How many times have we listened to people claiming Bush lied about the WMD in Iraq.  On January 6, 2011 the government declassified the status report given to Donald Rumsfeld by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 9, 2002.  This report was in response to a request from Rumsfeld to find out what the U.S. knew and didn’t know about the WMD in Iraq.  This memo reveals the truth about the intelligence regarding WMD in Iraq.

Naturally some people will quickly seize on this as lacking in hard core evidence.  But, that is hardly news.  Everyone agrees that the intelligence on Iraq was pathetic.  Iraq was a very secretive state and one of the problems for everyone was the lack of solid intelligence. 

George Bush undoubtedly used this report to help him evaluate the level of threat from Iraq.

It basically says the following:

1. The Joint Chiefs of Staff believed that Iraq was making significant progress in WMD programs.
2. The U.S. had little or no hard intelligence with regard to the Iraqi nuclear programs.
3. Iraq was engaged in a program of Cover, Concealment, Denial and Deception (“CCD&D”) program that made it very difficult to evaluate their WMD program.
4. Iraq definitely had the knowledge needed to build a nuclear weapon.
5. The U.S. believed he already had a viable weapon designe.  They did not know how far Iraq had progressed with regard to enrichment.  They did not know the location of any nuclear weapons facilities.
6. Iraq definitely had the knowledge necessary to build biological weapons.
7. Iraq had all the processes required to produce biological weapons and had produced anthrax, ricin toxin, botulinum toxin and gas gangrene. 
8. The U.S. could not confirm the identity of any specific facilities.
9. They knew what biological weapons Iraq could produce, they did not know how and where they were produced.
10. Iraq definitely had the knowledge needed to build chemical weapons.
11. The U.S did not know if the processes required to produce a weapon were in place.  Iraq had already produced mustard gas and nerve agents. 
12. Iraq had facilities producing feedstock chemicals suitable for chemical warfare precursor.
13. The U.S. did not know the location of any Iraqi sites that could produce the final chemical agent.
14. Iraq had the knowledge to build ballistic missiles.
15. They could produce short range ballistic missiles.
16. The U.S. did know where most of the missile facilities were located.

In summary, intelligence showed that Iraq was an extremely dangerous state.  Iraq was actively promoting terrorism; Saddam Hussein was literally paying the families of suicide bombers.

There was a high risk of Iraq becoming a nuclear power with very little warning. We did not know the location of any nuclear weapon facilities.

Iraq had the capability to produce biological weapons and chemical weapons.  We did not know the location of any facilities.

Note:  In the past, intelligence had always been surprised to learn that Iraq had more than they suspected.  That was an opinion held by both Democrats and Republicans.  If the intelligence was wrong, most people experienced in intelligence suspected it was understating the problem.

Bush did not have the option of ordering air strikes or cruise missile attacks, because U.S. intelligence did not know where the facilities were located.

His choices were as follows:

1. Hope that the UN Sanctions that had not worked for over 8 years would suddenly start having an impact.
2. Attack Iraq, remove Saddam Hussein from power, and end the threat.
3. Do nothing and kick the problem down the road for someone else to handle.

What would you do?  What do you think most Presidents, including Bill Clinton and even Al Gore would do, particularly after 9-11?

This certainly explains all those speeches in support of the war by John Kerry, John Edwards, Hillary Clinton, Jay Rockefeller and virtually every other Democratic leader.  It also explains why then Senator Barack Obama who had opposed the war said that if he had seen the intelligence available he might have made a different decision.  He danced around the issue during an interview with Tim Russert in 2007:

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2007/11/obama-speak.html

The main stream media owes George Bush a huge apology.  This memo should be the lead in every news broadcast and the headline should scream that “U.S. Intelligence confirmed that Iraq was a serious threat prior to the war.”  Instead they perpetuate the myth by saying that the intelligence was light.  It was light, as least in part because of drastic cuts to the defense budget under Clinton.  It was also light because in response to the Frank Church committee report, there were serious limitations to our ability to collect intelligence.  

The American people need to know the simple truth on this subject.  The memo is there for all to see.  Judge for yourself:

Iraq Intelligence Status Report

Somebody lied.  People died.  It wasn’t Bush.

TDM