Reply #24: Why did the governments ignore perfectly good public information ... [View All]

[struggle4progress]

... coming from the UN inspectors? And why was so much US intelligence effort devoted to bugging the security council, when so little was devoted to understanding the new information coming from Iraq?

It's really instructive to take a look backwards now and then:


UN Inspectors Fear Bush Will Ignore Them
By Peter Beaumont, and Ed Vulliamy (Observer)
January 5, 2003
UN weapons inspectors in Iraq fear their work - which has failed to turn up any evidence thus far of weapons of mass destruction - will still be used as an excuse to trigger a US-led invasion of Iraq.
<snip>
The weapons inspection teams in Iraq have visited breweries and former nuclear plants, and raided missile factories and pharmaceutical production lines. They have examined former weapons factories and interviewed scientists and university technicians. As of yesterday they had checked 230 sites in all. If one is to believe the few inspectors who have been prepared to be interviewed anonymously, they have found absolutely nothing.
Nuclear weapons sites that the British and the Americans claimed as late as last September had been reactivated have been revealed as rusting, disabled shambles. It may be that Iraq has squirrelled away its most portable weapons and components. But as one inspector complained to the LA Times last week, they had found 'zilch'.
<snip>
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0105fear.htm


Bush gives more time to inspectors
By Julian Coman and Philip Sherwell
(Filed: 26/01/2003)
The United States has the support of at least a dozen countries for a war against Iraq, Colin Powell, the secretary of state, said yesterday as Bush administration officials indicated that the president was prepared to allow United Nations weapons inspectors several more weeks for their mission.
Mr Powell made his comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as the US tried to defuse tensions with some European allies over whether weapons inspections in Iraq should continue. He did not identify the countries.
Hans Blix, the chief weapons inspector, will deliver his long-awaited report tomorrow to the UN Security Council on Baghdad's compliance with his teams. Resolution 1441 warns of "serious consequences" should Iraq fail to surrender its weapons.
<snip>
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/01/26/wirq226.xml


Tuesday, January 28th, 2003
U.N. Inspectors Says Iraq Has No Nukes As It Criticizes Iraq's Lack of Cooperation: Bush Administration & Britain Seize On the Mixed Verdict to Say Time Is Running Out for Iraq Despite No Evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=03/04/07/0317243


Iraq ready to co-operate with UN inspectors
Thursday, January 30, 2003
<snip>
But other UN Security Council members -- most importantly Russia, China and France, who hold the same veto power as Washington and London -- say UN inspectors should be given more time to search for banned weapons.
<snip>
http://www.dispatch.co.za/2003/01/30/foreign/MCOOPERA.HTM


US is misquoting my Iraq report, says Blix
By Judith Miller and Julia Preston in New York
February 1 2003
<snip>
Dr Blix took issue with what he said were US Secretary of State Colin Powell's claims that the inspectors had found that Iraqi officials were hiding and moving illicit materials within and outside of Iraq to prevent their discovery. He said that the inspectors had reported no such incidents.
Similarly, he said, he had not seen convincing evidence that Iraq was sending weapons scientists to other countries to prevent them from being interviewed.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/01/31/1043804520548.html


Bush warns U.N. faces 'moment of truth'
Posted 2/9/2003 1:08 PM
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. (APOnline) — President Bush said Sunday that Iraq has fooled the world for more than a decade about its banned weapons and the United Nations now faces "a moment of truth" in disarming Saddam Hussein.
"It is clear that not only is Saddam Hussein deceiving, it is clear he's not disarming. And so you'll see us over the next short period of time working with friends and allies and the United Nations to bring that body along," Bush told congressional Republicans at a policy conference.
<snip>
The president spoke as chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said in Baghdad that he saw a beginning of Iraq's understanding that it must seriously observed U.N. demands for disarmament. U.N. nuclear chief Mohamed ElBaradei said he expected the Security Council to give the inspectors more time "as long as we are registering good progress."
There was no immediate White House reaction.
<snip>
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-02-09-bush-iraq_x.htm


Inspectors Call U.S. Tips 'Garbage'
Feb. 20, 2003
(CBS) While diplomatic maneuvering continues over Turkish bases and a new United Nations resolution, inside Iraq, U.N. arms inspectors are privately complaining about the quality of U.S. intelligence and accusing the United States of sending them on wild-goose chases.
<snip>
U.N. sources have told CBS News that American tips have lead to one dead end after another.
Example: satellite photographs purporting to show new research buildings at Iraqi nuclear sites. When the U.N. went into the new buildings they found "nothing."
Example: Saddam's presidential palaces, where the inspectors went with specific coordinates supplied by the U.S. on where to look for incriminating evidence. Again, they found "nothing."
Example: Interviews with scientists about the aluminum tubes the U.S. says Iraq has imported for enriching uranium, but which the Iraqis say are for making rockets. Given the size and specification of the tubes, the U.N. calls the "Iraqi alibi air tight."
<snip>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/18/iraq/main537096.shtml


Revealed: US dirty tricks to win vote on Iraq war
Secret document details American plan to bug phones and emails of key Security Council members
Martin Bright, Ed Vulliamy in New York and Peter Beaumont
Sunday March 2, 2003
The United States is conducting a secret 'dirty tricks' campaign against UN Security Council delegations in New York as part of its battle to win votes in favour of war against Iraq.
Details of the aggressive surveillance operation, which involves interception of the home and office telephones and the emails of UN delegates in New York, are revealed in a document leaked to The Observer.
The disclosures were made in a memorandum written by a top official at the National Security Agency - the US body which intercepts communications around the world - and circulated to both senior agents in his organisation and to a friendly foreign intelligence agency asking for its input.
The memo describes orders to staff at the agency, whose work is clouded in secrecy, to step up its surveillance operations 'particularly directed at... UN Security Council Members (minus US and GBR, of course)' to provide up-to-the-minute intelligence for Bush officials on the voting intentions of UN members regarding the issue of Iraq.
<more>
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,905936,00.html
US plan to bug Security Council: the text
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,905954,00.html


Some Evidence on Iraq Called Fake
By Joby Warrick (Washington Post)
March 8, 2003
A key piece of evidence linking Iraq to a nuclear weapons program appears to have been fabricated, the United Nations' chief nuclear inspector said yesterday in a report that called into question U.S. and British claims about Iraq's secret nuclear ambitions. Documents that purportedly showed Iraqi officials shopping for uranium in Africa two years ago were deemed "not authentic" after careful scrutiny by U.N. and independent experts, Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told the U.N. Security Council.
ElBaradei also rejected a key Bush administration claim -- made twice by the president in major speeches and repeated by Secretary of State Colin L. Powell yesterday -- that Iraq had tried to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes to use in centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Also, ElBaradei reported finding no evidence of banned weapons or nuclear material in an extensive sweep of Iraq using advanced radiation detectors. "There is no indication of resumed nuclear activities," ElBaradei said.
Knowledgeable sources familiar with the forgery investigation described the faked evidence as a series of letters between Iraqi agents and officials in the central African nation of Niger. The documents had been given to the U.N. inspectors by Britain and reviewed extensively by U.S. intelligence. The forgers had made relatively crude errors that eventually gave them away -- including names and titles that did not match up with the individuals who held office at the time the letters were purportedly written, the officials said. "We fell for it," said one U.S. official who reviewed the documents.
<snip>
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0308someevid.htm


President Says Saddam Hussein Must Leave Iraq Within 48 Hours
Remarks by the President in Address to the Nation
The Cross Hall March 17, 2003 8:01 P.M. EST
... 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 ...
... Today, no nation can possibly claim that Iraq has disarmed. And it will not disarm so long as Saddam Hussein holds power. For the last four-and-a-half months, the United States and our allies have worked within the Security Council to enforce that Council's long-standing demands. Yet, some permanent members of the Security Council have publicly announced they will veto any resolution that compels the disarmament of Iraq ...
... In a free Iraq, there will be ... no more torture chambers and rape rooms ...
... Do not destroy oil wells ...
... The security of the world requires disarming Saddam Hussein now ...
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030317-7.html


Weapons Inspectors Leave Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 18, 2003
<snip>
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Monday ordered all U.N. inspectors and support staff, humanitarian workers and U.N. observers along the Iraq-Kuwait border to evacuate Iraq after U.S. threats to launch war.
<snip>
After failing to secure U.N. authorization to use force to disarm Iraq, President Bush gave Saddam 48 hours to step down or face war in a speech Monday night.
Iraq rejected the Bush ultimatum, saying that a U.S. attack to force Saddam from power would be "a grave mistake. Saddam warned that American forces will find an Iraqi fighter ready to die for his country "behind every rock, tree and wall."
<snip>
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/03/17/iraq/main544280.shtml


Bush bars UN weapons teams from Iraq
By Caroline Overington in New York and Marian Wilkinson in Washington
April 24 2003
The United States will not permit United Nations weapons inspectors to return to Iraq, saying the US military has taken over the role of searching for Saddam's weapons of mass destruction.
<snip>
One diplomatic source described US feelings towards Dr Blix as "visceral", saying US officials claim he did not fulfil his mandate "fairly". They insist Dr Blix should have reported before the war that Iraq had failed to co-operate in disclosing its weapons of mass destruction.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/23/1050777306319.html


U.N. inspector: No evidence found before Iraq war
Amid pressure on Blair, Aznar and Bush about WMDs
Thursday, June 5, 2003 Posted: 2:26 PM EDT (1826 GMT)
UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- U.N. inspectors found no evidence before the U.S.-led invasion in March that Iraq had reconstituted its chemical, biological or nuclear weapons programs, chief U.N. inspector Hans Blix said Thursday.
<snip>
http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/06/05/sprj.irq.blix.report/


Whopper of the Week: President Bush
Mr. President, it wasn't Saddam who kicked out the U.N. inspectors this last time. It was … um … nevermind.
By Timothy Noah
Posted Friday, July 18, 2003, at 1:11 PM PT
"e gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region." —President Bush, in a Q and A with reporters after an Oval Office meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, July 14.
"Yesterday , the Atomic Agency, and myself got information from the United States authorities that it would be prudent not to leave our staff in the region. I have just informed the Council that we will withdraw the UNMOVIC and Atomic Agency inspectors. …" —U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, in a Q and A with reporters, announcing the reluctant withdrawal of U.N. inspectors from Iraq, as necessitated by the imminent U.S. invasion, March 17. The inspections had gone on since November 2002, when Saddam Hussein, in deference to the just-passed U.N. Resolution 1441 (and to the United States' quite visible preparations for war) allowed the U.N. inspectors back in. Saddam had kicked U.N. inspectors out--or rather (to be more precise), refused to allow them back in after they'd withdrawn in protest against Iraqi interference--in 1998.
http://slate.msn.com/id/2085840/