must read from Ray McGovern (ret. CIA)

[Postman]

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0107-13.htm

[MasonJar]

1. Great article. All read.

[TolstoyAndy]

2. Ray McGovern rocks - also John Pilger

I dug up some documentation for McGovern's point in the article that Rice and Powell lied. John Pilger found it.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0923-15.htm
Published on Tuesday, September 23, 2003 by The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia)
Pilger uncovered video footage of Powell in Cairo on February 24, 2001 saying, "He (Saddam Hussein) has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors."

Two months later, Rice reportedly said, "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."


Same report at
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7350504%5E2,00.html

and also see the official transcript:
http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/peace/archives/2001/february/me0224b.html

Remarks by
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell
and
Foreign Minister of Egypt Amre Moussa
Ittihadiya Palace

24-Feb-2001
(...snippage...)

SECRETARY POWELL: We had a good discussion, the Foreign Minister and I
and the President and I, had a good discussion about the nature of the
sanctions--the fact that the sanctions exist-- not for the purpose of
hurting the Iraqi people, but for the purpose of keeping in check
Saddam Hussein's ambitions toward developing weapons of mass
destruction. We should constantly be reviewing our policies, constantly
be looking at those sanctions to make sure that they are directed
toward that purpose. That purpose is every bit as important now as it
was ten years ago when we began it. And frankly they have worked. He
has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of
mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against
his neighbors. So in effect, our policies have strengthened the
security of the neighbors of Iraq, and these are policies that we are
going to keep in place, but we are always willing to review them to
make sure that they are being carried out in a way that does not affect
the Iraqi people but does affect the Iraqi regime's ambitions and the
ability to acquire weapons of mass destruction, and we had a good
conversation on this issue.