Gee, did we claim that we’d find WMD in Iraq? “Billmon has knit a noose out of quotes,” says JOHO.
What did the Bush team claim, and when did they claim it? Right now, a lot of embarrassing statements by Rumsfeld and others are still on line–for example, this March 30 interview with Rumsfeld:
MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Finally, weapons of mass destruction. Key goal of the military campaign is finding those weapons of mass destruction. None have been found yet. There was a raid on the Answar Al-Islam Camp up in the north last night. A lot of people expected to find ricin there. None was found. How big of a problem is that? And is it curious to you that given how much control U.S. and coalition forces now have in the country, they haven’t found any weapons of mass destruction?
SEC. RUMSFELD: Not at all. If you think — let me take that, both pieces — the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They’re in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.
Unfortunately, many of Billmon’s links go to interviews hosted by servers at the Department of Defense. I would feel more confident in finding them tomorrow if somebody else with a nice big server would make copies elsewhere.
Bush says we found those WMD. Did we find nuclear weapons, tons of ricin, stockpiles of anthrax? Nope. But we did find two trailers.
The agency reported that no pathogens were found in the two trailers and added that civilian use of the heavy transports, such as water purification or pharmaceutical production, was “unlikely” because of the effort and expense required to make the equipment mobile. Production of biological warfare agents “is the only consistent, logical purpose for these vehicles,” the CIA report concluded.
Well, my apologies for suggesting that evidence of WMD in Iraq was exaggerated to provide cover for sending US troops. They had not one but two big trailers–gosh, who knew?