WMD

Personal Responsibility

From the press conference with President Bush:

Q Mr. President, you often speak about the need for accountability in many areas. I wonder then, why is Dr. Condoleezza Rice not being held accountable for the statement that your own White House has acknowledged was a mistake in your State of the Union address regarding Iraq's attempts to purchase uranium? And also, do you take personal responsibility for that inaccuracy?

THE PRESIDENT: I take personal responsibility for everything I say, of course. Absolutely. I also take responsibility for making decisions on war and peace. And I analyzed a thorough body of intelligence -- good, solid, sound intelligence -- that led me to come to the conclusion that it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Brokaw interviews David Kay

Tom Brokaw interviews David Kay, the former U.N. weapons inspector David Kay leading the search for the WMDs. Some highlights:

• Brokaw: But there’s no doubt in your mind, I gather, that in fact there was a program and it was substantial. Kay: I’ve already seen enough to convince me, but that’s not the standard. I’ve got to have enough evidence to convince everyone of that.

• Brokaw: How long is that going to take?...Kay: I think in six months from now, we’ll have a considerable amount of evidence, and we’ll be starting to reveal that evidence. Will we get to the bottom of the program? It took them over twelve years to build this program. This is a tough country to work in. They hid a lot. I think we’ll probably still be finding stuff well beyond six months. I think we will have a substantial body of evidence before six months.

• Brokaw: By the fall, will we have credible evidence [regarding] weapons of mass destruction...?  Kay: We’ve got over a thousand people here who are working here very hard; because that’s the only way any of us will go home.

Over a thousand people!

Blair addresses US Congress

Not much new here, but this is an interesting quote:

Can we be sure that terrorism and weapons of mass destruction will join together? Let us say one thing. If we are wrong, we will have destroyed a threat that is at its least responsible for human carnage and suffering. That is something I am confident history will forgive. But if our critics are wrong, if we are right - as I believe with every fibre of instinct and conviction I have that we are - and we do not act, then we will have hesitated in the face of this menace, when we should have given leadership. That is something history will not forgive.

Edited copy of Blair's speech to Congress at The Independent.

Blame it on the CIA

In Uganda, Bush and Rice blame the CIA for the false accusation of an Iraq-Niger nuclear connection. Rice said:

I can tell you, if the CIA, the director of Central Intelligence, had said, take this out of the speech, it would have been gone, without question...There was even some discussion on that specific sentence, so that it reflected better what the CIA thought. And the speech was cleared.

Rice said Bush still had confidence in George Tenet, but:

We wouldn't put anything knowingly in the speech that was false; I'm sure they wouldn't put anything knowingly in the speech that was false...In this case, this particular line shouldn't have gotten in because it was not of the quality that we would put into presidential speeches.

Update: The BBC is reporting "the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency has acknowledged that his organisation was wrong to let President George W Bush tell the American people that Iraq was trying to acquire nuclear material from Africa."

WMD claims in Bush's State of the Union address

From the full text of Bush's State of the Union address, here are the claims Bush made with regard to Iraq (all text quoted, some text elided):

1. To spare himself, [Saddam Hussein] agreed to disarm of all weapons of mass destruction. For the next 12 years, he systematically violated that agreement. He pursued chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons even while inspectors were in his country.  

2. Nothing to date has restrained him from his pursuit of these weapons - not economic sanctions, not isolation from the civilized world, not even cruise missile strikes on his military facilities. 

3. Almost three months ago, the United Nations Security Council gave Saddam Hussein his final chance to disarm. He has shown instead his utter contempt for the United Nations, and for the opinion of the world.  

4. The job of the [UN weapons] inspectors is to verify that Iraq's regime is disarming. It is up to Iraq to show exactly where it is hiding its banned weapons... lay those weapons out for the world to see... and destroy them as directed.  Nothing like this has happened.

5. The United Nations concluded in 1999 that Saddam Hussein had biological weapons materials sufficient to produce over 25,000 litres of anthrax - enough doses to kill several million people.  He has not accounted for that material.  He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it. 

6. The United Nations concluded that Saddam Hussein had materials sufficient to produce more than 38,000 litres of botulinum toxin - enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure.  He has not accounted for that material.  He has given no evidence that he has destroyed it. 

7. Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard, and Vx nerve agent.  He has not accounted for these materials.  He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them.

8. US intelligence indicates that Saddam Hussein had upwards of 30,000 munitions capable of delivering chemical agents.  Inspectors recently turned up 16 of them, despite Iraq's recent declaration denying their existence.  Saddam Hussein has not accounted for the remaining 29,984 of these prohibited munitions.  He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them. 

9. From three Iraqi defectors we know that Iraq, in the late 1990s, had several mobile biological weapons labs.  Saddam Hussein has not disclosed these facilities.  He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them. 

10. The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed in the 1990s that Saddam Hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program, had a design for a nuclear weapon, and was working on five different methods of enriching uranium for a bomb. 
    The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. 

11. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high strength aluminium tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. 

12. From intelligence sources, we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work hiding documents and materials from the UN inspectors - sanitizing inspection sites, and monitoring the inspectors themselves. 

13. Iraqi officials accompany the inspectors in order to intimidate witnesses. 

14. Iraq is blocking U-2 surveillance flights requested by the United Nations. 

15. Iraqi intelligence officers are posing as the scientists inspectors are supposed to interview.  Real scientists have been coached by Iraqi officials on what to say. 

16. And intelligence sources indicate that Saddam Hussein has ordered that scientists who co-operate with UN inspectors in disarming Iraq will be killed, along with their families.  

17. Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications, and statements by people now in custody, reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of al-Qaeda. 

18. This dictator, who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons, has already used them on whole villages - leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind, or disfigured.   Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained - by torturing children while their parents are made to watch.  International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq: electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues, and rape. 

Bush also gives the weapons of mass destruction as the main justification for the impending war: Let there be no misunderstanding: If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people, and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him. 

CIA warned the White House about falseness of Niger claim?

BBC Article: White House 'warned over Iraq claim':

The CIA warned the US Government that claims about Iraq's nuclear ambitions were not true months before President Bush used them to make his case for war, the BBC has learned.

'Senior UK Sources' say no WMD will be found

BBC is reporting Iraq weapons 'unlikely to be found':

BBC political editor Andrew Marr said "very senior sources" in Whitehall had virtually ruled out the possibility of finding the weapons.

They believe they did exist - but were hidden or destroyed by Saddam Hussein before the war.

Former Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the admissions were a "dramatic development" and ex-Prime Minister John Major has called for a full independent inquiry into the basis for war.

White House admits error

From the CBS News report:

Amid questions about prewar intelligence, the White House is acknowledging that President Bush was incorrect when he said in his State of the Union address that Iraq recently had sought significant quantities of uranium in Africa.

Will US officials reveal all?

Salon reports:

U.S. officials in Iraq have solid evidence of weapons of mass destruction programs and details probably will be released soon, two leading Senate Republicans said Thursday, after returning from Iraq.

But Democrats on the same trip said the evidence wasn't definitive. They said the Republicans were trying to shift the focus from proving that Saddam Hussein had weapons to proving he was developing them.