to question the truth behind the. one of that report is next.

say now has weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass destruction or add to the united states and its dozens of ballistic pay to sponsor and sheltered terrorists saying suicide bombers weapons or he flew trial logical weapons including anthrax and botulism toxin a logical and chemical agent to kill millions of people chemical weapons including v.x. and sarin mustard gas and massive and sudden heart massive death and destruction

and death on a massive scale the danger to our country is grave 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 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 iran the regime is seeking a nuclear bomb and with physical facade 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 rome spell asking the question should we use this as an opportunity to do something about iraq as well we all said no no as 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 the 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 destined 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 develop nuclear 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 advisor 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 if 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 there. wolfowitz would be asked to explain you know how good is the evidence can you tell us more about it this in nato mind you and he'd say well it's

like this it's like pornography. hard to describe but i'll 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 of. the smoking gun. that could come in the form of a mushroom but. a lot of people who supported the war in iraq actually believe that iraq had the capability to fire a missile that could reach the united states carrying payloads 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 what 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 was the cia to give it talking points to justify this war it already made up its mind massive intervention by people particularly from vice president cheney's office and vice president 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 suggesting intelligence director of the department of energy simply ordered his experts who had raised questions about the evidence being used on the nuclear and of it as news accounts say to sit down and shut up so the deal we would be on board with. with the overall estimate they were not given an opportunity to speak because no one wanted to hear with this i was chief of collecting information on iraq and it's in 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 but not only by their physical presence but by the questions they asked by the well don't you think sort of things couldn't it be possible that they call it data mining going back over all the information coming in and the overwhelming opinion from the scientists of this government at the department of energy and even at 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 out of langley that's why they're not in washington they're 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 with nonsense

like we saw did ministration have 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 how where with whom it's set 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 are you was done 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 care of yachts 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 but ten 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 i.u.d. 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 off it was a prosecutor making a case using what benefited his case 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 american public were much more forceful than could have possibly been when originally written by cia dia your 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 intelligence 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 that you'll ever get one to 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 terrorist secretly and without fingerprints he could provide one of his in weapons to terrorists. or helped them develop their own 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 issue for years for years we've looked for a connection let's just no connection saddam wasn't. our goal he was a terrible felon yes but he was not willing to sacrifice his own life. just that it answers terrorists completely antithetical to used al qaida has had total contempt for saddam hussein himself he's been a socialist he's been very harsh he's treated islamic leaders misleaders extremely harshly rock and we have very good intelligence on this was not part of the picture of terrorism before we invaded saddam hussein and bin laden were enemies bin laden

considered and said that saddam hussein was the 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 the very real trauma that the american people have felt ever since nine eleven and to associate that trauma with iraq has you know from the polls most americans believe that iraq 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 ministry.

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 accessed emigres and defectors with more directs access to these programs three iraqi defectors we know that iraq in the late one nine hundred ninety s. had several mobile biological weapons listen only after defectors told us about it their inspectors were in the country the most important information that the inspectors have ever gotten what's going on in iraq have come from defectors know about that capability from defectors and others the recent defectors stated that as recently as august of ninety eight that's why the inspections were still going on a formal order was issued to proceed with the nuclear program and pulled last our strategy is to bring to the world. the danger of the saddam poses in his current

state without a doubt he is developing weapons of mass destruction. without a doubt he has chemical and biological weapons and without a doubt for thirty years he has been trying to acquire a nuclear weapon the usual scrutiny of these kind of guys was just not done adequately that there was this attitude of let's find the smoking gun let's 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 originated as early as the one nine hundred ninety s. with individuals like dick cheney like paul wolfowitz like richard perle dealing with aquaman challah 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 to checked out of reality in order to go to war that it was a war fever that had taken over these people wanted 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 exiled from his own country for twenty to thirty years and is clearly not a hero under any definition of heroism 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 charlie was paying 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 shot himself admit that the they

didn't mind providing false information because it helped them to achieve their goal of removing saddam nobody in iraq will defend that regime including the military both the regular army and the republican guard of liberation would not have been achieved without the nation of president george w. bush and the commitment of the coalition at the forefront of which stand the people of the united states of america and great britain that god days will never forget to go to college and sacrifice on our behalf we are here today to declare that the new ad out this morning and i'll quote a dignity justice and human rights and i sure thought of all citizens there is no risk of a breakup of iraq but there is no risk all of a civil war i got what i wanted i got my war back in iraq and if you people relied on my information you stupid.

every year by law and custom we meet here to consider the state of the union. this year we gather in this chamber deeply aware of decisive days that lie ahead. distorted beliefs estimates and guesstimates that he appears and he was misleading the public and the congress that saddam hussein had the materials to produce as much as five hundred tons of sand mustard and v.x. nerve agent sarin that they were making in one thousand nine hundred 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 now it's well if you made it twelve years ago and it had

a shelf life of 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 could not have known 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 the racks we sent declaration. denying their existence and then they tried to use the fact that inspectors found sixteen of these as evidence that they had 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 a small number that have been found by inspectors imply that. in this case oprah two thousand and nine thousand exist so don the same is not accounted for the

remaining twenty nine thousand nine hundred eighty four of these prohibited munitions but this way bush administration officials do the routinely sad or try to give the impression that if iraq had not fully accounted for all of a certain item and related to their chemical or biological weapons then it must be either 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 its biological weapons program checkley its ability to make botulinum toxin and therefore it was an open issue but it can it doesn't mean that that what the inspectors found was evidence that iraq possessed intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production i think there was

very little doubt that the centrifuge tube 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 these tubes are not compatible so 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 felt that was absolutely 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 preen

one nine hundred ninety one nuclear weapon sites claim that new construction showed they were ongoing nuclear weapons production sites complete nonsense the most troubling thing about the fact of 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 to 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 at retired career diplomat joe wilson tried to warn the administration that the. nearly a year before the speech i received a call from from the cia in february two thousand i was invited out to talk to those people within the broader intelligence community who deal with three different subjects iraq. uranium and the share i briefed and what i knew about the

iranian business it was during the course of their briefing that they said that they had received a report that it piqued to the interest of the office of the vice president and that report was of a purported memorandum of agreement on the rights 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 eight hundred francs drinking mint tea and talking to everybody that was to talk to who knew anything about the subject matter near me and i'd come back a persuaded out of having one from a business perspective because of the way the consortium was structured you just couldn't do it and a lot of people knowing and to the way the government bureaucracy was fractured you

could not make the decision without a lot of people knowing and if you made the decision the decision would be reflected in a series of docu series signatures on the on the documents and if the documents did not contain those suit signatures it could not be a senate government of nigeria documents the president quoted a british paper we did not know at the time no one knew at the time in articles maybe someone knew down in that the bowels of the agency but 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 that is this value has concluded with with the concurrence of outside experts that these documents

which formed the basis for the reports of recent unique iranian plans action between. and in fact not authentic numerous french words were misspelled in the documents one of the letters was signed by a nigeria official who had left office ten years ago several dates and 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 a former ambassador was sent to niger in response to the vice president's questions about this issue so assume hadley the vice president got a report back in response to his question and that report contained the wilson memo of his assessment the situation wilson says his family is the subject of a smear campaign by senior administration officials the deliberately leaked his wife's identity as

a covert cia operative damaging her future career and compromising past missions after he criticized the administration on meet the press and in the new york times the white house hatchet came out and started writing started writing articles which they basically said that wilson was 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 kerry republicans fell in the blank then then a couple of senior administration officials leaked to bob novak said that my wife was a cia op. involved in the weapons of mass destruction business and the cia senior going to straighten visuals is a key to being very good being the president vice president cabinet officers and the top of the white house going out of their way to get that information out i'm going to go back to old time magazine it one of the information

. that's against a statutory law that prohibits the. cia operatives what you're doing when you expose a cia officer officer of any name you're basically taking their entire career and flush it down the toilet also has the potential of placing that person in jeopardy because of their operations and their own operations and people that run a parade in jeopardy so to say very little act against the ambassador to try to hurt him i forty is why it's career if not we shoot this it will be i've never seen a dirty trick that could be. present the united states and in ministration who has come to office on a platform of restoring dignity and honor to the white house what they did was

neither dignified gore was a terribly honorable nor was it germane to the issue of. wealthy british style. sometimes guys look. like that. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global economy with max cons or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to kaiser report on our.