Comments on: Tenet Resignation Reaction

By: Hal

Hal — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

"And âintelligence about weapons of mass destruction that turned out to be wildly wrongâ is merely the working theory, since weâve uncovered no evidence Iâm aware of explaining what happened to Iraqâs vast stockpiles of chemical agents and longstanding nuclear program."

You crack me up James.

By: James Joyner

James Joyner — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

It's simply not a "fact" that goes into a page 1 story. My assumption is that the WMD intel was indeed off since we've yet to find it. OTOH, we know he had huge stockpiles a few years ago and that he had a nuke program. He didn't document any change to UNSCOM and we haven't figured out where all that went. Ergo, it's an open question.

By: Hal

Hal — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Uh, that theory doesn't seem to take into the fact that we've been watching Iraq with satellites that can diagnose skin conditions from orbit. We've been in complete control of their northern and souther regions for about 10 years. So slipping out under cover would be a tremendously improbable feat to accomplish. Likewise, the secondary support infrastructure required would still be apparent. It simply isn't there. Add to that the number of people who would be required to support the heavy industry necessary to do such research and weapons development, it's also astronomically improbable that no one has come forward and collected any of the rewards. Top all of this off with the interrogations of high level Iraqis and the scientists who would have been working on these programs, and you end up with a probability close to zero that there was anything there even remotely resembling what you're postulating. Just for grins, we can throw in all the supposed evidence which has now been shown to be bogus and what you're left with is a heck of a lot of speculation and extremely wishful thinking. Occam's razor, James. There are people who still think the JFK second shooter (or more) is an open question, too. But they usually don't get intelligence analysis jobs.

By: Hal

Hal — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

I'll just quote what David Kay just recently told the BBC.

Weapons of mass destruction do not exist in Iraq and it is "delusional" to think they will be found, says former chief US weapons inspector David Kay.

By: Jack Donaldson

Jack Donaldson — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Weapons smeapons of mass destruction. I personally believe Powell only went before Congress as an expression of respect for them. Desert Shield only had a 45 day cease fire. The UN agreed to that, providing Saddam give up his weapons program. What happened instead? US and UK aircraft were targeted in the no-fly zone, and we in turn, bombed anti-aircraft sites in Iraq. Our toppling Saddam's Regime was simply the last battle in a ten-year-war. And don't downplay the IED recently found, with three to four litres of Serin compound in it. It is a WMD, no exception.

By: PoliBlog

PoliBlog — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

Yet More on Tenet
James Joyner has a good news round-up (and a fair critique thereof) regarding the Tenet Resignation....

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