William Cohen: We assumed but did not know... (WMDs)

[Hell Hath No Fury]

Clinton's Defense Secretary just made an appearance on Wolf and stated that during his time with the WH they assumed Saddam was stockpiling -- they based this not on intel but on his past actions and materials found previously.

BUT, he very stronger pointed out that this was an ASSUMPTION, and they had no evidence whatsoever to say it was a certaintly.

He also pointed out that they felt that, even if Saddam were trying to rebuild, they had him sufficiantly contained.

He said that was the prevailing view up until the time he left office.

I thought it was very interesting, and puts a different light on the whole "Well Clinton thought they had'em too!" arguement.

[RobertSeattle]

1. This whole Intel blame game is a red herring IMHO

Bush wanted "regime change" in Iraq - I'm sure this was fully decided right after 911. His advisers decided that the only way to get at leat 50% of the US population to get behind it was the WMD "scare" route, thus they cherry picked the Intel and then went public with it to get popular support.

My other point on this would be that I'm sure Clinton would have "loved" to have been a wartime President on the lines of FDR/Truman - but he read the intel and knew there wasn't a strong enough case for war and Iraq was contained - ergo no invasion during his Presidency.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

7. Yes, PNAC was one of those groups...

pushing Clinton to take further military action against Saddam/Iraq.

Luckily Clinton/Cohen had better sense that that.

[Justice]

8. Excellent Point

Clinton would have loved to have changed the subject post 1996. If that is the best proof, then nothing is.

[Gung_Fu]

14. Sad thing.

There are people who are still blindly following Bush, even though he sent the country to war under false pretenses. Wait I thought that Bush didn't really have proof in the first place.

[Kira]

2. He also mentioned that Sadaam

kicked the inspectors out then which we know isn't true. I don't know why they continue with that lie....

[Hell Hath No Fury]

5. Yup, Wolf called him on that...

which surprised the hell out of me, 'cause he himself has made a creer out of repeating that lie.

[maggrwaggr]

11. I thought he was referring to 98, not 2002

but i didn't see the whole thing

[Hell Hath No Fury]

15. Hmmm... I thought it was 1998...

Cohen was talking about -- he mentioned Richard Buter going back for a week after initially leaving and Hussein stonewalling.

'98, yes?

[mike1963]

3. Some people forget Cohen is a Republican picked by Clinton. Can any

body imagine Shrub choosing a Dem for SecDef?
Har.

:eyes:

[Old and In the Way]

16. He also voted for Nixon's impeachment.

He may have been a Republican, but he is a man of integrity. He must be wondering who stole his Party.

[Liberal Veteran]

4. And we all know what happens when you assume, right?

Duh.

[maggrwaggr]

12. well he sure made fools out of everybody who trusted him

and "asses" too, I guess.

sad thing is there are thousands of people DEAD because of this ass-making

[Bandit]

6. An Assumption ~ Bush* said "There is No Doubt Saddam has WMD"

I know he would never lie to us. :crazy:

[Hell Hath No Fury]

9. Yup...

DAMN big difference!

[madrchsod]

10. the CIA had no intell on the ground

during these years. they could`t get anyone close enough to anyone to confirm or deny the existence of these weapons. they relied on sat photo`s and over flights that gave them inconclusive info. these guys ain`t taking the fall esp after the Whitehorse outed one of the top agents in the African theater.

[maggrwaggr]

13. Yeah, and the Wherewolf says "how could the intel have been so wrong?"

AGAIN!!!

It's not "why did the president's people change "assume" into "knew", it's "why did the intelligence say they knew?"

Which is just so fucking WRONG. We all know the intelligence came with caveats. It was Bushco who changed "we think" to "we know".

I hate Wolf Blitzer