Powell's shrinking credibility on Iraq

[papau]

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2004/01/14/powells_shrinking_credibility_on_iraq/

Powell's shrinking credibility on Iraq
By Derrick Z. Jackson, 1/14/2004

SECRETARY OF State Colin Powell was a huge loser in last week's report by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace that said Saddam Hussein's weapons program was not an immediate threat to the United States or even his neighbors. The report said Saddam's nuclear program had been dismantled, his large-scale chemical weapons capabilities had been destroyed, and "there was no solid evidence of a cooperative relationship between Saddam's government and Al Qaeda."<snip>

The image holds up no more. In its report, the endowment highlighted several of Powell's most important assertions about Saddam. In September 2002 Powell said of Saddam, "There is no doubt that he has chemical weapons stocks." In December 2002 a State Department fact sheet asked, "Why is the Iraqi regime hiding their uranium procurement?" In January 2003 Powell said, "Iraq continues to conceal quantities, vast quantities of highly lethal material and weapons to deliver it."

Then came the presentation on Feb. 5. Powell said: "We have no indication that Saddam Hussein has ever abandoned his nuclear weapons program. On the contrary, we have more than a decade of proof that he remains determined to acquire nuclear weapons. . . . Saddam Hussein is determined to get his hands on a nuclear bomb. He is so determined that he has made repeated covert attempts to acquire high-specification aluminum tubes from 11 different countries, even after inspections resumed. . . . We also have intelligence from multiple sources that Iraq is attempting to acquire magnets and high-speed balancing machines . . . to enrich uranium."

Powell also said, "Our conservative estimate is that Iraq today has a stockpile of between 100 and 500 tons of chemical weapons agent. That is enough agent to fill 16,000 battlefield rockets. Even the low end of 100 tons of agent would enable Saddam Hussein to cause mass casualties across more than 100 square miles of territory, an area nearly five times the size of Manhattan. . . . When will we see the rest of the submerged iceberg? Saddam Hussein has chemical weapons."

Powell said: "One of the most worrisome things that emerges from the thick intelligence file we have on Iraq's biological weapons is the existence of mobile production facilities used to make biological agents. . . . We have firsthand descriptions of biological weapons factories on wheels and on rails. . . . We know that Iraq has at least seven of these mobile biological agents factories. . . . Saddam Hussein has investigated dozens of biological agents causing diseases such as gas gangrene, plague, typhus, tetanus, cholera, camelpox, and hemorrhagic fever. And he also has the wherewithal to develop smallpox. . . . There can be no doubt that Saddam Hussein has biological weapons and the capability to rapidly produce more, many more."

At one point Powell said: "This is evidence, not conjecture. This is true. This is all well documented."<snip>

[bigwillq]

1. A wasted presentation

I laughed when Powell made that presentation in Feb. What a joke. All those high tech slides and gadgets did have a point though...it proved what a waste of money, time and lives it was goign to Iraq.

[papau]

2. This is evidence, not conjecture. This is true.This is all well documented

Why does the press - the american media - allow Bush and Powell to pretend credibility at this point?

[ozymandius]

5. Even worse

These were drawings. Just drawings. "We know what the pumps look like..." and so-on he rambled for an interminable amount of time. One must wonder what they dangled over his head to make himself such an ass.

[tom_paine]

3. Powell NEVER had any credibility on Iraq

Only the Corporate Pravda convinced many Imperial Subjects of Amerika that this was so. They are still working overtime to polish the image of their Emperor.

But the rest of the world, which is laughing at our Slavish and Bootlicking Press as we used to laugh at the Old Soviet Press, was never fooled.

Only the 33% of Amerikan who are Busheviuks, and some 20% of of the normal Imperial Subjects, are fooled on this one like the Soviets who bought the Commie Party Line were.

Undoubtedly, with equally disastrous long-term results.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. He's just "following orders".... nt