Exposing undesirable truths is "hard work" to quote our President. In fact it takes gathering intelligence from the intelligence that's quite frankly " leaked" like a running toilet from sea to shining sea. If we just cherry pick from the leaked intelligence we'd have a "slam dunk" to quote George Tenet.
The Bush White House holds its second National Security Council meeting. Again, the issue of regime change in Iraq is the central topic. One of the memos discussed during the meeting is titled, "Plan for post-Saddam Iraq." It reportedly discusses the need for troops in a post-Saddam occupation, war crime tribunals, and how to divvy up Iraq's oil wealth.
CBS NEWS,1/10/04.
In February 24, 2001, Colin Powell meets with Amre Moussa, his counterpart in Cairo Egypt. During a press conference, Powell says: He(Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.
US Department of State, 2/24/03.
If a prosecutor were to pointedly ask Powell if Saddam Hussein posed a national security threat to the United States , how could he possible squirm out of his own personal assesment in Cairo?
In July 2001, Condoleeza Rice, National Security Advisor, says, "Saddam does not control the northern part of the country. We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."
The Mirror, 9/22/03.
Patrick Lang: The (neoconservative) Cabal had "cherry-picked the intelligence stream" so that its conclusions would support the case for war. The Defense Intelligence Agency has been "exploited and abused and bypassed in the process of making the case for war in Iraq based on the presence of WMD.
Rueters,5/30/03.
David Albright: " I don't know why there is not more debate, I have heard that a lot of people are expected to remain silent.(The Bush Administration) has certainly scared people. I met one government scientist who said his phone was being monitored."
Independant,9/22/02.
President George Bush says in a speech at the Cincinnati Museum Center: " Some worry that a change of leaddership in Iraq could create instability and make the situation worse. The situation could hardly get worse for world security and for the people of Iraq."
White House,7/10/02.
The Downing Street Minutes provide the link between the unknown and known. It should be permission granted for good journalists to restate the case of "The Illegal War."
Hendrick Hertzberg who writes for the New Yorker brings us back to a time we barely remember, "As for America's freinds, they have rallied around us with alacity, on Wednesday, NATO allies , for the first time ever, invoked the mutual-defense clause of the alliance's founding treaty, formally declaring that "an armed attack" against one-and what happened on September 11, whether you call it terrorism or war, was certainly an armed attack , consitutes an attack against all."
So we attacked Iraq.