Bush: 'We Found' Banned Weapons - May 31, 2003

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A60140-2003May30¬Found=true

Bush: 'We Found' Banned Weapons
President Cites Trailers in Iraq as Proof

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 31, 2003; Page A01

KRAKOW, Poland, May 30 -- President Bush, citing two trailers that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were probably used as mobile biological weapons labs, said U.S. forces in Iraq have "found the weapons of mass destruction" that were the United States' primary justification for going to war.

In remarks to Polish television at a time of mounting criticism at home and abroad that the more than two-month-old weapons hunt is turning up nothing, Bush said that claims of failure were "wrong." The remarks were released today.

"You remember when {Secretary of State} Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons," Bush said in an interview before leaving today on a seven-day trip to Europe and the Middle East. "They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two.

"And we'll find more weapons as time goes on," Bush said. "But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them."

[Missy M]

1. They must have found them and then lost them, never to be found again.

[xultar]

2. They found Band Instruments.

[Supersedeas]

13. now we need Band-aides for all our Dead and Wounded

[jackstraw45]

3. Bush LIE? Nooooo...I simply could never believe that he could lie...

His whole LIFE is one pathetic exaggeration.

[EFerrari]

4. They found a helium truck in a ditch.

'Way to go, Rez!

[mmonk]

5. I saw containers marked fertilizer

and I guess they've been spreading it ever since.

[papau]

6. I like Tenet's CYA that he had CIA publish 5/23/03

http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraqi_mobile_plants/

(Tenet order CYA published 28 May 2003) Iraqi Mobile Biological Warfare Agent Production Plants

The plant's design possibly could be used to produce hydrogen using a chemical reaction, but it would be inefficient. The capacity of this trailer is larger than typical units for hydrogen production for weather balloons. Compact, transportable hydrogen generation systems are commercially available, safe, and reliable

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/15/sprj.irq.no.labs/

CNN.com - Tests rule out suspect bio-labs - Apr. 15, 2003


http://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&lr=&q=cache:7ODBP2bo-wkJ:daga.dhs.org/joel/iraqarticles/weapons/Observer__IraqiMobileLabs.pdf+author:%22Beaumont%22+intitle:%22Iraqi+mobile+labs+nothing+to+do+with+germ+warfare,+report+finds%22

Iraqi Mobile Labs Nothing to do with Germ Warfare, Report Finds

Peter Beaumont, Antony Barnett and Gaby Hinsliff
The Observer Sunday 15 June 2003

Source: http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/061603A.shtml

An official British investigation into two trailers found in northern Iraq has concluded they are not mobilegerm warfare labs, as was claimed by Tony Blair and President George Bush, but were for the productionof hydrogen to fill artillery balloons, as the Iraqis have continued to insist.The conclusion by biological weapons experts working for the British Government is an embarrassmentfor the Prime Minister, who has claimed that the discovery of the labs proved that Iraq retained weaponsof mass destruction and justified the case for going to war against Saddam Hussein.Instead, a British scientist and biological weapons expert, who has examined the trailers in Iraq, told TheObserver last week: 'They are not mobile germ warfare laboratories. You could not use them for makingbiological weapons. They do not even look like them. They are exactly what the Iraqis said they were -facilities for the production of hydrogen gas to fill balloons.'The conclusion of the investigation ordered by the British Government - and revealed by The Observerlast week - is hugely embarrassing for Blair, who had used the discovery of the alleged mobile labs as partof his efforts to silence criticism over the failure of Britain and the US to find any weapons of massdestruction since the invasion of Iraq.The row is expected to be re-ignited this week with Robin Cook and Clare Short, the two CabinetMinisters who resigned over the war, both due to give evidence to a House of Commons inquiry intowhether intelligence was manipulated in the run-up to the war. It will be the first time that both have beengrilled by their peers on the Foreign Affairs Select Committee over what the Cabinet was told in the run-up to the war.MPs will be keen to explore Cook's explanation when he resigned that, while he believed Iraq did havesome WMD capability, he did not believe it was weaponised.The Prime Minister and his director of strategy and communications, Alastair Campbell, are expected todecline invitations to appear. While MPs could attempt to force them, this is now thought unlikely tohappen.The Foreign Secretary, Jack Straw, is expected to give evidence the week after.The revelation that the mobile labs were to produce hydrogen for artillery balloons will also causediscomfort for the British authorities because the Iraqi army's original system was sold to it by the Britishcompany, MarconiCommand & Control.(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those whohave expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educationalpurposes.)

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/17/international/middleeast/17POWE.html?ex=1130472000&en=5babc23a421ce00e&ei=5070

Powell Says C.I.A. Was Misled About Weapons
By DAVID E. SANGER

Published: May 17, 2004


WASHINGTON, May 16 — Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said for the first time on Sunday that he now believes that the Central Intelligence Agency was deliberately misled about evidence that Saddam Hussein was developing unconventional weapons.

He also said, in his comments on the NBC News program "Meet the Press," that he regrets citing evidence that Iraq had mobile biological laboratories in his presentation to the United Nations on Feb. 5, 2003.

The assertion about the mobile labs was one of the most dramatic pieces of the presentation, which was intended to make public the Bush administration's best case for invading Iraq. For days before his speech, Mr. Powell sat in a conference room at the C.I.A., examining the sources for each charge he planned to make.

But on Sunday, Mr. Powell argued that the C.I.A. itself was misled, and that in turn he was, too. "Unfortunately, that multiple sourcing over time has turned out not to be accurate," Mr. Powell said, going farther than he did on April 2 when he conceded that the intelligence was not "that solid."

[MissMillie]

7. Truth be told

I think I have read that some banned weapons were found. HOWEVER, these banned weapons were not WMDs... A distinction that is not without merit.

[louis-t]

9. There were some 'questionable' weapons found

They were missiles that had a range close to that of banned weapons. There was much debate about their range. They were destroyed before the invasion. The only other banned weapons I know about were some old shells discovered buried someplace. They had traces of chemicals, were pre-1991, and they had American or British markings on them. Show me evidence of banned weapons in the same league as those purported by Powell, Cheney et al. :shrug:

[MissMillie]

14. precisely, there were none that could be classified as WMDs

So the threat to America was not as imminent as the administration claimed it was.

[papau]

10. true - the range of the defense missiles he was allowed were 20 miles too

long - so they would be "banned" - so he could fire off lousy missiles 20 miles further - say hit Turkey nearer the Med Coast.

nothing else was found.

[slaveplanet]

12. Are you referring to banned weapons?

Or banned weapons program?
They did find the banned weapons program...only problem was that it had never been reactivated like they were claiming, It had only been hidden from the inspectors.

and they didn't exactly find it either, it was handed to them on a silver platter. And they didn't even seem to want the platter at first.
and when they did get the documents and parts , they published the pictures and documents on a gov website for a week...until security experts screamed bloody murder and took them off.
A week is enough time for every country or rogue group who doesn't have WMD programs , to now have the crucial info to get one started.

Mission accomplished!

[Hubert Flottz]

8. Bush is insane...

Can't face reality. * And He's the best the GOP has??????

[underpants]

11. Nah he is just out of the loop

He doesn't need to be in the loop anyway. All he would do at meetings is annoy people with his bubble popping and playing with yarn.

[zbdent]

15. Don't make me bring up the

staple remover . . .