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2023-03-22 Home Front: WoT
Former CIA officials reveal attempts by Bush administration to misrepresent Intelligence for Iraq war
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Posted by trailing wife 2023-03-22 00:14|| || Front Page|| [11125 views ]  Top

#1 Fabrication? Indeed it was, at least in once instance.

You may remember Secretary of State Colin Powell's famous PPT trailer slides and UN briefing. Klingon puppeteer Geo Tennent with pale blue necktie sits to the rear of Powell.

Administration Claims:

Two mobile trailers were found in Mosul and Irbil five weeks after the Iraq War began. During the eight months afterwards, senior Bush administration officials claimed that the trailers were mobile biological weapons production labs and served as conclusive evidence of Iraq’s active weapons of mass destruction (WMD) program.

Facts:

Soon after the discovery of the two trailers, it was determined by top British, U.S. and U.N. bioweapons inspectors that the trucks housed hydrogen generation units used to fill weather balloons, rather than equipment for the production of lethal biological agents. The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the CIA-appointed Iraq Survey Group also found no evidence to corroborate the claim of the existence of a mobile biological weapons program.

Overview:

By late May of 2003 – one month after the two trailers were found – both trucks were inspected and unequivocally determined by U.S. bioweapons experts to be unsuitable for biological weapons production. Notwithstanding, President Bush and senior members of his administration continued from May 2003 through January 2004 to state that the trailers were, in fact, mobile bioweapons labs.

Link
Posted by Besoeker 2023-03-22 00:56||   2023-03-22 00:56|| Front Page Top

#2 attempts?
Posted by Skidmark 2023-03-22 01:18||   2023-03-22 01:18|| Front Page Top

#3 Additional WMD "misrepresentations" involving Chinese Wet Markets would surface a number of years later.
Posted by Besoeker 2023-03-22 01:22||   2023-03-22 01:22|| Front Page Top

#4 Washington Examiner - What we got right in Iraq

Based on what U.S. officials knew 20 years ago, they were absolutely justified in taking military action to evict Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq. Twenty years later, the world remains, on rough balance, better off because they did.

Despite all the United States and its allies got wrong operationally in Iraq in the past two decades, it also did a lot of things right and for good reasons — and with some markedly good results.
Posted by Besoeker 2023-03-22 03:31||   2023-03-22 03:31|| Front Page Top

#5 People forget we did find chemical weapons in Iraq. A lot of them. The kicker was they were all made during the 80s for the Iran-Iraq war and were in terrible shape.
Posted by DarthVader 2023-03-22 07:30||   2023-03-22 07:30|| Front Page Top

#6 Does anyone embrace caca disinformation as readily as the MSM?
Posted by M. Murcek 2023-03-22 07:43||   2023-03-22 07:43|| Front Page Top

#7 ...werein terrible shape.

However they were military grade which means they even in such state were far more lethal than what amateurs cooked up for the Tokyo subway attack.
Posted by Procopius2k 2023-03-22 08:05||   2023-03-22 08:05|| Front Page Top

#8 Coincidentally, the Mrs. and I visited the Bush museum in Dallas yesterday. I was impressed by Bush - the person - but skipped through the WOT section. Very inspiring was the Freedom Matters exhibit. Folks from all over, including Russia and Cuba, defined freedom. Bush thought it was a universal concept, and so it seemed.
Posted by Bobby 2023-03-22 09:25||   2023-03-22 09:25|| Front Page Top

#9 Our family Marine told us that they found many sites with the precursors to lethal chem weapons, Darth. All they would have had to do is mix the 2 or 3 chemicals together. Sites always found with piles of Mop Suits, gloves and masks.
Posted by Mullah Richard OTR 2023-03-22 10:02||   2023-03-22 10:02|| Front Page Top

#10 /\ Remote research facilities with stacks of animal cages behind the buildings and massive burn pits. You decide.
Posted by Besoeker 2023-03-22 10:05||   2023-03-22 10:05|| Front Page Top

#11 with some markedly good results

Other than women's rights and butt pirates.
Posted by Skidmark 2023-03-22 10:19||   2023-03-22 10:19|| Front Page Top

#12 This as opposed to the misrepreseting done by the CIA.
Posted by ed in texas 2023-03-22 10:55||   2023-03-22 10:55|| Front Page Top

#13 family Marine told us that they found many sites with the precursors to lethal chem weapons

I came in just after the 101st got back from desert storm and they had story after story of finding shells, barrels and other chemical crap. Some had broken and were leaking and the chemical bonds had broken down and were just merely severely toxic instead of lethal. Others were in excellent condition and ready to be fired.
But all were from the 70-80s
Posted by DarthVader 2023-03-22 12:33||   2023-03-22 12:33|| Front Page Top

#14 Thank you, B. Many remember that day. Back then, there was trust and confidence. Fast forward to today - it's all gone and not coming back until after this has all been sorted out. Unfortunately, none of us will be around to see it come to full fruition.
Posted by Rex Mundi 2023-03-22 13:54||   2023-03-22 13:54|| Front Page Top

#15 /\ I sat 'ringside' as an uninvolved observer on the WMD Trailer inspection fiasco. There's a lot more to the sad story, recriminations and dismissals, etc. Many of the victims are still alive and probably would not appreciate a rehash.
Posted by Besoeker 2023-03-22 18:41||   2023-03-22 18:41|| Front Page Top

23:59 Whugum Chimp3250
23:55 Whugum Chimp3250
23:24 Whugum Chimp3250
22:46 Ebbuger Whuque4103
22:34 DarthVader
22:34 DarthVader
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18:38 Abu Uluque
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