New Carnegie Report on WMD in Iraq; Clarifies Iraq WMD Story (PR Release)

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

Outlines Strategy for Improving Threat Assessments and Inspections

To: Assignment Desk and Daybook Editor

Contact: Maura Keaney of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 202-939-2372 or [e-mail]

News Advisory:

What:

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace authors will release the findings and recommendations of its new report, "WMD in IRAQ: Evidence and Implications." The study distills a massive amount of data into side-by-side comparisons of pre-war intelligence on Iraq weapons of mass destruction, the official presentation of that intelligence, and what is now known about Iraq's programs. The report outlines policy reforms to improve threat assessments, deter transfer of WMD to terrorists, make better the UN weapons inspection process, and avoid politicization of the intelligence process.

Who:

-- Jessica T. Mathews, Carnegie president

-- George Perkovich, Carnegie vice president for studies

-- Joseph Cirincione, senior associate and director of the non-proliferation project

When:

Thursday, Jan. 8, 2004, 12 p.m. (lunch provided)

Where:

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1779 Massachusetts Avenue, NW, Washington, D.C. (Metro stop: Dupont Circle)

WEB: This will be a LIVE AT CARNEGIE event, aired to the public on the web at http://www.ceip.org/live. The live event will begin at approximately 12:30 p.m. EST. The page includes links to full report, press release, and 2-page summary.

For media and policymakers not able to attend the event, Carnegie is hosting a conference call at 10:30 a.m. on Jan. 8. Contact Maura Keaney, 202-939-2372, for call-in information.

R.S.V.P.: Maura Keaney, 202-939-2372 or [e-mail], by Jan. 6.


http://www.usnewswire.com/

This is going to be interesting.

[LoneStarLiberal]

1. Two Sides To Every Coin...

Methinks that one side is going to be as different from the other as heads are to tails.

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

2. Don't you know it! The RW answer to "Where are the WMD?" is:

Saddam had RAPE ROOMS!

or...

The world is safer without Saddam.

or...

What about the weather? Really is something, isn't it?

[nannah]

3. a rw collegue at work says WMD buried in syria

he is totally serious about believing WMD buried in syria; he says that is why we will attack syria. so to his mind set, not finding weapons in irag only confirms his belief that they are buried in syrian desert. he gets most of his news from fox and gives no credibility to information from other sources.

[leftchick]

4. Is your co-worker ready for the draft....

in 2005 if dumbass* is reselected? You should ask him.....

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

7. And when they aren't found there, I guess the WMD will be buried

Lebanon?
North Korea?
The Blue States?

[BigBigBear]

11. Ask your friend

We have satellites that can read license plates. We covered 2/5ths of Iraq with aerial flyovers for a decade.

How precisely could he had moved, say, 8000 tons of anthrax out of the country and into Syrian sandboxes without us knowing?

Suggest to your friend that the UN inspectors were there to give the all-safe for the invasion, not the justification for it.

[rustydog]

12. If they were buried in Syria,

Then they couldn't have had a 45 minute launch capacity, could they?
There could not have been an imminent danger to America and American interests,(Israel) could there?
If the Bush Administration said the WMD's were hidden up Saddam's ass, you can bet at least one of the ditto heads would have repeated the charge with out thinking it through.
Don't you just love people who delegate their thinking and belief-system to others?

[Just Me]

5. Oh, that CEIP is "irrelevant",...didn't you know?

They are backers of socialists and communists and the UN, OH MY!!!

We all can name THAT tune *LOL*.

[pinto]

6. interesting article from Cirincione (CEIP), Nov '03 LA Times

The Congress Shares Responsibility for War
by Joseph Cirincione and Michael O'Hanlon

Originally published November 19, 2003 in the Los Angeles Times

<snip>

However, of much greater concern were two other aspects of the alleged threat: Hussein's possible progress toward reconstituting a nuclear weapons program and his links to Al Qaeda. On both points, the Bush administration hyped the threat, and Congress let the administration get away with this "spin." The result was a more rapid and unilateral rush to war than was necessary or prudent. And on both matters, there was sufficient evidence to know the administration was probably wrong at the time, as we both wrote last fall.

Congress knew from unclassified briefings and findings from the intelligence community that the Al Qaeda link and the nuclear capabilities charge were being distorted by the administration. Even the president has since repudiated the 9/11 connection. Nuclear weapons programs require large, fixed infrastructures that would have been hard to hide from U.N. inspectors. Furthermore, the intelligence community voiced unusually strong dissents to claims in the National Intelligence Estimate in October 2002 that Iraq had restarted a nuclear program.

The administration and the Congress both failed the American people. The investigation spotlight needs to shine on both branches.

http://www.ceip.org/files/publications/congressshares.asp

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

8. What happened to the reports that the WH addressed some Congressmen

in a closed meeting telling them that Saddam had capability to strike the East Coast with missiles?

[cthrumatrix]

9. exactly...what about these lies .... isn't that illegal?

[pinto]

10. good question, seems like that story's "on hold" till Feb interim report?

wasn't it a charge from House Intel Comm member? He mentioned there'd be more about the float the WH gave to Congress after the New Year...this one won't disappear, but I expect everyone to do a little backpedaling, as per usual. Here's a good chance for an objective, persistent reporter who's not afraid of WH "banishment" policy for tough questioners.

[proud patriot]

13. Do you think C-span will air it ?

[Tom Yossarian Joad]

14. Haven't heard anything about it as of this message posting. n/t