Powell: no ties between Saddam and al-Qaida

[total180]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3909150/

WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Colin Powell acknowledged Thursday that he saw no “smoking gun, concrete evidence” of ties between former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and the al-Qaida terror network, but he insisted that Iraq had dangerous weapons and needed to be disarmed by force.

Report says policy misguided
Three experts at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace said in a report Thursday that the Bush administration systematically misrepresented the weapons threat from Iraq and that U.S. strategy should be revised to eliminate the policy of unilateral preventive war.

 

[Baruch]

And?

 

[Madison]

Quote from Baruch:

And?

If Iraq had disarmed itself, gotten rid of its weapons of mass destruction over the past 12 years, or over the last several months since (UN Resolution) 1441 was enacted, we would not be facing the crisis that we now have before us . . . But the suggestion that we are doing this because we want to go to every country in the Middle East and rearrange all of its pieces is not correct.

--Colin Powell
Secretary of State
Interview with Radio France International
2/28/2003


Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.

--Dick Cheney
Vice President
Speech to VFW National Convention
8/26/2002


The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas.

--George W. Bush
Cincinnati, Ohio Speech
10/7/2002


We know for a fact that there are weapons there.

--Ari Fleischer
Press Secretary
Press Briefing
1/9/2003

 

[Baruch]

Bu why did Saddam Hussein hide the facts for the UN inspectors? Why did'nt he tell them how and when he destroyed his weapons?

 

[msfe]

Quote from Baruch:

Bu why did Saddam Hussein hide the facts for the UN inspectors? Why did'nt he tell them how and when he destroyed his weapons?

he did ... and Hans Blix reported the facts correctly to the UN