A Flawed Argument in the Case for War

By Glenn Kessler and Walter Pincus
Sunday, February 1, 2004; Page A01

The information was so startling that CIA Director George J. Tenet, accompanied by Vice President Cheney, trooped up to Capitol Hill to brief the four top Senate and House leaders the day after Labor Day 2002. The administration was gearing up to present its case against Iraq at the United Nations, and lawmakers were eager for any evidence that would prove Saddam Hussein was a grave threat.

In the briefing, Tenet and Cheney presented what one participant described as a "smoking gun": New intelligence showed Iraq had developed unmanned airborne vehicles (UAVs) that could deliver chemical or biological agents. In addition, Iraq had sought software that would allow it to produce sophisticated mapping of the eastern U.S. cities. President Bush hinted at the evidence in a speech on Oct. 7, 2002.

And one year ago, when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell made a lengthy presentation before the U.N. Security Council, he echoed the concern: "Iraq could use these small UAVs, which have a wingspan of only a few meters, to deliver biological agents to its neighbors or if transported, to other countries, including the United States."

Since Powell's speech, however, investigations by U.S. weapons inspectors have determined that the UAVs, or drones, were not designed to spread deadly toxins but to fly unarmed reconnaissance missions.

The story of the UAVs -- just one part of the vast array of claims made by the Bush administration about Iraq's alleged weapons programs -- is emblematic of how U.S. intelligence on Iraq often was wrong, even when officials made efforts to cull the strongest material from a torrent of information.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1825-2004Jan31.html?nav=hptop_ts

Could that be an INC "informant" via the OSP?

on DU. They were something like you would see at a radio controlled airplane fair for challenged model airplane builders!!!

They were held together with duct tape and couldn't have carried much of anything and probably had a range of two miles.

What utter crap

Funny, isn't it, how this administration continues to present only their half of the story? Surely they aren't so stupid (arrogant, yes) that they forgot about this Air Force report on the UAVs, and in October 2002, no less.

OCTOBER 2002 – AIR FORCE WARNS WHITE HOUSE: "The government organization most knowledgeable about the United States' UAV program -- the Air Force's National Air and Space Intelligence Center -- had sharply disputed the notion that Iraq's UAVs were being designed as attack weapons" – a WMD claim President Bush used in his October 7 speech on Iraqi WMD, just three days before the congressional vote authorizing the president to use force.

http://www.americanprogress.org/site/pp.asp?c=biJRJ8OVF&b=24889

will let anything that * does disappear into the memory hole so that the Peterson/Kobe/Martha/Jackson stories can get their WORTHY air time!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"...CIA Director George J. Tenet, accompanied by Vice President Cheney, trooped up to Capitol Hill..."

Cheney obviously couldn't trust Tenet to handle this one solo. Cheney was probably close enough to keep a gun in his ribs.

Cheney is an evil, evil, evil ghoul who has assumed something close to human form.

I have a RC plane w/ a wingspan of 6' (bad pilot - killed it and haven't repaired) DO I OWN A WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION!!!!

If I fill it (after I fix it) with leaflets of *'s lies - do I qualify!?!?

on the cutting edge ...


YAY for Walter ....