WMD find is trailer trash

[k hanly <khanly@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>From http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/06/02/1054406134772.html

A poll in the Sydney Morning Herald has just 27 per cent believing that
Hussein had WMD.
Results are at same link.

Cheers, Ken Hanly

Proof of WMD is Bush trailer trash
June 3 2003





In asserting that "we found the weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq,
President George Bush has presented a far less expansive estimate of Saddam
Hussein's chemical, biological and nuclear capabilities than the one he used
for months to justify the war.

Since last August Mr Bush and his top lieutenants said it was an absolute
certainty that Iraq remained in possession of significant quantities of
banned weapons, particularly chemical and biological munitions.

But Mr Bush's remarks on Thursday, in an interview on Polish television,
made it clear the United States had lowered its standards of proof. Mr Bush
said the discovery in Iraq of two trailers, with laboratory equipment but no
pathogens, was tantamount to a discovery of weapons.

Mr Bush's original charges against Iraq, presented to the United Nations and
the US public, were explicitly about the weapons themselves.

In his State of the Union address on January 28, he cited evidence that
Saddam had enough materials to produce more than 38,000 litres of botulinum
toxin and as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agents.


"He has not accounted for these materials," Mr Bush said.

"He has given no evidence that he has destroyed them."

In delivering his March 17 ultimatum to Saddam to go into exile, Mr Bush
said in a national address that Iraq possessed "some of the most lethal
weapons ever devised."

As the war started, the US continued to say with total confidence that the
weapons would be found.

On March 21 the White House press secretary, Ari Fleischer, said there was
"no question" biological and chemical weapons would be found and said "this
was the reason that the President felt so strongly that we needed to take
military action".

General Tommy Franks, leading the invading military forces in Iraq, said the
next day that there was "no doubt that the regime possesses weapons of mass
destruction" and that they would be found.

On March 30 on US television, the Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, said
of the prohibited weapons: "We know where they are. They are in the area
around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."

However, when heavy combat in Iraq ended without any of the banned arms
having been discovered, American officials began to put the emphasis on the
search for evidence of weapons programs rather than on the weapons
themselves.

On April 24 Mr Bush raised the possibility that the weapons might no longer
exist.

"We know he had them," he said. "And whether he destroyed them, moved them
or hid them, we're going to find out the truth."

The Washington Po