It's Official -- Iraq War Fought For No Reason

[Rspaight]

Unless I'm wrong, this means:

- No WMD
- No substantive ties to Al Qaeda
- Untold tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians dead
- 1350+ Americans, 70+ British, and 84 other "coalition" soldiers dead
- Hundreds of billions of dollars spent in the face of record deficits
- Shattered infrastructure
- More terrorism
- More instability
- More weapons in the hands of terrorists
- Damaged US reputation, increased anti-American sentiment
- Fractured alliances
- Increased influence of Islamic radicals

But hey, we pulled down a statue of Saddam, and Halliburton made a few bucks, so that makes it all worthwhile.

So, when does the war crimes trial start?

Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month
Critical September Report to Be Final Word

By Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page A01

The hunt for biological, chemical and nuclear weapons in Iraq has come to an end nearly two years after President Bush ordered U.S. troops to disarm Saddam Hussein. The top CIA weapons hunter is home, and analysts are back at Langley.

In interviews, officials who served with the Iraq Survey Group (ISG) said the violence in Iraq, coupled with a lack of new information, led them to fold up the effort shortly before Christmas.

Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG's final conclusions and will be published this spring.

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and other top administration officials asserted before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 that Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program, had chemical and biological weapons, and maintained links to al Qaeda affiliates to whom it might give such weapons to use against the United States.

Bush has expressed disappointment that no weapons or weapons programs were found, but the White House has been reluctant to call off the hunt, holding out the possibility that weapons were moved out of Iraq before the war or are well hidden somewhere inside the country. But the intelligence official said that possibility is very small.

Duelfer is back in Washington, finishing some addenda to his September report before it is reprinted.

"There's no particular news in them, just some odds and ends," the intelligence official said. The Government Printing Office will publish it in book form, the official said.

The CIA declined to authorize any official involved in the weapons search to speak on the record for this story. The intelligence official offered an authoritative account of the status of the hunt on the condition of anonymity. The agency did confirm that Duelfer is wrapping up his work and will not be replaced in Baghdad.

The ISG, established to search for weapons but now enmeshed in counterinsurgency work, remains under Pentagon command and is being led by Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Joseph McMenamin.

Intelligence officials said there is little left for the ISG to investigate because Duelfer's last report answered as many outstanding questions as possible. The ISG has interviewed every person it could find connected to programs that ended more than 10 years ago, and every suspected site within Iraq has been fully searched, or stripped bare by insurgents and thieves, according to several people involved in the weapons hunt.

Satellite photos show that entire facilities have been dismantled, possibly by scrap dealers who sold off parts and equipment to buyers around the world.

"The September 30 report is really pretty much the picture," the intelligence official said.

"We've talked to so many people that someone would have said something. We received nothing that contradicts the picture we've put forward. It's possible there is a supply someplace, but what is much more likely is that [as time goes by] we will find a greater substantiation of the picture that we've already put forward."

Congress allotted hundreds of millions of dollars for the weapons hunt, and there has been no public accounting of the money. A spokesman for the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency said the entire budget and the expenditures would remain classified.

Several hundred military translators and document experts will continue to sift through millions of pages of documents on paper and computer media sitting in a storeroom on a U.S. military base in Qatar.

But their work is focused on material that could support possible war crimes charges or shed light on the fate of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, a Navy pilot who was shot down in an F/A-18 fighter over central Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991, the opening night of the Persian Gulf War. Although he was initially reported as killed in action, Speicher's status was changed to missing after evidence emerged that he had ejected alive from his aircraft.

The work on documents is not connected to weapons of mass destruction, officials said, and a small group of Iraqi scientists still in U.S. military custody are not being held in connection with weapons investigations, either.

Three people involved with the ISG said the weapons teams made several pleas to the Pentagon to release the scientists, who have been interviewed extensively. All three officials specifically mentioned Gen. Amir Saadi, who was a liaison between Hussein's government and U.N. inspectors; Rihab Taha, a biologist nicknamed "Dr. Germ" years ago by U.N. inspectors; her husband, Amir Rashid, the former oil minister; and Huda Amash, a biologist whose extensive dealings with U.N. inspectors earned her the nickname "Mrs. Anthrax."

None of the scientists has been involved in weapons programs since the 1991 Gulf War, the ISG determined more than a year ago, and all have cooperated with investigators despite nearly two years of jail time without charges. U.S. officials previously said they were being held because their denials of ongoing weapons programs were presumed to be lies; now, they say the scientists are being held in connection with the possible war crimes trials of Iraqis.

It has been more than a year since any Iraqi scientist was arrested in connection with weapons of mass destruction. Many of those questioned and cleared have since left Iraq, one senior official said, acknowledging for the first time that the "brain drain" that has long been feared "is well underway."

"A lot of it is because of the kidnapping industry" in Iraq, the official said. The State Department has been trying to implement programs designed to keep Iraqi scientists from seeking weapons-related work in neighboring countries, such as Syria and Iran.

Since March 2003, nearly a dozen people working for or with the weapons hunt have lost their lives to the insurgency. The most recent deaths came in November, when Duelfer's convoy was attacked during a routine mission around Baghdad and two of his bodyguards were killed.

[Ess Ay Cee Dee]

Bush has expressed disappointment that no weapons or weapons programs were found, but the White House has been reluctant to call off the hunt, holding out the possibility that weapons were moved out of Iraq before the war or are well hidden somewhere inside the country.

Yeah, that's it. It's not that they don't exist, it's just that they're so well-hidden that no one will ever find them. I'm sure Bush's answer to war critics re: WMD's will always be, "Just because we never found any doesn't mean they're not there." I'm sure he thinks that questioning that idea is analogous to questioning the existence of God. The non-believers just haven't made that leap of faith, ya know?

Since March 2003, nearly a dozen people working for or with the weapons hunt have lost their lives to the insurgency.

If there were any justice, the double-whammy of no WMD's and the deaths of people involved in the search for these non-existent WMD's would mean a war-crimes trial for Baby Bush and his cronies. Of course, that will never happen.

[Rspaight]

The non-believers just haven't made that leap of faith, ya know?

Lovely. Faith-based war.

If there were any justice, the double-whammy of no WMD's and the deaths of people involved in the search for these non-existent WMD's would mean a war-crimes trial for Baby Bush and his cronies. Of course, that will never happen.

I got excited when I read...

But their work is focused on material that could support possible war crimes charges....

...but then realized they weren't talking about Bush.

Ryan

[Dob]

I must admit that I am shocked we didn't "find" any WMDs, if you know what I mean. That sure would've been politically expedient.

Maybe the US was so confident on finding some, even as the possibility kept receding, that they never even considered "Plan B."

Biggest miscalculation of the war, IMO -- the expected grateful acceptance by the Iraqis of their liberators. The Bush administration must've had visions of the US Army rolling into Paris at the end of WW2 - wine, women, and song galore.

Though there was some apparent celebrating when they pulled down the statue. That honeymoon lasted what, a week?

Look away across the bay
Yankee gunboat come this way
Uncle Sam gonna save the day
Come tomorrow we all gonna pay...

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

Something dead under the bed
Local diplomats hang their heads
Never mind what the government said
They're either lying or they've been misled...

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

Vietnam was yesterday
Kabul and Baghdad today
How would they ever make the late news pay
If they didn't have the CIA?

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

Here it comes, the loaded gun
gotta keep the bad guys on the run
You'd buy or bury everyone
For liberty and life
And just plain fun

And it's burn baby burn
When am I going to get my turn

Four months after Charles A. Duelfer, who led the weapons hunt in 2004, submitted an interim report to Congress that contradicted nearly every prewar assertion about Iraq made by top Bush administration officials, a senior intelligence official said the findings will stand as the ISG's final conclusions and will be published this spring.

Damn CIA liberals.

[dcooper]

I must admit that I am shocked we didn't "find" any WMDs, if you know what I mean. That sure would've been politically expedient.

They were arrogant enough to believe that they didn't actually have to find any WMDs to convince the American voting public (at least in the Red states) that the war was justified. And remember that even after Bush recanted some of his pre-war State of the Union comments about WMDs and the linkage of Hussein to Al Queda the Vice President gleefully contined to lie through his grimacing teeth about the connection between Iraq and bin Laden. Even when occasionally pressed for facts, which of course he couldn't provide, he continued to insist that the linkage was there but for "security reasons" he couldn't reveal it. Unfortunately, the flag-waving faithful bought it.

[Xenu]

one of the more assinine,stupid posts in many a moon!the report said that saddam was using money from the oil for food scandal to reconstitute his nuclear program.it also said that he had a small biological weapons program. you don`t need much!plus there is plenty of evidence that much of the stored ,illegal stuff was shipped out of the country before the war.please get your facts straight!

-catraker

[Rspaight]

Geez, Xenu, why do you still bother going there? (Are you a closet UK fan?) That stuff just feeds my ulcers.

But I'm happy to see that catraker's Right-Wing Talking Points Fax Machine (TM) is still well-stocked with cheap curly thermal fax paper. His faith in Bush is touching, if childish -- like a 12-year-old who still believes in Santa Claus.

He should get in touch with the CIA. His exclusive info on Saddam's WMDs could have saved them a lot of blood, time and money. "Hey, Duelfer, call off the hounds! Catraker found the evidence on the internets!"

What a tool.

Ryan

[Dob]

They were arrogant enough to believe that they didn't actually have to find any WMDs to convince the American voting public (at least in the Red states) that the war was justified...

The voters in the red states were indeed fooled, but keep in mind that the rest of the world was not (except for Tony Blair). I hope that whoever becomes President in 2008 can successfully distance him/herself and the country from this whole fiasco.

[Rob P]

Look away across the bay
Yankee gunboat come this way
Uncle Sam gonna save the day
Come tomorrow we all gonna pay...

I love that song. His words on US Imperialism were succinct and accurate. Thirty years later, the words have even more resonance. For Cockburn political statements, I also like "Call it Democracy."

[Patrick M]

I hope that whoever becomes President in 2008 can successfully distance him/herself and the country from this whole fiasco.

You mean Jeb?

[Rspaight]

the report said that saddam was using money from the oil for food scandal to reconstitute his nuclear program.

US ignored warning on Iraqi oil smuggling
By Claudio Gatti in New York
Published: January 13 2005 01:31 | Last updated: January 13 2005 01:31

For months, the US Congress has been investigating activities that violated the United Nations oil-for-food programme and helped Saddam Hussein build secret funds to acquire arms and buy influence.

President George W. Bush has linked future US funding of the international body to a clear account of what went on under the multi-billion dollar programme.

But a joint investigation by the Financial Times and Il Sole 24 Ore, the Italian business daily, shows that the single largest and boldest smuggling operation in the oil-for-food programme was conducted with the knowledge of the US government.

“Although the financial beneficiaries were Iraqis and Jordanians, the fact remains that the US government participated in a major conspiracy that violated sanctions and enriched Saddam's cronies,” a former UN official said. “That is exactly what many in the US are now accusing other countries of having done. I think it's pretty ironic.”

Overall, the operation involved 14 tankers engaged by a Jordanian entity to load at least 7m barrels of oil for a total of no less than $150m (€113m) of illegal profits. About another $50m went to Mr Hussein's cronies.

In February 2003, when US media first published reports of this smuggling effort, then attributed exclusively to the Iraqis, the US mission to the UN condemned it as “immoral”.

However, FT/Il Sole have evidence that US and UK missions to the UN were informed of the smuggling while it was happening and that they reported it to their respective governments, to no avail.

Oil traders were told informally that the US let the tankers go because Amman needed oil to build up its strategic reserves in expectation of the Iraq war.

Last week Paul Volcker, head of the independent commission created by the UN to investigate failures in the oil-for-food programme, confirmed that Washington allowed violations of the oil sanctions by Jordan in recognition of its national interests.

However, only a fraction of the oil smuggled out of Iraq reached the Jordanian port of Aqaba. Most was sold to the Middle East Oil Refinery, in Alexandria, Egypt; to a refinery in Aden, Yemen; and to Malaysia and China. “This operation was not permitted under the Security Council resolutions dealing with the oil-for-food programme,” said Michel Tellings, one of the two UN inspectors responsible at the time for the implementation of the programme. “The volume of oil was not inspected and payments were not made to the UN escrow account, as required by the programme.”

In January 2003, Millennium, a little-known Jordanian company, asked Odin Marine, a shipping broker based in Stamford, Connecticut, to find tankers to load millions of barrels of Iraqi oil. Odin declined to comment.

“The ship owners were very wary,” recalled another broker involved in the deal. “They received papers from Jordan with all kinds of government stamps claiming it was legitimate,but never actually received anything from the UN.”

In fact, no UN papers could have been provided since Millennium was not allowed to lift oil from Iraq, and the port of loading, Khor al-Amaya in southern Iraq, did not have UN authorisation to operate.

Nevertheless, shipping companies willing to take the cargo were found. “One of the vessels I fixed was the Argosea, which was owned by the Greek shipping company Tsakos,” the broker said.

At the same time, Millennium chartered a couple of supertankers, including the Empress des Mers, to hold its oil in the Gulf.

According to a spokesman for the Bahamian-based company that owned the Empress des Mers, the vessel was to be loaded at sea from other tankers and sit in the territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates off Fujairah, a port at the entrance of the Gulf.

The operation was too big to go unnoticed. In the middle of February 2003, UN inspectors began receiving calls from companies that were lifting oil from Mina al-Bakr, the only UN-authorised port in southern Iraq.

The companies complained that tankers had suddenly appeared a few miles away in Khor al-Amaya. Their activities had halved the pace of loading in Mina, which was served by the same pipeline, leading to delays that were causing demurrage fees.

Furious because the Iraqis had a history of refusing to reimburse those costs, the lifters informed Mr Tellings who in turn notified the US and UK missions to the UN.

Mr Tellings provided detailed information, including the names of some of the ships spotted by inspectors in the area. He believed the tankers would be challenged by the Multinational Interception Force (MIF), the force led by the US navy that had been enforcing the embargo on Iraq.

“Three or four days later, I chased [the US and UK representatives] and asked them what had happened with my information. They told me that they had communicated it to their capitals and that they were puzzled themselves by the lack of action.”

US mission spokesman Richard Grenell said: “We were tireless advocates to bring to the attention of the committee any and all oil smuggling and illegal activity. But while the [oil-for-food] investigation is going on we are not going to talk about specific issues.”

Mr Tellings was not the only one who informed US authorities. Saybolt, the Dutch company hired by the UN to oversee oil loading operations in Iraq, reported the incident to the MIF.

On February 21 2003, when reports of the smuggling first appeared in the US press, Jeff Alderson, spokesman for the Maritime Liaison Office (MLO), the US navy office in Bahrain that co-ordinated the MIF activities, was quoted as saying that he had “no information” about it.

His successor, Jeff Breslau, confirmed to Il Sole/FT that “we have no record that we were warned” about the smuggling. But Il Sole/FT has discovered that on February 17 2003, Saybolt sent an e-mail to the MLO about smuggling that specifically mentioned the Argosea. The same day, the MLO sent a reply to Saybolt acknowledging that notification.

For months, international traders looked for ways to make the cargo legal.

“There were plenty of letters from the Jordanian ministry claiming that the oil was legitimate,” saidone trader. “But we concluded that there was no way that it could be legally bought.”

Eventually, however, customers willing to take a chance were found. “After six months, we were asked to discharge the oil,” said the spokesman for the Empress des Mers. The cargo was taken to Egypt, he added.

Out of this operation, traders estimate, Iraqis pocketed about $50m, all off the UN books, while subsequent sale of the oil netted $150m in profits.

Millennium, the company that arranged the operation, is owned by Khaled Shaheen, a Jordanian magnate who is president of Shaheen Investment & Business (SBIG), and his two brothers, according to a company search.

However, Millennium clearly operated with the approval of the Jordanian government. Papers exchanged with the shippers, and e-mails from Odin Marine describe the company as “Millennium, for the trade of raw materials and mineral oils for and on behalf of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources”.

An e-mail sent on March 6 2003 by Odin Marine to confirm the fixing of one of the vessels mentioned that “the Jordanian government through the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources empowered Millennium to conduct this transaction on their behalf, as per the attached power of attorney”.

[Dob]

You mean Jeb?

I can hear it now -- "I'm gonna get those terrorists, they were plotting to kill my brother!"

Maybe, by 2008, all these red state voting "irregularities" will be straightened out. That alone might be enough to keep him out. Of course, "God's will" and "His miracles" are not so easily denied.

If Jeb ends up running against McCain in the primaries, I wonder if he'll use the identical mudslinging accusations that his bro did.

I googled Jeb to see what his religious stance is, and I found this quote concerning the failure of scientists to predict where Charley would make landfall:

"God doesn’t follow the linear projections of computer models,” Bush said outside the emergency management center, whose roof caved in during the hurricane. “This is God’s way of telling us that he’s almighty and we’re mortal."

[Rspaight]

What a frightening quote coming from a man with his hands on (at least part of) the pursestrings for the early warning systems.

That's right, screw trying to project the paths of hurricanes! Why bother? It's like trying to tamper in God's domain or something...

Ryan

[Xenu]

Or hampering God's lo-mein.

Re:

Geez, Xenu, why do you still bother going there? (Are you a closet UK fan?) That stuff just feeds my ulcers.

Because it gives me the proper sense of powerlessness that occasionally I forget to have in my cloistered, university environment.

[Xenu]

FWIW, this is my favorite thread at the moment:

http://www.wildcatfaithful.com/vbulleti ... adid=69398

Not one of them seems to understand that the point of a list-by-exclusion is that...well, uh, it excludes exactly what you don't want to present. For example, the list manages to gloss over the fact that most recent presidential-assasination attempts in memory were committed by true-blue Americans. Oklahoma City! Etc.