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the the lead . senao has weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass crushing to the united states and as does the ballistic it is sponsored and sheltered terrorists trained suicide convert weapons or heat from the trial logical weapons including anthrax and

botulism talk psylocke hugo and chemical agent to kill millions of people chemical weapons including v.x. and sara mustard gas and massey and sudden heart massive death and destruction on a massive scale the danger to our country is great if the danger to our country is growing iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons iraqi regime is building the facilities necessary to make more biological and chemical weapons. and according to the british government head of iraqi regime could launch a biological or chemical attack in as little as forty five minutes after the order were given the regime has longstanding and continuing ties to terrorist organizations and there are al qaeda terrorists inside iraq

regime is seeking a nuclear bomb and with physical s'sa'id material could build one within a year. the bush administration made up its mind to go to war on september the eleventh two thousand and one that very first day on september twelfth one day after september eleventh. the meeting that was held in the white house in the situation room. led to rumsfeld asking the question shouldn't we use this as an opportunity to do something about iraq as well he also said but no no title is in afghanistan we need to bomb afghanistan rumsfeld said there aren't any good targets in afghanistan and there are lots of good targets in iraq from that time on you were dealing with rationalization and justification for the war you weren't dealing with real causes for the war or real reasons for the war there was never

a clear and present danger there was never an imminent threat with weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass death and weapons of mass destruction was a convenient way of tricking our congress and to giving the president authority to wage this war saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons development clear weapons nuclear weapons it was clear that iraq did not have a nuclear weapons program but over and over again president bush secretary of defense rumsfeld particularly vice president cheney but also national security adviser condi rice drummed up the idea of a reconstituted nuclear capability and picture particularly the notion that i think has some resonance among the american people of the mushroom cloud leaders will use worst case assessments. that point to nuclear weapons to generate political support because they know people fear nuclear weapons so much the evidence was simply not fair. wolfowitz would be asked to explain you know how good is the evidence can it

tell us more about it this in nato mind you and say well it's like this it's like pornography. hard to describe but how do you recognize it when you see it. my guy and we're going to go to war and that if someone is waiting for a so-called smoking gun it's certain that we will have waited too long we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud and we cannot wait for the final proof. the smoking gun. that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud. a lot of people who supported the war in iraq actually believed that iraq had the ability to fire a missile that could reach the united states carrying a loads of nuclear or chemical or biological weapons. iraq has never had the capability to do that they didn't have it in the first gulf war they didn't have it in this. war in iraq and they don't have it any way of getting it in the future but

the bush administration did was try to round up as many people as they could who would make the case for what the white house wanted with the cia to give it a point to justify this war already made a massive intervention by people particularly from vice president cheney's office and wait for the cheney himself in the process and i think the intelligence analysts found themselves really up against it when they tried to argue that those connections were as tight as as people were saying it was same intelligence director of the department of energy simply ordered his experts who had raised questions about the evidence being used on nuclear and of it as the news accounts say to sit down and shut up so that we would be on board with the with the overall estimate. an opportunity to speak because no one wanted this

sheath of collecting information on iraq and through the mid ninety's i know what we had what we didn't have and i'm here to tell you there was no information and very heavy leaning on the director of central intelligence and his staff to produce precisely the language which would allow them to make the statements which they have been making to support the decision to go into iraq when they're only by their physical presence but by the questions they asked by the people don't you think sort of thing couldn't it be possible that they call it data mining going back over old information coming in and the overwhelming opinion from the scientists. at the department of energy and even the cia and some of the state department were arguing against using weapons of mass destruction. as a case to go to war the whole purpose of the cia was to leave those people who are lying that's why they're not in washington or in northern virginia away from the

white house away from congress leave them alone ask them what they think but don't tell them to rethink their positions because then you come up nonsense like well so the administration has decided very early on that saddam should go and that in itself is not a bad. goal but of course everything depends on how you do it when and how where with whom it said or delay in decision in an action could leave to a massive and sudden harm it simply makes no sense to wait any longer to take action before it's too late we will not wait it was a rushed and it was done and i believe in three or four weeks which is really fast for that. it wasn't done earlier from what i understand because the bush administration didn't want such a document that had carried out that's why they never asked for a comprehensive national intelligence estimate within the intelligence community on this particular problem because they knew the intelligence community didn't agree on any of these issues and national intelligence estimate is really about i don't

know five major players protect intelligence agencies in total weighing in on the basic situation with weapons of mass destruction and so i think the bush administration resisted having an eye and then once it was out selectively picked what was useful to their argument. most of their qualifications were simply filtered out the senate is ation the original estimate was not true to its real meaning all the modifiers were were dropped on was a prosecutor making a case using what benefited his case and ignoring evidence that would undermine his case and there was no defense attorney to give us the other side and the end product used by policymakers particularly in its discussion with the merican public who were much more forceful than could have possibly been when rigidly written by cia dia or state department's intelligence and research it was

a bizarre warping of the intelligence process and they thought they would be able to get away with it because who's going to see the classified version well later several months later they released parts of the classified version they thought no one would notice so this was not a case where the national intelligence estimate was driving the war this was to provide an excuse after the fact going to war based on insta is yet another example i think of intelligence simply not being able by nature by definition to live up to that kind of requirement you may produce intelligence that could keep you out of a war but i doubt she will ever get one two three reports of intelligence that will in any way allow you to go to war. there are al qaeda in iraq saddam hussein. cohorts with terrorists secretly without

fingerprints you can provide one of the scene weapons to terrorists. or help them develop through well the war really had absolutely nothing to do with terrorism there was no connection whatsoever between iraq and the secular regime there and the religious fanatics who perpetrated nine eleven they wanted to believe that there was a connection but the cia was sitting there the f.b.i. was sitting there i was sitting there saying we've looked at this intern for years for years we've looked for a connection unless there's no connection saddam wasn't happy or he was a terrible feeling yes but he was not willing to sacrifice his own life. just that it answers terrorists completely antithetical to use the al qaida has had total contempt for saddam hussein himself he's been socialist he's been very harsh he's treated islamic leaders slime misleaders extremely harsh lee rock and we have

come very good intelligence on this was not part of the picture of terrorism before we invaded saddam hussein and bin laden work anime's and ladan considered and said that saddam hussein was a socialist infidel these were very different kinds of individuals competing for power in their own way and saddam hussein made very sure that al qaida couldn't function. in iraq that terrorists couldn't function except for the small northeastern quadrant of the country where there was an extremist group but he had no control over that it was near the iranian border ties with al qaeda it was just a scare tactic to exploit the trauma that very real trauma that the american people have felt ever since nine eleven and to associate that trauma with iraq as you know from the polls most americans believe the rock had something to do with nine eleven and it was a very successful very deliberate and very. unethical and immoral operation

on the part of the p.r. people of this administration. we now know that saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. among other sources we've gotten this from first hand testimony from defectors access to emigres and defectors with more direct access to these program three iraqi defectors we know that iraq in the late one nine hundred ninety s. and several mobile biological weapons listen only after defectors told us about it the inspectors were in the country the most important information that inspectors have ever gotten what's going on in iraq have come from defectors know about that capability from defectors and others so recent defectors stated that as recently as august of ninety eight that's well inspections were still going on a formal order was issued to proceed with the nuclear program at full blast i was

thought to do is to bring to the world the danger of the balls as in his current state we god he is developing weapons of mass destruction. without a doubt he has chemical and biological weapons and without a doubt thirty years is in trying to acquire a nuclear weapon the usual scrutiny of these kind of guys was just not turn adequately and there was this area to devise find the smoking garments find the evidence rather than let's let's look at what's out there and weigh the evidence they wanted to believe him it goes back to contacts that rich unaided as early as the one nine hundred ninety s. with individuals like dick cheney like paul wolfowitz like richard perle dealing with auckland shall be the became enamored of this fellow who dressed like a westerner talked with a british accent and appeared to be upper crust and therefore was quite believable and everyone in washington was believing them and i thought people had really

somehow checked out of reality in order to go to war it was a war fever that had taken over these people want to get back into it and to baghdad they couldn't defeat saddam hussein but they knew that u.s. military power could sew the worst of these offenders who would be ahmad chalabi who has been in exile from his own country for twenty to thirty years and is clearly not a hero under any definition of hero ism to his own people sold the pentagon on the idea that saddam hussein did have weapons of mass destruction and he must be stopped but they were bringing forward individuals who they claimed rather high level military or scientists with access they were looking for money first of all because child b. was a money senior members of the department of defense gave him their thumbs up his information was coming into the white house to people like dick cheney through the office of special plans so it was coming in through and through an avenue that's

not traditional to the intelligence community and wasn't open to being vetted or reviewed and you had challah be himself admit that he did they didn't mind providing false information because it helped them to achieve their goal of removing saddam for no good. in iraq will defend that regime including the military both the regular army and the republican guard of liberation will not have been achieved without the determination of president george w. bush and co commitment of the coalition and the forefront of which stand the people of the united states of america and plate britain but i will never forget your courage and sacrifice on our behalf we are here today to declare that the new out was born and i'll quote it dignity justice and human rights and i should have thought of all citizen there is no risk of the breakup of iraq but there is no risk all of a civil war i got what i want i got my war i'm back in iraq and if you people relied

on my information stupid. every year i'm on custom we meet here to consider the state of the union this year we gather in this chamber deeply aware of decisive games that lie ahead distorted beliefs estimates and guesstimates the appearance and he was misleading the public and the congress and saddam hussein had the materials to produce as much as five hundred tons of sand mustard and v.x. nerve agent sarin the they were making in one thousand nine hundred ninety one had a known shelf life of about two months i have confirmed this with inspectors

and analysts who were deeply involved in the one nine hundred ninety s. and i was well if you made it twelve years ago and it had a shelf life two months. it may not be safe to drink but it isn't sarah nerve gas any longer and there's no way the agency would not know what u.s. intelligence indicates that saddam hussein had upwards of thirty thousand munitions capable of delivering chemical agents. spector's recently turned up sixteen of them despite iraq's recent declaration. the nothing in their existence and they tried to use the fact that inspectors found sixteen of these as evidence that thousands more existed and again i mean it's as a methodology it's a very weak way to predict anything and i think it borders on propaganda to argue

that there are small number that have been found by inspectors in private in this case of twenty nine thousand exist so than the same is not accounted for the remaining twenty nine thousand nine hundred eighty four of these prohibited munitions but as we push ministration officials here to routinely sad or try to give the impression that if iraq had not fully accounted for all of a certain item and go related to their chemical or biological weapons then it must be there and it's not at all what the inspectors sad or found saddam hussein had material sufficient to produce more than thirty eight thousand liters. but human toxin. enough to subject millions of people to death by respiratory failure. again accounted for the material but it's biological weapons program particularly its ability to make botulinum toxin and therefore it was an open issue but it can it doesn't mean that. what the inspectors found was evidence that iraq

possessed that our intelligence sources tell us that he's attempted to purchase high strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production i think there was very little doubt that the centrifuge tubes so-called were nothing but rocket motor tubes to go into m eighty one style artillery rockets they certainly have all the specs for the nuclear experts for instance from the lawrence livermore laboratories z division the experts on center fusion richmond came out and said now you couldn't enrich uranium using these of these tubes they're not compatible but i saw it as a deliberate attempt to take information. and selectively take information and try to basically say iraq poses an imminent nuclear threat and therefore action is absolutely necessary and i thought that was absolutely on the international atomic energy agency confirmed in the one nine hundred ninety s.

that saddam hussein had an advanced nuclear weapons development program the ministration showed photos of nuclear or former nuclear weapon sites in iraq korean one nine hundred ninety one nuclear weapons sites claim that new construction showed they were ongoing nuclear weapons production sites complete nonsense the most troubling thing about the fact the distortions in the misleading statements that bush gave congress is that it is a federal felony it's a crime to mislead and distort information and present to the congress the british government has learned that saddam hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from africa just sixteen words in the state of the union address words that we now know were misleading retired career diplomat joe wilson trying to warn the administration of the. just that nearly a year before the speech i received a call from from the cia in february two thousand and two i was invited out to talk to those people within the broader intelligence community who deal with three

different subjects iraq. and we share i briefed in our what i knew about the rain in business it was during the course of their briefing that they said that they had received the reports. and the interest of the office of the vice president and that report was of it reported memorandum of agreement arthritis and sale of uranium yellowcake somewhat in restraining him from the share to to iraq and it was a document that was executed by the government need fair they asked me if i would be willing to go out and take another look at it and talk to people i knew there i left i left there telling them that if they wanted i would be able to free up my schedule they subsequently called me and said please do and spent the a pacer drinking drinking new t.v. and talking to everybody that was to talk to me do anything about the subject matter near me and i'd come back a persuaded out of having one from

a business perspective because of that with a consortium structure you just couldn't do it but a lot of people know him and to the way the government bureaucracy was fractured you could not make the decision without a lot of people milling and if you made the decision the decision would be reflected in a series of docket a series of signatures on the on the documents and if the documents are not contain a suit signature so you could not get senate government to use your documents the president quoted a british paper we did not know at the time no one knew at the time in arthur but maybe someone knew down in the powerful the agency that no one in our circles knew that there were doubts and suspicions that this might be a forgery of course it was information that was mistaken but the it was a relatively small. part of the case about nuclear weapons and nuclear reconstitution it is also the case that the broad picture about iraq's programs was

a picture that went very far back in time based on thought and its value has concluded with with the concurrence of outside experts that these documents which formed the basis for the reports of anything unique during employment action between iraq and not in fact not i think numerous french words were misspelled in the documents one of the letters was signed by a nigeria official with less office ten years ago several dates in the documents did not match the day of the week several of the names and titles of officials mentioned in the documents were incorrect who was it that asked for this review of the niger nuclear material question it was the vice president mr wilson former ambassador was sent to niger in response to the vice president's questions about this issue so assume italy the vice president got a report back in response to his question and that report contained the wilson memo

of his assassin the situation wilson says his family is the subject of a smear campaign by senior administration officials they deliberately leaked his wife's identity as a covert cia operative damaging her future career in compromising past missions after he criticised the administration on need to press ahead in the new york times but white house hatchet came out and started writing started writing articles which they basically said that wilson the first one came out and said that wilson told the truth because he's a democrat. let's set that up as an argument democrats tell the truth there you go republicans fill in the blank but then then a couple of senior administration officials leaked to bob novak that my wife was a cia are. that is involved in the weapons of mass destruction business and for the c.s.t. you're going straight you see he being very typically the president vice president

cabinet officers and the top of the white house going out of their way to get information i'm going to go back to old time magazine it one of the information. that's against a statutory law prohibits the implication of cia operatives what you're doing when you expose a cia officer on officer of any name you're basically taking their entire career and flush it down the toilet also as a potential look i see the person in jeopardy because of their operations and their operations and people that at one operated in jeopardy so it is a very very will act against us it will try to hurt him i pretty is right that we're if not we should root this is over i've never seen a dirty trick that could be. a present the united states and and

ministration who has come to office on a platform of restoring dignity and honor to the white house what they did was neither dignified nor was a terribly honorable nor was it germane to the issue of. wealthy british scientists i. suppose i was. like the. market trying to. find out what's really happening to the. global economy with my stronger for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune into cars a report on our key. a telemarketer broadcasting live from washington d.c.

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