used some time in the future. Components, maybe...but weapons, no way.
Lying bastards.
There is a pretty sizable group of apologists who insist that the invasion was justified due to the fact that there actually were WMDs in Iraq: yellowcake under seal that we already knew about, and some small caches of moldering chemical mortar rounds. They're grasping at anything they can to salvage a legacy of not being wrong.
ReplyDeleteTHIS short blip from GWBush's lips was a window to the truth for me.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfmATUzBwxY
This war was a personal vendetta based on lies. The one thing that perplexes me is how Bush, Cheyney, Rumsfeld and Rice got a free pass. "The Lessons of 9-11" were lost BECAUSE of their deception.
They can write books and appear on reality shows all they want, but history will not be kind to all of them.
Tony Blair cannot walk down the street in London without getting jeered at. POS
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