Why We Know Iraq is Lying - a redux

[ozymandius]

I thought it would be interesting to compare what Condoleezza Rice issued as her categorical indictment of Iraq in the NY times op-ed page. In retrospect, the whole column is laughable. And outright fraudulent. In redacted form, here are some of the most interesting paragraphs.

By Condoleezza Rice
Originally appeared in the New York Times on January 23, 2003

<..first five paragraphs omitted..>

For example, the declaration fails to account for or explain Iraq's efforts to get uranium from abroad, its manufacture of specific fuel for ballistic missiles it claims not to have, and the gaps previously identified by the United Nations in Iraq's accounting for more than two tons of the raw materials needed to produce thousands of gallons of anthrax and other biological weapons.

Iraq's declaration even resorted to unabashed plagiarism, with lengthy passages of United Nations reports copied word-for-word (or edited to remove any criticism of Iraq) and presented as original text. Far from informing, the declaration is intended to cloud and confuse the true picture of Iraq's arsenal. It is a reflection of the regime's well-earned reputation for dishonesty and constitutes a material breach of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1441, which set up the current inspections program.

<..cut..>

Last week's finding by inspectors of 12 chemical warheads not included in Iraq's declaration was particularly troubling. In the past, Iraq has filled this type of warhead with sarin a deadly nerve agent used by Japanese terrorists in 1995 to kill 12 Tokyo subway passengers and sicken thousands of others. Richard Butler, the former chief United Nations arms inspector, estimates that if a larger type of warhead that Iraq has made and used in the past were filled with VX (an even deadlier nerve agent) and launched at a major city, it could kill up to one million people. Iraq has also failed to provide United Nations inspectors with documentation of its claim to have destroyed its VX stockpiles.

Many questions remain about Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and arsenal and it is Iraq's obligation to provide answers. It is failing in spectacular fashion. By both its actions and its inactions, Iraq is proving not that it is a nation bent on disarmament, but that it is a nation with something to hide. Iraq is still treating inspections as a game. It should know that time is running out.

<end>

[Must_B_Free]

1. Condoleezza?

more like Condolences, her career is now deader than a doornail.

[oasis]

2. Condiliar is the chief propagandist of the Chimpadministration.

Tom Ridge replaced her as security chief since she couldn't "connect the dots" pre-9/11.

The Chimp is protective of her because their fortunes are tied to that fateful day in September 2001. Rummy and Cheney have forced them to link Iraq and 9/11 to keep focus off of Condi's failing to protect the country. Her sole function now is to promote misinformation under the guise of national security.