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You are here: MacNN Forums > Community > MacNN Lounge > Political/War Lounge > No WMDs in Saddam 's Arsenal: Interview

No WMDs in Saddam 's Arsenal: Interview
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angaq0k
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Aug 12, 2004, 09:36 PM
 
Interview
To paraphrase Donald Rumsfeld, there were the known unknowns over the Iraqi weapons programme during the Saddam era, and the unknown unknowns.

The problem with trying to turn the remaining 'unknowns' into 'knowns' is that all the key figures from Saddam's regime are either in prison, in hiding or dead. But one key player has been tracked down by Newsnight.

Dr Jaffar Dhia Jaffar is described as the father of Iraq's nuclear weapons programme and was at the heart of the regime until Baghdad fell. Now debriefed by the CIA and MI6 he's given his first broadcast interview to Newsnight.
watch
"******* politics is for the ******* moment. ******** equations are for ******** Eternity." ******** Albert Einstein
     
Krusty
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Aug 13, 2004, 02:18 AM
 
Just further confirmation of what we already know. WMD was a hoax from the outset.
     
djohnson
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Aug 13, 2004, 08:57 AM
 
Originally posted by Krusty:
Just further confirmation of what we already know. WMD was a hoax from the outset.
There is no proof either way... This may look like it confirms that there were no WMD, but you are still taking one persons word against anothers.
     
Zimphire
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Aug 13, 2004, 09:00 AM
 
Originally posted by Krusty:
Just further confirmation of what we already know. WMD was a hoax from the outset.
Hoax?

"An act intended to deceive or trick."

Unless you can prove it was intended...
     
Krusty
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Aug 13, 2004, 11:16 AM
 
Originally posted by djohnson:
There is no proof either way... This may look like it confirms that there were no WMD, but you are still taking one persons word against anothers.
One person's word against another's? Who's still saying that the WMD exist ? Bush and Blair aren't (seems they got faulty intelligence somewhere), the former chief paboo in charge of finding them advised us to give up the "ridiculous hope" that they are going to be found. Who is the other person that is disagreeing with this guy ??

Originally posted by Zimphire:
Hoax?

"An act intended to deceive or trick."
Ahhh ... good point, I concede that the dictionary.com definition of "hoax" implies intent. However that raises a philosophical quandry: If someone tells me that the Easter Bunny exists and I go around repeating that information as truth. Does it still qualify as a hoax even if I am an unwitting participant in that deceit? Or do we stop calling it a hoax because I didn't know it was untrue ?? The stakes of this question are relatively minor .. if you decide that "hoax" is not the appropriate word, then feel free to replace that term with "blunder", "screw-up". "egregious error", or "gross incompetence" at your discretion as they do not necessarily require intent.

Originally posted by Zimphire:

Unless you can prove it was intended...
Alas, my only proof is the hearsay of a handful of people (Richard Clarke et al) who were supposedly in a position that they might know ... but I don't really have any direct evidence outside this hearsay. Y'know .. almost exactly the same type of proof used to send 140,000 troops to conquer and occupy a country indefinitely. Pretty sorry excuse for "proof", I know
     
dialo
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Aug 13, 2004, 12:16 PM
 
Originally posted by Zimphire:
Unless you can prove it was intended...
At best information was packaged to make it appear more damaging. Case in point: Halabja. The DIA and CIA had concluded Iran was responsible. The administration ignored this fact and acted like this assessment never existed, just like they swept so many facts under the rug. It's the same way they dealt with the VX issue. They cited numbers that came from UN reports that in adjacent sections explained why it was highly unlikely for any VX to still exist.

While the reality was far more complex, everything was tossed out in favor of black and white propaganda.

And the whole "we couldn't take any chances" line is obviously not valid for all of the propaganda. The administration's treatment of halabja shows that it had more to do with propaganda than potential threat.
     
Wiskedjak
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Aug 13, 2004, 12:16 PM
 
Originally posted by djohnson:
There is no proof either way... This may look like it confirms that there were no WMD, but you are still taking one persons word against anothers.
Ummm ... I'm fairly certainly you can't prove a negative, so it should come as no surprise that there is no proof of the lack of existence of WMD in Iraq.
     
dialo
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Aug 13, 2004, 12:22 PM
 
You also can't really prove intent. Especially not to people that are hell-bent on denying the obvious.
     
   
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