it's five thirty pm in moscow and are watching our t.v.'s our weekly top stories the u.s. credit rating has been downgraded for the first time since one thousand seventeenth that's despite the last minute debt ceiling deal back on verge of default. this is calm on top of wall street's worst performance in over two years and european debt troubles are suggesting the share rollercoaster ride is likely to continue monday. these are former presidents is on trial for mt skilling and corruption i don't weary public says the revolution is not over as the replacement regime is failing

to meet their demands. and just across the border in israel over a quarter of a million people have rallied against the government they are demanding better living conditions and say they are ready to do what it takes up next our special report on the quest of george w. bush's administration in the run up and during the iraq war.

senao has weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass destruction for the united states and is good for ballistic it is sponsored and sheltered terrorist training suicide bombers weapons are heathy trial logical weapons including anthrax and botulism toxin a logical and chemical agent to kill millions of people chemical weapons including v.x. and sara mustard gas and massive and so far 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 had 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 three shima seeking a nuclear bomb and with physical façade 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 should we use this as an opportunity to do something about iraq as well we all said no no the tide 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 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 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 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 how the iraqi guys 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 capability 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 get talking points to justify this war already made up its mind 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 it was people were some intelligence director of the department of energy simply ordered his experts who had raised questions about the evidence being used on the nuclear

and as the news accounts say to sit down and shut up so that we would be on board with the with the overall estimate they were not an opportunity to speak because no one wanted this 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 not only by their physical presence but by the questions they asked by the well don't you think sort of thing could it be possible that because the data mining going back over old information coming questions and the overwhelming opinion from the scientists of this government 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 out of langley that's why they're not in washington or in order to continue 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 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 to lay in decision in an action could leave to a massive and sudden heart 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 so 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 drafted i 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 the inside 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.

in iraq saddam hussein. cohorts with terrorists secretly and without fingerprints he could provide one of this in weapons to terrorists. or help them develop their own well the war really got absolutely nothing to do with terrorism there was no connection whatsoever between iraq and the secular regime there and the religious fanatics who perpetrated love and 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 was in. or he was a terrible feeling yes but he was not willing to sacrifice his own life.

just that it answers terrorists as completely as a used al-qaeda has said total contempt for saddam hussein himself he's been a socialist he's been very harsh he's treated islamic leaders sly misleaders extremely harshly rock and we have come very good intelligence on this was not part of the picture of terrorism before we invaded saddam hussein and ben laden work and a nice 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 qaeda 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 that 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 as 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 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 programs 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 and inspectors were in the country the most important information that say inspectors have ever gotten what's going on in iraq have come from defectors know

about that capability from defectors and others the recent defector stated that as recently as august of ninety eight that's while inspections were still going own 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 this and its current state. 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 done adequately that there was this eric's unit of let's find the smoking gun let's find the evidence rather than let's let's look at what's out here and wavy evidence they wanted to believe him and goes back to contacts that which unaided is only is the one nine hundred ninety s. with individuals like dick cheney like paul wolfowitz like richard perle dealing

with aquaman charlady 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 so 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 end of vigils who they claimed rather high level military or scientists with access they were looking for money first of all his child he 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 challenged he himself admit that he 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 our liberation will not have been achieved without make the determination of president george w. bush and the quote commitment of the coalition at the forefront of which stand the people of the united states of america and great britain but i will never forget your courage and sacrifice on our behalf we are here today to declare that then you are about as born and iraq with dignity justice and human rights and i sure thought

of all citizens there is no risk of a breakup of iraq that there is no risk all for a civil war i doubt what i what i caught my war on back in iraq and if you people were right and my information stupid. every year. 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 to score the beliefs estimates and guesstimates the appears and he was misleading the public and the congress saddam regime had the materials to produce as much as five hundred tons of syrian 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 now it's things 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 have known u.s. intelligence indicates that saddam hussein had upwards of thirty thousand issues capable of delivering chemical agents. spector's recently turned up sixteen of them despite iraq's recent declaration. denying 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 don the same is not accounted for the remaining twenty nine thousand nine hundred eighty four of these prohibited munitions and this way bush administration officials either routinely sad or try to give the impression that if iraq had not fully accounted for all of a certain item and gotten related to 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. botulinum toxin. and that's a subject millions of people to death i respiratory failure. again accounted for

immature but its biological weapons program quickly its ability to make botulinum toxin and therefore it was an open issue but it can it doesn't mean that they're working spector's found was evidence that iraq possessed that are intelligent sources tell us that he's attempted to purchase high street 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 felt there 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 ministration showed photos of nuclear or former nuclear weapon sites in iraq korean one thousand nine hundred 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 that the store seems not 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 were that we now know were misleading and retired career diplomat joe wilson tried to

warn the administration of the. just that nearly a year before the speech i received a call from from the cia and for word 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 the share i present or what i knew about uranium 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 a purported 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 i spent the eight taysir drinking drinking tea and talking to everybody that was a talk to who knew anything about the subject matter near me and i'd come back are persuaded to not have one from a business perspective because of that with a consortium structure you just couldn't do it and a lot of people knowing to that with a government bureaucracy structure you cannot make a 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 are not contain a suit signatures he could not be authentic government and 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 power for 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 we constitution 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 the quote with the concurrence of outside experts that these documents which formed the basis for the report of recent unique beauty and put into action between news but 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 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 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 we will send a memo of his assessment 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 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 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 op. it is involved in the weapons of mass destruction business and for the c.s.t. you're going straight you can 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 that information out i'm going to go back to old time magazine it wanted to publish and . that's against a statutory law that prohibits the education 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 want paraded in jeopardy so to say very little act against the ambassador to try to hurt him by pretty huge white career if not we

should root this is over i've never seen a dirty trick that could be. a 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 nor was it terribly honorable nor was it germane to the issue at hand. in some pieces but parties available in grand hotel here in grand hotel emerald small component of the club small so-called hotel in the big gold circus hotel was really a ski current units to find its presence as a asteroid kempinski my god when you take a look you can scan bargain. now so it's. great

for the fleas.