As Iran once again begin to
dabble in nuclear research, an interesting Raw Story report has surfaced indicating that top Pentagon
neocons wanted to plant WMDs in Iraq after the invasion revealed there was none.
According to Raw Story's Larisa Alexandrovna, super secret teams were sent into Iraq under the control of the folks in the Office of Special Plans:
Three U.S. intelligence sources and a source close to the United Nations Security Council say that the Pentagon civilian leadership under the guidance of Stephen Cambone, appointed to lead Defense Department intelligence in March 2003, dispatched a series of "off book" missions out of the ultra-secretive Office of Special Plans (OSP). The team was tasked to secure the following in order of priority: fallen Navy pilot Scott Speicher, WMD and Saddam Hussein.
While it is known that an authorized special operations unit was dispatched before the invasion of Iraq with similar objectives, sources say another team also operated on the ground in Iraq, primarily from the summer until the fall of 2003. This team appears to have been composed of 4-5 men.
Their mission? While looking for missing Navy pilot Lieutenant Commander Michael "Scott" Speicher and hunting down Saddam were apparently a priority, it appears this may have just been cover for more nefarious purposes, including planting WMD evidence:
Secret team looked to `solve' WMD problem?
This smaller unnamed team was tasked with interviewing former Iraqi intelligence officers in hopes of securing help with a "political WMD" problem, a source close to the UN Security Council says.
During the summer of 2003 through the fall of 2003, the team, whose members who were not named by sources, is said to have interviewed many Iraqi intelligence and former intelligence officers. The UN source says that the political problem discussed had more to do with solving the lack of WMD than anything else.
"They come in the summer of 2003, bringing in Iraqis, interviewing them," the UN source said. "Then they start talking about WMD and they say to [these Iraqi intelligence officers] that `Our President is in trouble. He went to war saying there are WMD and there are no WMD. What can we do? Can you help us?'"
The source said intelligence officers understood quickly what they were being asked to do and that the assumption was they were being asked to provide WMD in order for coalition forces to find them.
Apparently, the plan was kaboshed when it was realized how easily such fabrication would be detected:
But the guys were thinking this is absurd because anything put down would not pass the smell test and could be shown to be not of Iraqi origin and not using Iraqi methodology," the source added.
Former and current US intelligence officers explain that such forensics is essential and would have in fact proved if a weapons stash found was using Iraqi methodology.
Too bad they didn't. It would have likely been discovered and brought down the Bush administration.