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| The big lie on Saddam's WMD |
| Saturday, April 23, 2005 |
Even UN agency concludes they were removed
One of the biggest lies being bandied about was that U.S. intelligence failed to find a weapons of mass destruction program in Iraq. The United States looked for chemical weapons, biological weapons and nuclear facilities and couldn't find any.
The conclusion was that Saddam had no WMD facility.
Here's another, far more plausible, view. The Saddam Hussein regime dismantled all WMD facilities and either concealed them in Iraq or shipped them to Syria. This is more than the assessment of agencies within the U.S. intelligence community: It is even the assessment of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Last week, the IAEA concluded that Iraq dismantled dozens of nuclear sites that had been operating under the Saddam regime. In a letter to the UN Security Council, the IAEA said satellite imagery revealed significant dismantling and removal activities at 37 Iraqi sites linked to Saddam's clandestine nuclear program since 2003.
"But without on-site inspections no conclusions can be drawn," the IAEA said.
The IAEA's investigation was logical. They focused on areas where destroyed equipment from the former nuclear program had been stored or discarded.
"Satellite imagery has indicated that at least one site containing buried contaminated rubble has been extensively excavated," the letter said.
The agency has sought permission for on-site inspections of these facilities to determine what took place. So far, the United States, fighting an insurgency war in Iraq, has not allowed these inspections.
Regardless, the evidence is clear. Saddam's nuclear sites were systematically dismantled. The question is not the U.S. failure to locate them � but what the former regime did with these WMD facilities.
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posted by J.R. @ 12:53:00 PM   |
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