No WMDs, so American team pulls out of Iraq

[Judi Lynn]

No WMDs, so American team pulls out of Iraq

January 08 2004 at 09:09AM



Washington - A 400-strong United States military team that has been searching for illicit weapons in Iraq has been withdrawn after finding nothing of substance, although a separate group looking for weapons of mass destruction still remains in the country, The New York Times reported on Thursday.

"They picked up everything that was worth picking up," one US official told the daily, referring to the Joint Captured Material Exploitation Group, made up of technical experts headed by an unidentified Australian brigadier.

The team's task included searching weapons depots and other sites for missile launchers that might have been used with illicit weapons, another also unidentified defence department official was quoted as saying.

The withdrawal of the 400-member military team was seen by some military officials as a sign that the US government may no longer expect to uncover chemical or biological weapons in Iraq, the daily said.
(snip/...)

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?click_id=123&art_id=qw1073545741947U262&set_id=1

[rumguy]

1. god this is rich....

they found nothing, and now they're pulling out! Hahahaha...

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. Death of a thousand cuts

this is just ONE MORE CUT.

Now I wonder of Joe average will connect dots now.

[Mari333]

3. and the war was based on that LIE

and so it goes...the lies and distortions continue...for a whole presidential staff to lie to the US Congress is a federal offense, so says John Dean.
Who will bring these bastards to justice?????????????

[La_Serpiente]

4. I'm looking forward to see how the admin

is going to spin this one.

[Leilani]

6. They won't bother

They'll just ignore it.

Notice how the Iraq war gets less & less coverage?

[salin]

15. Exactly. They just won't mention it - hey Saddam is captured

isn't that why we went to war... weapons of mass what? never heard that phrase before... we think that is something you in the media made up and hyped.... (general response that might come from the white house)

[54anickel]

5. Here's the Times piece quoted - You gotta read pretty fair to

find the "meat" in the story. Love this part from the very end:

Ms. Harman said in a telephone interview that she expected that Dr. Kay, appointed last June 11 as a special adviser to George J. Tenet, the director of central intelligence, was probably stepping down, a development that she said would be "very disappointing."

"I have to believe that if they were about to pounce on a large stockpile of chemical or biological weapons, he would be there for the announcement," Ms. Harman said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/08/international/middleeast/08WEAP.html?pagewanted=2&ei=5062&en=2f89ff26349d04e8&ex=1074142800&partner=GOOGLE

[Judi Lynn]

17. Interesting article

Why is it only Democrats seem to care about this?

From the article:

(snip) A report to be released Thursday by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has concluded that it was unlikely that Iraq could have destroyed, hidden or sent out of the country the hundreds of tons of chemical and biological weapons and related production facilities that American officials claimed were present "without the United States detecting some sign of this activity."

Through their spokesmen, Dr. Kay and General Dayton have declined repeated requests for interviews. (snip/)

Kay is one strange little man. He was almost vicious with Scott Ritter in one interview I saw, so determined to have Americans living with this lie.

[Mechatanketra]

18. Why do only (some) Democrats care about this?

Because, as the Bush administration well knows, the moral standards we outline on paper (such as "Starting wars is evil") don't really have any internal solidity to the majority of Americans -- they repeat these things to each other, but they don't really feel them.

Ultimately, the WMD excuse wasn't for American citizens, but just to have some semblance of a sane motivation to give to the rest of the world so they wouldn't be alarmed enough to align against us as a rabid dog. I fear that Joe Sixpack is happy enough with "We don't like 'em and we can whup 'em" as a 'justification' for war.

[teryang]

7. I wonder about Kay

He knew there was nothing there before he accepted the appointment. The whole thing was a wasteful fiasco. Too bad so many had to die and suffer to make the propaganda effort possible.

[isbister]

12. Re: I wonder about Kay

I have a feeling that Mr. Kay will end up with a nice comfortable job somewhere.

Considering all of the promoting of the war that he did as one of tv's cheerleading talking heads... he should be made to stay in Iraq until the last of our troops leaves... he should at least be forced to get the same extended tour of duty many of our soldiers are getting.

Its a shame a person like this is allowed to up and leave just because his wife thinks its dangerous. I wonder how many other spouses in America today would like to have their loved ones back from Iraq for the same reason.

[Barrett808]

16. Didn't his company make a mint?

I'm thinking SAIC -- wasn't the contract worth some hundreds of millions?

[ET Awful]

8. I want to know where Bill O'Liely's apology is

[mhr]

9. The Nail In The Coffin, The Coup De Grace, The Final Straw

Never again let a Freeper tell you that the Iraq invasion was justified.

Hold your head high in defiant protest.

Bush Lied And Thousands Needlessly Died.

[4dsc]

10. But rightie says

they only have searched 10% of known sites... Rightie can be very funny..

[underpants]

11. No this is a different team Kay's group is still there

This team was looking for conventional weapons and say their job is done which is strange considering that so many ammo dumps are apparently still unguarded.

[Flagg]

13. No WMD's but the congress cafeteria still have freedom fries on its menu

sick

[JPace]

14. They have Saddam and almost everyone in the 52 cards,

If there were any WMD's they would have found
out by now.

There are NO WMD's!