saddam virtually seals iraq off from the west. in a 1998 letter to president clinton, paul wolfowitz, donald rumsfeld, and other leading neoconservatives urge the president to take action to remove saddam's regime from power. the neocons align with an urbane iraqi expatriate named ahmed al chalabi. he heads the iraqi national congress, a group of emigres and defectors lobbying to get rid of saddam. >> i say to you now the opposition is united in its aim of getting rid of saddam and establishing democracy in iraq. >> he was a very impressive and effective spokesman for the iraqi opposition to saddam. >> a very slick operator who was skillful enough to convey the idea that he could step in as a new leader of iraq. but that was totally divorced from realities on the ground. >> i george walker bush do solemnly swear -- >> when george w. bush is sworn in january 2001, rumsfeld, wolfowitz and feith take the reins of defense department policy. vice president cheney has reversed course and now supports regime change in iraq. motive awaits

saddam hussein but this arrangement.loved us so much he wanted to sell more oil to the world, more than opec gertner's including kuwait could condone. the result of a 10 year water with iran. his neighbors had enjoyed years of unbridled profits at the same time and saddam hussein did not invade kuwait nor to keep the soil from the world. on the contrary, he wanted to sell it to the world. he wanted to sell his oil in kuwait's to pay off the debts. the geopolitical realities of the situation prompted many in washington, including bush's own inner cabinet to respond with essentially studied indifference to the news that iraq had invaded kuwait. now they just didn't know how much they really should care. her attorneys argued in a national security council, which lack a stamp in a barrel of oil that come unethical so long as they came out of the gold. so long as the gas station is open for business, the americans and the world could simply hold their nose and let the matter go away. other options of course for how the world

saddam had tremendous depths -- debt.eighbors, kuwait especially had enjoyed years of unbridled profits at the same time. and saddam hussein did not invade kuwait nor to keep its oil from the world. on the contrary he wanted to sell it to the world. he wanted to sell his oil and kuwait's to pay off those desperate and the geopolitical realities of the situation prompted me and washed it including in bush's own cabinet to respond with, studied indifference to the news that iraq had invaded kuwait. they surely cared that it happened. they just didn't know how much they really should care. for who cared, it was argued, within the international security council which flag was stamped on a barrel of oil that came out of the gulf so long as they came out of the gulf? so long as the great middle eastern gas station was open for business, the americans in the world could simply hold their nose and let the matter go away. other options of course -- washington could have accepted a so called arab solution allowing regional players

cliff a big ally of saddam hussein and iran. these successors many came out of the communist party, not the associate but a communist. why was arabia important? that had and a rotating seat on the security council in a they had a vote it needed nine votes. we really needed this part of romania even though they did not like what they we're doing so keeping a coalition that brought did have something to say. >> i was a colonel at the time while the discussion was going on i was running off tackle at the fundamental level. said two years before, i had been on the joint staff band the executive director of three joint chiefs of staff and was there for the first six months. fill holes saying at the time, we were this close to the commander in chief of being an admiral, it went down and was between two as restorers between sports cough and then they the three-star admiral because at the time was all about the tinker wars so there was no thought there was no war plan. there was no contingency plan to 1021 was all about the soviet union

which is consider like a new saddam or a new dictator there are nuances to that in many aspects yes in some aspects not at all but the problem is he has a very good relationship with. i would say the military dictatorship of that as i describe it in tehran and also good relations with syria and with her as well he don't forget that moloch you spent a lot of his exile years in damascus so this is very important and the sunni triangle some quote men there is dead were part of that war against the americans in this sunni triangle they'd be they crisscross the border. because the border between iraq and syria that isn't is there is not a border i was just there somewhere right back in the make let me go back to jerusalem i'm going man let me go back to trying to destabilize the syrian i come in that ok go ahead sami jumping ahead then we're going to do some good so i mean yeah i think there's. there is a bit of a simplification regarding so never says she saw i think this is highly highly oversimplified i mean very few people might be abroad know that outside of iraq that all iraqi tribes

which is considered like a new saddam or a new dictator there are nuances to that in many aspects yes in some at aspects not at all but the problem is he has a very good relationship with. i would say the military dictatorship of that as i describe it in tehran and also good relations with syria and with hezbollah as well don't forget that moloch you spent a lot of his exile years in damascus so this is very important and the sunni triangle some quote mender is dead were part of that war against the americans in this sunni triangle they'd be they crisscross the border. because the border between iraq and syria that part isn't is there is not a born again i was just there somewhere right back in late because when we go back to jerusalem i'm going man let me go back to trying to destabilize the syrian i come in that ok go ahead sami jumping go ahead then we'll go to jerusalem go ahead sam yeah i think there is. there is a bit of a simplification regarding so never says she saw on i think this is a highly highly oversimplified i mean very few people might be abroad know that outside of i

that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction.i am not trying to excuse, i'm just saying there were a lot of people who have the same view that colin powell basically presented at the united nations. and those people were in other countries, too. israel, and jordan, germany, france. they shared their intelligence with us and share their views as to whether or not the dci george tenet was right in asserting that saddam hussein had weapons of mass destruction. >> let's get real here. let's get real about this. the public and the media and so many others who did not in terms of journalism serve their basic function were being fed a continuous barrage of messages from dick cheney's office, the white house, from the state department under former general powell telling them, insisting that there were weapons of mass destruction. the belief from the public and from the administration. we had the congress passing this green light almost four months before the powell's speech at the u.n. because they had been fed and pushed and pulled and

something that's been happening for many years ok pepe jump in before we go to the saddam hussein was using saudi money to invade iran which is a shiite country of course it was you go ahead chance in look everybody has a very good point in this discussion in terms of the oversimplification i agree in fact who wants to oversimplification the americans because as long as the people soon is against shiites they have a perfect excuse to be in baghdad in that the vatican size and pursuit all right let me hear we're going to go one short break where you don't sharpen arrangements and after that you're provoking to your discussion of the reichstag with marty. here the reindeer is interesting for the herders. and when it suffers. people do their best to help. but the distances are. and the roads are. unpredictable. will the roman need be on time. download the official publication yourself choose your language stream quality and enjoy your favorites from alzheimer's if you're away from your television just doesn't matter now with your mobile device you can watch on t.v. anytime anywhere. is a

which is consider like a new saddam or a new dictator there are nuances to that in many aspects yes in some at aspects not at all but the problem is he has a very good relationship with. i would say the military dictatorship of that as i describe it in tehran and also good relations with syria and with hezbollah as well don't forget that moloch you spent a lot of his exile years in damascus so this is very important and the sunni triangle some quote mender is dead were part of that war against the americans in this sunni triangle they'd be they crisscross the border. because the border between iraq and syria that part isn't is there is not a border i was just there somewhere right back in the lake because when we go back to jerusalem i think man let me go back to trying to understand why the syrian argument that ok go ahead sami jumping go ahead then we'll go to jerusalem go ahead sam yeah i think there is. there is a bit of a simplification regarding sunni versus shia and so on i think this is a highly highly oversimplified i mean very few people might be abroad know that outside of i

which is consider like a new saddam or a new dictator there are nuances to that in many aspects yes in some aspects not at all but the problem is he has a very good relationship with. i would say the military dictatorship of that as i describe it in tehran and also good relations with syria and with hezbollah as well don't forget that moloch you spent a lot of his exile years in damascus so this is very important and the sunni triangle some quote men there is dead were part of that war against the americans in this sunni triangle they be they crisscross the border. because the border between iraq and syria that part isn't is there is not a border i was just there there are plenty of academic because when we go back to jerusalem i'm going man let me go back to trying to destabilize the syrian army and then that ok go ahead sami jumping ahead then we're going to do some good so i mean yeah i think there's. there is a bit of a simplification there regarding so never says she saw i think this is highly highly oversimplified i mean very few people might be abroad know that outside of iraq n

saddam hussein had embarrassed. his own army was out to get him. if you have two weeks, it would be a shocking seven days. 999 times out of 1000 think that's exactly how things would've played out for saddam would've not survived. unfortunately for the bush administration's perspective, george h.w. bush's dave, saddam rolled the dice and made it, but given the question and i began, they would take the same bed again. >> i do think the breadth of the coalition to play a role in that calculation. it is in many ways a strange calculation. my vantage point is from romania were only a few months before in 1989 had been overthrown and the only violent overthrow and eastern europe after the fall of the wall. such esco had been in romania and then a big holiday of saddam hussein and also a variant. and his successors -- many of them came out of the communist party apparatus. they were not the closest associates, but were nonetheless communes. by mr. meanie imports anyway? romania haven't haven't had 11 of 13 seats on the council. so we really needed, even

didn't think it was enough to kick saddam out of kuwait.wanted to upstage his father and chase saddam all the way to iraq and capture him and ultimately be responsible for his execution. he has his gun on his wall when he is president. i think that that was his way of saying i'm a bigger, tougher guy than you. and ultimately, it's going to be his legacy that it cost a lot of lives and a lot of treasure for more than one country to make that happen. and that was an important part of the psychology between the two men that drove that whole thing. >> i agree with this. i see all the points that i add them up, i connect them. you're basically saying here, and anybody that agree with you, and maybe i agree with you, you're accusing this guy of the worst case of narcissism. like this presidency, this planet, life as a human being is all about what i want to do for my own personal reason that has nothing to do with anyone else, just me. i want to beat dad. that's a hell of an accusation if you think of it. >> listen, understand. that is a signific

saddam hussein? a sam ma hates him.nnection between saddam hussein and al qaeda. >> it's so obvious now that 9/11 and iraq had nothing to do with each other. and afghanistan and iraq, it's two different wars, two different issues, and yet we forget how closely linked the administration at the time put the two. >> absolutely. and in fact mark rossini, who you just saw there, it was his job to evaluate that intelligence report mohammed alta had met in prague. they gave him a photograph that supposedly showed the meeting. he looked at it and said, this is not mohammed ata. he reported up the chain, and then he sees dick cheney using that report repeatedly on ""meet the press"" saying we have a report. it's pretty well confirmed that mohammed ata has met with an intelligence agent. the manipulations here were far worse than anybody suspected at the time. and now we're getting the people who did the work coming forward, talking about it. >> and watching our current leaders now, president obama administration to both sides, t

led occupation one is not justifying saddam's crimes one is pointing out that a country like iraq a great civilization has been brought down to its knees by this direct occupation the brutality of the occupation sort of past saddam's regime the tortures in the prisons of our book raban other secret prisons prisons set of past what saddam's torture chambers that so one is trying to see where iraq has travelled following the fair teen years of sanctions following the the brutal occupation and this is what we are trying to resolve in iowa as well what is the future for iraq having traveled this through this bloody carnage and the united states today it's trying to further destabilize iraq so that it can have a regime in baghdad that only says yes and what washington wants and this is not easy to achieve that is why washington despite iraq occupying iraq still facing enormous opposition within the country even within parties that have cooperated with washington in the past because society hates us domination hated occupation hated the sanctions so there is deep rooted opposition to u.s. influ

the show saddam or in this together.states, only one, the united arab emirates even agree to this limited demonstration of solidarity. they feared more than saddam, a public backlash from cavorting with what the ukrainians routinely called the great state and the fact that saddam hussein directly told the united states ambassador before the invasion, quote, he felt secure in the belief that no arab government would ever allow the united states to use their land for that purpose. defending kuwait. why was he so secure in his belief? for two reasons. first, muslim states would reject pollution of american troops on their soil and because in practical terms, none to date had ever done so since 1979. of course the shah of iran hot, but that is not a model other arab readers wish to follow. saddam believed muslim states would reject direct american aid and more specifically stationing of troops and their soil. in retrospect, this was his first strategic miscalculation, but hardly in a rational one. american influence in the p

discovered saddam connection to 9/11 attack or anthrax attacks. dispute over wmd numberses. now thinking about inspection demands. in other words start putting together the pretext. we didn't have a war. we didn't have a reason for a war. we were looking for a reason for a war. >> we didn't have a bona fide threat. at any time they were free to go to the public and say you know what? this is what doug five thinks, this is what we think, we're not so sure, but we still think we ought to do something. they never did that. they were looking for a pretext, as you say. they were phonying up the case. in another part of the film lawrence wilkinson chief of staff to colin powell said he and colin powell participated in what he called a hoax. unintentionally but he called it a hoax. >> one of the things coy never understand, at the time i didn't either, the hawks in the middle east believe somehow if you could break apart one of the arab front line states were rejectionist, the road through -- jerusalem goes through baghdad. if you broke one of them, they would all break and you'd b

referring to the relationship between saddam and al qaeda. and the intelligence community he kept asking the cia which was the p.c. i asked. for to look into this and they kept saying there's no evidence. no conclusive evidence no persuasive evidence and they asked many times he didn't say the intelligence community says there's a link he says the intelligence community has given me thirteen reports on saddam's connection with al qaeda and when he says that how did he feel you angry frustrated it's not a prudent thing for politicians to do because the intelligence community is presenting the same judgments to members of congress members of congress can ask do you agree with what. and the answer would be i don't know specifically with no that's not the judgment of the intelligence community. so that i back to your original question and i worried overly about politicisation about deliberate distortion i'm not i think that. the number of instances of political distortion of intelligence intelligence community caving into political pressure from

united states senate iraq declared eighty five hundred liters of anthrax but unscom estimates that saddam hussein could have produced twenty five thousand liters it should come as no shock then that since saddam hussein forced out the last inspectors in one thousand nine hundred eighty we have amassed much intelligence indicating that iraq is continuing to make these weapons we know that iraq has at least seven of these mobile biological agent factories what followed this anthrax fear mongering was operation iraqi freedom that cost over eighty. hundred billion u.s. dollars thousands of american casualties over a million dead iraqis and of course no weapons of mass destruction to justify a military occupation that lasted nearly nine years today history repeats itself as the well oiled gears of the american war machine singled out countries like iran north korea or targets obscure booky man in countries like yemen pakistan and mali so we have to ask ourselves if we as americans will ever learn from these mistakes or what we continue to believe in invisible threats and manufactured evidence

hussein he asks the aide to get evidence from wolfowitz of a saddam connection with u b l osama bin laden we'll look at each other like. what are you talking about who did how saddam hussein bin laden he simply says heretic there's no connection between saddam hussein and al qaeda yet here was dick cheney making the argument on national television that one of the nine eleven hijackers met with iraqi intelligence before nine eleven. has been pretty well confirmed that he did go to prague and he did meet with a senior official iraqi intelligence service in circles in baku last my next guest was in charge of analyzing the intelligence on that precise claim mark racine is a former supervisory special agent in the f.b.i.'s counterterrorism division and joins me now from our new york studios mark welcome to the program thank you oughtn't to be here thank you thanks for joining us what was your role in the intelligence community during the run up to the war in iraq ok in one nine hundred ninety nine i became the f.b.i. new york joint terrorism task force representative to the cia's counter

for an all out war against iraq under the pretext that saddam hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction here's a clip to jog your memory. less than a teaspoon of dry anthrax a little bit about this amount this is just about the amount of a teaspoon less than a teaspoon full of dry anthrax in an r.v. shutdown the united states senate iraq declared eighty five hundred liters of anthrax but unscom estimates that saddam hussein could have produced twenty five thousand liters it should come as no shock then that since saddam hussein forced out the last inspectors in one thousand nine hundred eighty we have amassed much intelligence indicating that iraq is continuing to make these weapons we know that iraq has at least seven of these mobile biological agent factories what followed this anthrax fear mongering was operation iraqi freedom that cost over eight hundred billion u.s. dollars thousands of american casualties over a million dead iraqis and of course no weapons of mass destruction to justify military occupation that lasted nearly nine years today history repeats itself as the well oile

it was all saddam hussein.ber two in the defense department totally bought her theories, even though the cia and the fbi kept saying she was full of you know what. and even after 9/11, he kept saying to everyone, read this book. she knows what she is talking about. this should be a basis of our policy. and the fact that it actually became the basis for our policy, and a fellow who is said to be as part as paul wolfowitz who would really become the victim of a conspiracy theorist is still shocking to me today. and i would love another ten minutes in the documentary to work through that. >> is there follow-up work here on your part? >> well, mike and i, mike isikoff, we're always talking about the next project and what else we can get. i thought the documentary got some new stuff in. and hopefully we can keep finding more. you know, this is history, and history is always changing. but i think the more we go through this, as larry wilkerson said in the documentary, there is more and more evidence that this was a h

there is no basis for that anywhere the united states imposed crippling sanctions for example on saddam hussein's iraq for over a decade killing over people half of them children and even then saddam hussein's government did not implode and it did not can seem to the demands of hostile foreign powers it took a massive us land invasion to do that the ability to stand in the other side's shoes to be show that you can do it is key to diplomacy i think you would agree with that but everything the u.s. has done so far showed you ran the opposite of that starting from the u.s. helping get rid of their democratically elected leader in the fifty's putting the shah in power much hated figure in iran what can the u.s. do to. now to show iran that they respect their national interests the first thing that has to happen is this basic acceptance except in some of these low mcgrew public as a legitimate and rational actor this is the model.

there is no basis for that anywhere the united states imposed crippling sanctions for example on saddam hussein's iraq for over a decade killing over people half of them children and even then saddam hussein's government did not implode and it did not concede to the demands of hostile foreign powers it took a massive us land invasion to do that the ability to stand in the other side's shoes to show that you can do it is key to diplomacy i think you would agree with that but everything the u.s. has done so far showed you read the opposite of that starting from the u.s. helping get rid of their democratically elected leader in the fifty's putting the shah in power much hated figure in iran what can the u.s. do to. now to show iran that they respect their national interests the first thing that has to happen is this basic acceptance except in some of these lawmakers republic as a legitimate and rational actor. this is the model that nixon and kissinger used to pursue the diplomatic opening with china in the early one nine hundred seventy s. it's not their achievement was not that they star