just made public: *claimed for months WMD found, even after knowing untrue

[dajoki]

WP
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12275328/

Lacking biolabs, trailers carried case for war
White House pressed Iraq biowarfare claim despite evidence to contrary

Updated: 11:42 p.m. ET April 11, 2006

On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers captured by U.S. troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile "biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found the weapons of mass destruction."

The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward, was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war. But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful evidence that it was not true.

A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now -- had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before the president's statement.

Report shelved while claim went forth
The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year, administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert that the trailers were weapons factories.

[rodeodance]

1. see this also LBN comments

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2221982

[dajoki]

5. How could this be hidden for so long?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

17. cheney created a special office to stovepipe the intel

Anything that disagreed with the intended result was ignored, shelved, tossed or removed from the final reports he concocted. In essence, they had feith and others assigned to come up with the result, write the report, then go through everything just to find the justification, while hiding the vast contrary data.

[dajoki]

18. a common theme with this administration n/t

[windy252]

19. If my memory is correct,

that was the Office of Special plans, right?

[ChairmanAgnostic]

20. That's the way i remember it.

[dajoki]

25. Yes, that's it n/t

[Auntie Bush]

2. Bastards!

[Patchuli]

3. There's plenty wrong with the fact

that we're only hearing about this almost 3 years later!

[dajoki]

4. Yes there is. Why is that?

[Patchuli]

7. We have a media that forget they

were supposed to be journalists and that 'news' should be NEWS not propaganda. The main reason deregulation was a bad, bad decision. Fricking big bidness...

[Erika]

6. W played our citizens as suckers

and so many fell for his lies. It disgusts me and those who bought his lies disgust me.

When he and his supporters talk about his legacy, all these documents and facts showing up now will show his legacy as a corporate globalist who tricked and lied to his country for his and his friends profit.

He sold us down the river.

[IndyJones]

9. He sure did. Disgusting. Makes my blood boil.

[Supersedeas]

11. and the Corporate Media is just now catching on

[oasis]

26. The corporate media danced to the tune that Rove played. Now that

Bush and Rove are on a downward spiral, the media seizes its opportunity to to report the truth.

[orleans]

8. maybe if he looked behind some more furniture

and got a few more laughs from the audience then maybe the wmd fairy would make the wmds appear!

poof!

[EVDebs]

12. US MSM tried to 'laugh it off' too. BBC prints the real story

"" The audience at Wednesday's (Mar. 24, 2004) 60th annual dinner of the Radio and Television Correspondents' Association obviously thought the quips hilarious - there were laughs all round - but the next morning, in the cold light of day, things looked far less amusing.""

Bush's Iraq WMDs joke backfires
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/3570845.stm

[dajoki]

28. LOL "the wmd fairy"

[radfringe]

10. geee-whizz he was trying to get the "truth" out

ya know you have to catapult the propaganda....

[underpants]

13. Pffft this is small potatoes for this crowd

Some Evidence Suggests Saddam Dead: Bush
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, April 25, 2003
http://english.people.com.cn/200304/25/eng20030425_115783.shtml
US President Bush said in a television interview Thursday that there is some evidence suggesting Saddam Hussein is either dead or "at the very minimum was severely wounded." Bush also said US troops would remain in Iraq "as long as necessary."

DNA tests after missiles strike 'Saddam convoy'
Sunday June 22, 2003
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12239,982710,00.html
American specialists were carrying out DNA tests last night on human remains believed by US military sources to be those of Saddam Hussein and one of his sons, The Observer can reveal.

Officials suspect Saddam was killed in bombing
Posted 4/10/2003
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-04-10-saddam-usat_x.htm
WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence has no clear information on Saddam Hussein's whereabouts, but the betting in the Pentagon's executive offices is that the Iraqi dictator lies dead under a pile of rubble in Baghdad, according to defense and intelligence officials.

But the theory given most credence is that Saddam died in Monday's bomber attack on a home near a Baghdad restaurant.
"The official take from the Pentagon is that Saddam is 'unfound,' " a senior defense intelligence official said on condition of anonymity. "Most along the E-Ring (the Pentagon's outermost hallway and executive suite) think he's under the rubble."
A Defense Department intelligence official said an abrupt end to an electronic intelligence intercept of Iraqi leadership conversations indicated that Saddam and his sons were at the site at the time of the bombing.
"The signal died when the bombs hit," the official said.

Saddam Captured 'Like a Rat' in Raid
Sunday, December 14, 2003
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,105706,00.html

Saddam Hussein arrested in Iraq
Sunday, 14 December, 2003, 17:04 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/3317429.stm
______________________________________________________________
Pentagon: 'Chemical Ali' Killed in Attack
Tuesday, April 8, 2003
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/4/7/204930.shtml

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon believes "Chemical Ali," Saddam Hussein's cousin who ordered a chemical attack on Kurds in northern Iraq in 1988, is dead, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld confirmed Monday.

'Chemical Ali' reported dead
Monday, 7 April, 2003
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2925375.stm


Officials: Body of 'Chemical Ali' Found in Basra
Monday, April 07, 2003
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,83383,00.html


'Chemical Ali' Captured in Iraq
Thursday, August 21, 2003
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,95314,00.html


'Chemical Ali' in U.S. custody
Thursday, August 21, 2003
http://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/08/21/sprj.irq.chemical.ali/
DOHA, Qatar (CNN) -- Ali Hassan al-Majid, the Iraqi general known as "Chemical Ali," is in U.S. custody, military officials tell CNN.

[dajoki]

24. Nice list n/t

[glitch]

14. Everybody at DU knew this 3 YEARS AGO. Anybody who listens to Scott Ritter

or Democracy Now or Air America already knows this.
The corporate media is not going to get a pass for printing it now.

[Terre]

16. You're absolutely right

This was known 3 years ago.

Timeline entry for 5/29/03 at DowningStreetMemo:

Interview of the President by TVP, Poland, published 05-29-2003

Q: But, still, those countries who didn't support the Iraqi Freedom operation use the same argument, weapons of mass destruction haven't been found. So what argument will you use now to justify this war?

THE PRESIDENT: We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories. You remember when Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said, Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons. They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on. But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong, we found them.

For follow-up to this statement, please see entry dated 6/15/03 "Iraqi mobile labs nothing to do with germ warfare, report finds" and which links to article in The Guardian.

Wonder if the WaPo is going through the timeline, looking for material they previously ignored?

Better late than never I suppose, and actually, had it come out before, there probably would have been alot of shoulder shrugging.
Maybe now it'll get a bit more traction.

[RobertSeattle]

15. Bush Administration Definition of biological laboratory

Any location where there are there are organisms, dead or alive, that contain DNA.

See? He wasn't lying.

[Jack Rabbit]

21. Well, they were doing that kind of thing before the war, too

Before the war they were making pronoucements about WMDs that were not true and they had the intelligence reports in front of them to say they were not true.

They lied and for that they should be impeached, removed from office, tried for war crimes and incarcerated for the rest of their natural lives.

[0007]

27. You got it Jack!

[KansDem]

22. Have you ever been around a child who lies repeatedly about something?

At first you see them fidget a little, then as they try to convince you, their lie becomes longer and louder. When they see you are not convinced, they fidget even more and get louder and longer in their lie to the point it seems they are actually trying to convince themselves, or trying to remember their original lie so they can assess the extent of their lying in order to map a new strategy for a new lie to cover the old lie. And on and on...

Usually this is punctuated with declarations of "Really!" or "Seriously!" or "I'm really seriously telling you the truth this time!"

At first I despised Bush--now I pity him. But I still want him held accountable!

[dajoki]

23. Like; "100% not guilty"