Search for Banned Arms In Iraq Ended Last Month

Washington Post, 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.

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.

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.

Interesting that this is being admitted widely on mainstream news now from the horse's mouth. I wonder what those folks from those polls that actually thought weapons were found a long time ago are thinking this week. After all, this isn't "them damn lying liberals" (or whatever excuse they used to ignore it before) telling them; it's basically the assclown himself. On 20/20 tonight, no less, saying (with that creepy grin) that everything was "absolutly" worth it despite nothing being found. Yeah, worth it to who? Maybe their buddies that are making a killing (literally) off all the weapons sales and everything else. It certainly wasn't worth it to the people who died over there, the soldiers that have come back in body bags or with limbs missing. Certainly not our economy, which is getting more fucked more each day with all the 5 billion a month (!!!!) being poured into this. I'm sure some people will come up with new excuses to justify it though, despite all this.

Anyway, to commemorate this occasion, read some of the administration’s comments on WMD’s from 2002-2003. After all, this was their main reason (no matter how they try to spin it now) for invading Iraq in the first place.

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction

Dick Cheney
Speech to VFW National Convention, Aug. 26, 2002

Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.

George W. Bush
Speech to U.N. General Assembly, Sept. 12, 2002

If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is once again misleading the world.

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing, Dec. 2, 2002

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing, Jan. 9, 2003

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.

George W. Bush
State of the Union Address, Jan. 28, 2003

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass destruction, is determined to make more.

Colin Powell
Remarks to U.N. Security Council, Feb. 5, 2003

We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons – the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.

George W. Bush
Radio Address, Feb. 8, 2003

So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad?… I think our judgment has to be clearly not.

Colin Powell
Remarks to U.N. Security Council, March 7, 2003

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.

George W. Bush
Address to the Nation, March 17, 2003

Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical particularly… all this will be made clear in the course of the operation, for whatever duration it takes.

Ari Fleisher
Press Briefing, March 21, 2003

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of mass destruction. And… as this operation continues, those weapons will be identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who guard them.

Gen. Tommy Franks
Press Conference, March 22, 2003

I have no doubt we’re going to find big stores of weapons of mass destruction.

Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
The Washington Post, Page A27, March 23, 2003

One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a number of sites.

Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark
Press Briefing, March 22, 2003

We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

Donald Rumsfeld
ABC Interview, March 30, 2003

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of mass destruction U.S. forces find – and there will be plenty.

Neo-con scholar Robert Kagan
The Washington Post op-ed, Apr. 9, 2003

I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials, a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass destruction will be found.

Ari Fleischer
Press Briefing, Apr. 10, 2003

We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.

George W. Bush
NBC Interview, Apr. 24, 2003

There are people who in large measure have information that we need… so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.

Donald Rumsfeld
Press Briefing, Apr. 25, 2003

We’ll find them. It’ll be a matter of time to do so.

George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters, May 3, 2003

I’m absolutely sure that there are weapons of mass destruction there and the evidence will be forthcoming. We’re just getting it just now.

Colin Powell
Remarks to Reporters, May 4, 2003

We never believed that we’d just tumble over weapons of mass destruction in that country.

Donald Rumsfeld
Fox News Interview, May 4, 2003

I’m not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam Hussein – because he had a weapons program.

George W. Bush
Remarks to Reporters, May 6, 2003

U.S. officials never expected that “we were going to open garages and find” weapons of mass destruction.

Condoleeza Rice
Reuters Interview, May 12, 2003

I just don’t know whether it was all destroyed years ago – I mean, there’s no question that there were chemical weapons years ago – whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they’re still hidden.

Maj. Gen. David Petraeus, Commander 101st Airborne
Press Briefing, May 13, 2003

Before the war, there’s no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to be found. I still expect them to be found.

Gen. Michael Hagee, Commandant of the Marine Corps
Interview with Reporters, May 21, 2003

Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we’re interrogating, I’m confident that we’re going to find weapons of mass destruction.

Gen. Richard Myers, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff
NBC Today Show interview, May 26, 2003

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don’t know the answer.

Donald Rumsfeld
Remarks to Council on Foreign Relations, May 27, 2003

For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.

Paul Wolfowitz
Vanity Fair interview, May 28, 2003

It was a surprise to me then – it remains a surprise to me now – that we have not uncovered weapons, as you say, in some of the forward dispersal sites. Believe me, it’s not for lack of trying. We’ve been to virtually every ammunition supply point between the Kuwaiti border and Baghdad, but they’re simply not there.

Lt. Gen. James Conway, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force
Press Interview, May 30, 2003

Quotes from TomPaine.com