Who thinks they'll "find weapons" (i.e. plant weapons) in Iraq?

[Postman]

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20031005_1386.html

[Cush]

1. if they do

it will be during the election season

[soothsayer]

2. Well that's what that shill kay is there for

Don't forget that blix fired him for being an untrustworthy nut.

[dove2]

3. No, they won't, it would backfire if they did.

How could they convince everyone no WMD had been lost or looted, since they obviously did not have them under control.

[Maple]

4. Waaaaaay too late for that

No one would buy it now.

[truthseeker1]

5. Yes they will

And they'll cost around....oh....$600 Million dollars!

[protect freedom impeach bush now]

6. BushSR PNAC 'pals' will find a way - Octopus

The Octopus NEVER loses.

The Octopus will, and has the means to.

[acmavm]

7. It doesn't matter what they find, the operative word is "imminent". That

is what we have to concentrate on. Obviously nothing that they find from here until doomsday will legitimize their claims of mushroom clouds and imminent threats to our security.

Do I think they'll find something, of course. They should have it planted any day now.

[spooky3]

14. Yes, I agree, this is the main point

that the media keep "forgetting" to make. The reason we "had" to go to war rather than let the UN inspectors finish their work was that we were in "imminent" danger. Finding early stage research evidence, or even small caches of WMD, etc., would not support this pronouncement but rather would suggest that we were wrong in going forward.

[Unknown Known]

8. Now that Valerie Plame is out of the way and all her networks as well

I think it very likely that WMDs will be found (planted).

Plame's expertise was in WMDs and her areas were Iraq, Iran and N. Korea.

I saw today an article in the Guardian about US and Iran in secret peace talks - or is it "piece" talks, as in "piece of the action"?

http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1056324,00.html

Could this be their October Surprise? It was through the Iranians that a lot of the arms transfers both during the hostage crisis and Iran/Contra were negotiated by Bush I & friends.

Are they about to start selling/transfering WMDs into Iraq through the Iranians?

Can you say Adnan Khashoggi?

[even]

9. Its too late now.

There was a good post yesterday. The poster said that the WMD's were dropped off but the Iraqis got rid of them.
It was a very insightful post.

I remember reading about how special forces had gone into Iraq before the invasion began. Was it to look for or plant them?
Oh well,between Powell and Bush they have to come up with a full warehouse.
I don't think even poetry can save either dumb ass.

[BonjourUSA]

10. What would you do if you'd be a former Iraqi leader in an American jail ?

Wouldn't you negociate information ?

And remember, in the first days after the Bagdad fall, the Saddam's Minister of sciences said that no WMD existed. He had no interest to lie.

[radfringe]

11. heee-heee good 'toon

[JackRiddler]

12. Difficulties...

Once had the pleasure of discussing this issue with none other than Scott Ritter. He pointed out the difficulties in planting WMDs.

WMDs have signatures that can be tracked back. Radioactive materials have half-lives. Chemical weapons change as they age; there is no way to fake this.

The Iraqi WMD programs of old are extremely well-documented. The material flows have been tracked, the actual capabilities at various times in the 1990s are known.

Anyone planning to plant WMDs is left with two options.

A. They could say they discovered them and then refuse to turn them over to an independent agency for verification. No one believes it, especially not in the current atmosphere.

B. They could turn over the planted WMDs to an independent agency, but because of the chemical and physical signatures fakes are almost certain to be discovered. (E.g., there is no way, in 2002 or 2003, to create sarin gas that can fool neutral testers into concluding it was manufactured several years ago using Iraqi methods...)

Ritter therefore concluded that the administration would simply do what it is already doing: Constantly insinuate that WMDs have been found. Headlines blare. The later retractions are barely noticed. In the end, if this strategy works, (semi-faked) polls show that 2/3 of Americans believe WMDs were found. This is the strategy they used to successfully create a link between Saddam and 9/11 in the American mind.

Why risk planting fake evidence that can be exposed, when all you have to do is lie through your teeth that you found real evidence, and later pretend you said nothing of the sort?

In short, the real WMD plant is a New York Times reporter named Judith Miller.

[truthseeker1]

13. BWAH HAHAHA

LOVED the Judith Miller comment!!

Thanks for the info - good to know.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

15. didn't they just last week try.with those ahem..."french made misseles

found buried in Irag" with the year "2003" stenciled on them ...i saw the photos all over the cable news channels...then nothing....i later heard that "that Poland was mistaken about the 'french misseles' WTF?...anybody else catch any of this?...i have been trying to locate any print articles about it with no sucess...was it only an air news story? :shrug:

[Padraig18]

18. Check Yahoo News

I read that the Poles later retracted and apologized for their comments, and in fact AGREED with President Chirac that the missiles were of a vintage manufactured and sold PRIOR to the First Gulf War.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

20. thanks for the conformation..i thought i was losing it..how did the "2003"

get stenciled on them?...i saw them ...damn it bush* lied! he promised on the campaign trail to "surround himnself with only the samrtest people"...:eyes:

[Jazzgirl]

21. Here is a link to an article

in the Guardian talking about the misidentification of the missiles.

Jazzgirl

[ElsewheresDaughter]

22. jazzgirl....you rock!..,,thank you so much

:yourock:

[TomNickell]

16. Wouldn't work, and it's too late now...

Early on, they could have planted traces of something and made big splashes in the media. There were numerous false alarms in the days after the invasion.

It is not a trivial problem to fake evidence. Military and cia people have substantial pride and patriotism, which is not consistent with sleazy manipulation of facts.

Notice how much damage cia leaks have done to the administration over the data manipulation that -did- happen.

[HFishbine]

17. David Kay's Thoughts on August 1

"Mr Kay told senators that most of the search work was being done at areas identified by Iraqis since the war which had not been on any US target list."

"People 'should not be surprised by surprises', he said."

<snip>

"Mr Kay said his team was building a "solid case that stand" and that he would welcome international scrutiny once the evidence was assembled."

<snip>

He stressed that the search had switched from sites identified by the coalition before the war as potential arms plants to areas picked out by Iraqis themselves.

"Almost every one of them is one that we did not know about until we were led to it by Iraqis or the documentation we have seized," he said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3115035.stm

[HFishbine]

19. Already F***ed up once

One of the "chemical trailers" had a manufacturers's stamp on it with the name of a Bahgdad company and the date of manufacture. While the company was real, it was operating under a different name on the date stamped on the equipment.

Just like the doofus who didn't realize the Nigerian minister whose name he forged had resigned years earlier, some doofus didn't realize his date stamp didn't correspond to the company's name at the supposed date of manufacture.