It's Official - Bush Administration Concedes Iraq Had No WMD

[Mic Check]

AP Reports Here

Bush, Cheney Concede Saddam Had No WMDs

Thu Oct 7, 7:18 PM ET

Add to My Yahoo! Top Stories - AP

By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) and his vice president conceded Thursday in the clearest terms yet that Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) had no weapons of mass destruction, even as they tried to shift the Iraq (news - web sites) war debate to a new issue — whether the invasion was justified because Saddam was abusing a U.N. oil-for-food program.

Ridiculing the Bush administration's evolving rationale for war, Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry (news - web sites) shot back: "You don't make up or find reasons to go to war after the fact."

Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) brushed aside the central findings of chief U.S. weapons hunter Charles Duelfer — that Saddam not only had no weapons of mass destruction and had not made any since 1991, but that he had no capability of making any either — while Bush unapologetically defended his decision to invade Iraq.

"The Duelfer report showed that Saddam was systematically gaming the system, using the U.N. oil-for-food program to try to influence countries and companies in an effort to undermine sanctions," Bush said as he prepared to fly to campaign events in Wisconsin. "He was doing so with the intent of restarting his weapons program once the world looked away."

Duelfer found no formal plan by Saddam to resume WMD production, but the inspector surmised that Saddam intended to do so if U.N. sanctions were lifted. Bush seized upon that inference, using the word "intent" three times in reference to Saddam's plans to resume making weapons.

This week marks the first time that the Bush administration has listed abuses in the oil-for-fuel program as an Iraq war rationale. But the strategy holds risks because some of the countries that could be implicated include U.S. allies, such as Poland, Jordan and Egypt. In addition, the United States itself played a significant role in both the creation of the program and how it was operated and overseen.

For his part, Cheney dismissed the significance of Duelfer's central findings, telling supporters in Miami, "The headlines all say `no weapons of mass destruction stockpiled in Baghdad.' We already knew that."

The vice president said he found other parts of the report "more intriguing," including the finding that Saddam's main goal was the removal of international sanctions.

"As soon as the sanctions were lifted, he had every intention of going back" to his weapons program, Cheney said.

The report underscored that "delay, defer, wait, wasn't an option," Cheney said. And he told a later forum in Fort Myers, Fla., speaking of the oil-for-food program: "The sanctions regime was coming apart at the seams. Saddam perverted that whole thing and generated billions of dollars."

Yet Bush and Cheney acknowledged more definitively than before that Saddam did not have the banned weapons that both men had asserted he did — and had cited as the major justification before attacking Iraq in March 2003.

Bush has recently left the question open. For example, when asked in June whether he thought such weapons had existed in Iraq, Bush said he would "wait until Charlie (Duelfer) gets back with the final report."

In July, Bush said, "We have not found stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction," a sentence construction that kept alive the possibility the weapons might yet be discovered.

On Thursday, the president used the clearest language to date nailing the question shut:

"Iraq did not have the weapons that our intelligence believed were there," Bush said. His words placed the blame on U.S. intelligence agencies.

In recent weeks, Cheney has glossed over the primary justification for the war, most often by simply not mentioning it. But in late January 2004, Cheney told reporters in Rome: "There's still work to be done to ascertain exactly what's there."

"The jury is still out," he told National Public Radio the same week, when asked whether Iraq had possessed banned weapons.



Duelfer's report was presented Wednesday to senators and the public with less than four weeks left in a fierce presidential campaign dominated by questions about Iraq and the war on terror.

In Bayonne, N.J., Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards (news - web sites) on Thursday called "amazing" Cheney's assertions that the Duelfer report justified rather than undermined Bush's decision to go to war, and he accused the Republican of using "convoluted logic."

Kerry, in a campaign appearance in Colorado, said: "The president of the United States and the vice president of the United States may well be the last two people on the planet who won't face the truth about Iraq."

A short time later, while campaigning in Wisconsin, Bush angrily responded to Kerry's charge he sought to "make up" a reason for war.

"He's claiming I misled America about weapons when he, himself, cited the very same intelligence about Saddam weapons programs as the reason he voted to go to war," Bush said. Citing a lengthy Kerry quote from two years ago on the menace Saddam could pose, Bush said: "Just who's the one trying to mislead the American people?"

Can we officially label this as historically the U.S.'s biggest error now? If Bush gets re-elected after this shit, I'm moving to Jamaica.

 

[bigantdna3]

Can I go?

 

[TOKZTLI]

Bush ever the mind-reader: ' Bush said as he prepared to fly to campaign events in Wisconsin. "He was doing so with the intent of restarting his weapons program once the world looked away." '

I wonder if he is clairvoyant or actually got this from Saddam in the torture chamber he is in.

 

[L Mac-a-docious]

Bush ever the mind-reader: ' Bush said as he prepared to fly to campaign events in Wisconsin. "He was doing so with the intent of restarting his weapons program once the world looked away." '

I wonder if he is clairvoyant or actually got this from Saddam in the torture chamber he is in.

God told him.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Wow, shocking news. Who would of thought?

Bush 28 Oct 2002 : "He's got weapons of mass destruction. This is a man who
has used weapons of mass destruction."

"It's a person who claims he has no weapons of mass destruction, in order to
escape the dictums of the U.N. Security Council and the United Nations --
but he's got them. See, he'll lie. He'll deceive us. And he'll use them."


Bush 1 Nov 2002: "Saddam Hussein is a man who has told the world he wouldn't
have weapons of mass destruction, and yet he deceived the world. He's got
them... We know he's got chemical weapons, probably has biological weapons."

 

[WestRumble]

Bush got the same intelligence that kerry did. Kerry even voted for us to disarm saddam. The main point is they thought that saddam was a threat to us and for the ppl of iraq and he was. IMO he was a threat in other ways then just WMDs. They had terrorists training camps there, which is another reason for going into iraq. records show of what saddam has done to his own ppl and the neighbors surrounding him. Those who were tortured by saddam say that saddam wanted to get nuclear weapons and had intentions of bombing Israel and Kuwait. Some of you guys get all freaked out because there is 1% of ppl in iraq who hate us and want to kill us and your ready to retreat. IMO you guys need to stop thinking of the worst and all these websites you guys are reading is really making you panik and making you lose sense of reality. these websites are making you scarry as fuck. LOL @ moving to Jamica if bush is re-elected. thats my point.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

Some of you guys get all freaked out because there is 1% of ppl in iraq who hate us

ROFL!!!

A pinche Norteno supporting Bush...

LOL we live in the fucking twilight zone friends.

 

[TOKZTLI]

Some of you guys get all freaked out because there is 1% of ppl in iraq who hate us and want to kill us and your ready to retreat.

LMAO Did you just tune in to Fox News today because there is a thing called history and current events that dont support your 1% claim.

 

[WestRumble]

^well there are soliders over there that say it. Are you calling them liars? These are real facts about the war, not the ppl you listen to that are being biased on the war and are doing it for political gain. Soliders say themelves that the enemy over there is only a small fraction of the overall percentage of the ppl in Iraq. That out of every 100 Iraqis there is one that is going to fight against us. A quote from the soldiers fighting over in Iraq.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

^well there are soliders over there that say it. Are you calling them liars?

YES

 

[jay deuce]

^well there are soliders over there that say it. Are you calling them liars?

Don't believe everything you see on TV. Have you been over there and asked some soldiers?

You are the perfect example of a brainwashed sheep.

 

[Ethereal]

You wouldn't know he was lying, unless you believed something you saw on television telling you that his 1% was false, and in this sense, you too, are a sheep my friend, for believing this source which allows you to refute his numbers.

Can I possibly be wrong with this statement?

 

[TOKZTLI]

By your logic Nitro, I would be a sheep to believe you.

 

[Ethereal]

Not necessarily, because I claim no source for my finding, just fundamental logic and reasoning. We are talking about two sides, one being true, the other being false, both of which gained their insight from the media, yet one is telling the other he is a sheep because he blindly believes what he saw was real. Is the other no less a sheep for believeing something else he saw, which allows him to refute the position of the other?

 

[2-0-Sixx]

WTF is the point of even arguing Nitro? Dude said 1%. Come on man, even the most pro-Iraqi war mutherfucker will tell you it’s a lot fucking higher than 1%. You’re just arguing to argue.

 

[HERESY]

@ nitro, just curious did fundamental logic and reasoning lead you to believe Iraq had wmd? Or did your belief stem from american media?

 

[Ethereal]

WTF is the point of even arguing Nitro? Dude said 1%. Come on man, even the most pro-Iraqi war mutherfucker will tell you it’s a lot fucking higher than 1%. You’re just arguing to argue.

I'M NOT DEFENDING HIM, I DON'T BELIEVE IT IS ONE PERCENT (IT IS PROBABLY LIKE 99%) AND I'M NOT ARGUING EITHER WAY. I AM DISCUSSING WITH SOMEONE THE QUALITIES OF A SHEEP SO GET THE FUCK OFF MY BACK. SHIT.

@ nitro, just curious did fundamental logic and reasoning lead you to believe Iraq had wmd? Or did your belief stem from american media?

A little of both. I took what the American media said, and applied that to the brutality of Saddam and his history, and came to my conclusion.

 

[2-0-Sixx]

lol@get off my back!

Relax comrade. Go watch CNN

 

[Ethereal]

Sorry, don't watch the news (other then local on occasion). However, it is a proven fact that you get all of your information from the media, hence the countless articles you link.

Damn 2-0 that is a sick ass bike you got!

 

[WestRumble]

You wouldn't know he was lying, unless you believed something you saw on television telling you that his 1% was false, and in this sense, you too, are a sheep my friend, for believing this source which allows you to refute his numbers.

Can I possibly be wrong with this statement?

You can't be more right. These guys who keep replying, but aren't saying anything but that im a liar or my source is a liar which in these case theyre calling the men and women in uniform who are fighting in Iraq. These guys only want to believe what their party believes and only that whether it is wrong or not. We all know where the media will be and what they will report. They aren't going to be all over Iraq. theyre only going to be in places where it would make the most news and what brings ppl to their attention, which is violence and hostile environments. Iraq is a big country theyre only a few districts that are hostile and its only in small areas of the districts. I quoted the soldiers that are there fighting in Iraq. I would agree with the soldiers than some media that it is a very small percentage of the iraqis who are fighting with most of the attacks coming from the loyalists of the saddam regime.