I think conspiracy theories tend to scare people away. And really, if you read it with a right wing frame of mind, it might make perfect sense. I'd go with straight facts. Here's a link to a petition I wrote up months ago that some people copied and sent to their Reps.
http://www.petitiononline.com/mt4youme/petition.htmlHere's some notes I took that I included with my letter and the signatures when I sent it in. Hopefully it's easy to follow and should be enough to show the intelligence before the war was not solid. If you need more, I do have more.
Inspections & Conflicting Reports
"In other cases, intelligence has led to sites where no proscribed items were found," Blix said. Seattle Times February 15, 2003
Although U.N. teams have conducted nearly 600 inspections of about 350 sites since November, only 44 were of new sites based on fresh tips.
>>I would call my colleagues' attention to the fine paper that the United Kingdom distributed . . . which describes in exquisite detail Iraqi deception activities.” Secy Powell Testimony to UN, basedon UK’s "Iraq Its Infrastructure Of Concealment, Deception And Intimidation"
“A close textual analysis suggests that the UK authors had little access to first-hand intelligence sources and instead based their work on academic papers, which they selectively distorted. Some of the papers used were considerably out of date.” Glen Rangwala Feb 5, 2003<<
>>“For example, the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) is linked closely to Bin Ladin's organization and has operatives located around the world—including in Europe, Yemen, Pakistan, Lebanon, and Afghanistan. And, there is now an intricate web of alliances among Sunni extremists worldwide, including North Africans, radical Palestinians, Pakistanis, and Central Asians…. Iran, for one, remains the most active state sponsor.” George Tenet, Senate Intelligence Committee, 2/2/2000<<
This is the guy Bush is claiming is the al qaeda link, you can see he's reported at various locations at the same time and it's all very sketchy:
“Iraq is harboring senior members of a terrorist network led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a close associate of Usama Bin Ladin. We know Zarqawi's network was behind the poison plots in Europe that I discussed earlier as well as the assassination of a US State Department employee in Jordan.” George Tenet, Worldwide Threat in 2003, Testimony to Congress, February 11, 2003 ONLY reference to Iraq sponsored terrorists.
“The network is teaching its operatives how to produce ricin and other poisons… Those helping to run this camp are Zarqawi lieutenants operating in northern Kurdish areas outside Saddam Hussein's controlled Iraq… We also know that Zarqawi's colleagues have been active in the Pankisi Gorge, Georgia, and in Chechnya, Russia.” Secy Powell UN
“Early last April <2002>, while German intelligence agents eavesdropped… begin preparations for a spectacular strike against a Jewish target somewhere in Germany… ‘…where a lot of people gather’ said, the man, Abu Mussab Zaqwari.” New York Times February 18, 2003
“Zarqawi was around Herat in western Afghanistan in October 2001… He crossed the border into Iran, where he reportedly received some medical treatment. U.S. intelligence learned of his presence there, prompting Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in April 2002 to accuse Iran of sheltering al Qaeda terrorists… The following month, Zarqawi went to Baghdad… and stayed there two months.” CBS News March 9 2003
Aluminum Tubes
"Based on available evidence, the IAEA team has concluded that Iraq's efforts to import these aluminum tubes were not likely to have been related to the manufacture of centrifuges." Feb 7 2003 IAEA Report to UN
“Many centrifuge experts believe that this design would not work as the basis of a centrifuge plant.” David Albright, physicist, IAEA Action Team 1992 – 1997
“In addition, no one has ever built large numbers of Beams' centrifuges or produced significant amounts of enriched uranium in a cascade of such machines.” David Albright, physicist, IAEA Action Team 1992 – 1997
Chem/Bio Facilities
Taji – “The four that are in red squares represent active chemical munitions bunkers… It's a decontamination vehicle in case something goes wrong.” Secy Powell UN
'It wasn't clear to me whether the bunkers that were shown in the second image were the same ones that were shown in the first. If that is what they are claiming, then I would have liked to see more detail of the decontamination truck and the security building being moved. And if they were different buildings, what happened to the active bunkers when the weapons inspectors showed up? This is something that needs to be explained better. Studying the photos, the angle of the access road behind the bunker, and the presence of trees in the second photo indicate that the photos actually are of two quite different bunkers.” Jonathan Ban, Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute
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