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Buried treasure: Washington Post discloses US cheated on inspections - and MORE!

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY
by Mary

Buzz,

I know this is long but it's information that we could use to start a revolution. And the Washington Post reported it, buried deep deep within disinformation. I'm talking about the nuggets of gold in the article you posted on your site--US REAPS NEW DATA ON WEAPONS. On the face of it, it does look like the propaganda we all expected would 'prove' Bush was right to attack Iraq. In fact, there are some SERIOUS bombshells here that we should exploit to the absolute fullest. I've marked these places with exclamation points. Everything is lifted verbatim from the article in the same order as it appears in the article. My comments are in brackets: 
 
US Reaps New Data On Weapons -- The Washington Post -- March 20 2003 (by Barton Gellman) http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57066-2003Mar19.html

1---'The U.S. government has obtained potentially valuable new information on Iraq's biological and chemical weapons programs in recent days from scientists and intelligence agents confronted outside Iraq with threats that failure to cooperate could mean unpleasant consequences when Baghdad falls, according to two US officials with direct knowledge of the effort. [This is a classic White House propaganda opening statement. We have un-named officials and "valuable new information." The next paragraph that we won't quote here even mentions my favorite. That is, agents operating in "foreign capitals." It's just classic. But then we get into some hard core info:]
 
2---The Defense Department is racing to integrate the new leads [obtained from Iraqi agents in foreign capitals] into an extremely risky and ambitious disarmament mission. The quality of intelligence on Iraqi chemical, biological or nuclear weapons could...become a factor in conclusions around the world about whether the war was necessary... [You bet, baby. And that's where the 'risk' comes in.]
 
3---"A very important political component is if you find these things,  how do you  establish the proof of that to the satisfaction of 35 foreign ministries and those of you in the media?" said [a consultant] who continued to consult on the Iraqi disarmament plan. "A large number of conspiracy theorists all over the world will say the U.S. government has planted all that stuff."  [An extremely large number...]
 
4---In a twist that could complicate the effort, the White House has decided, for now, to assign no role in the disarmament effort to the key U.N. agencies that were charged by the Security Council  with carrying out the search for banned  weapons. As recently as  the last week of February...the State  Department asked the leading inspection agency...UNMOVIC, and  the International  Atomic Energy Agency for help in the postwar  dismantling of Iraq's remaining long-range missiles and nuclear, biological, chemical and missile weapons programs. [! Further shafting and humiliation of UN.]
 
5---But  early this month, the White House reversed course, saying it was a military operation and would remain one for a long time to come, not suitable for civilians... As a substitute for the UN expertise, the Bush administration has scrambled to  recruit former inspectors from...UNSCOM, the agency that carried out inspections  in Iraq in the 1990s... UNSCOM dissolved in controversy in 1999 over disclosures that the United States  had used the commission's resources to eavesdrop  on the Iraqi military... [ !  And here are excerpts from the original New York Times article describing the spy operation:

NEW YORK TIMES
"US used UN to place spy devices in Iraq aides say"  

JANUARY 8 1999

A United Nations official said it was naive to assume that his organization was innocent in espionage matters. ''The U.N. has been and continues to be a focal point for espionage by everybody,'' he said. Intelligence officers from most of the world's nations use the organization as a base of operations, he said...
 
After two years, the [special spy] commission had not succeeded in unmasking Iraq's hidden programs. It was then, last March, that the United States inserted its sophisticated device into the United Nations operation, and assumed the lead role in the espionage... 
 
It should be no surprise, they said, that American cruise missiles were aimed last month at the same people and institutions that the eavesdropping campaign tried to penetrate -- including the home of the man who runs the security organizations that protect Iraq's secret weapons and Saddam Hussein. ]

6---Since there will be no independent UN witnesses in the search, US officials said they give high priority to making a public display of the discovery of any weapons. "If we've got a good news story, in the sense that we find something, we will take reporters to see it," one defense official said. Another spoke of a mandate to find "a smoking gun real fast." [Attack first, find smoking guns later?]
 
7---Participants in the U.S. disarmament planning, most of them speaking  this week  without official permission and on condition of anonymity, expressed disquiet about the prospects of success... Some sources said the uncertainties reflect the relative inattention of top policymakers, who turned to disarmament only weeks ago after more than a year of concerted planning to remove the Iraqi government by force...  [!!! You got that, folks? Disarmament is an AFTERTHOUGHT to a year of Iraq Attack planning -- and selling the war plans to us.]
 
8---Officials said the United States has more information on Hussein's weapons programs than it has shared publicly or with U.N. inspectors. They said they withheld information only to preserve essential sources, methods or the secrecy of ongoing operations." [! The US demanded these inspections, made them tougher than many thought any sovereign country could possibly accept, and then the US undermined these same inspections. Every country was supposed to help the inspections by turning over 'tips' to the inspectors. The tips that we turn over to them were 'garbage' in their words. See the CBS News article, UN Inspectors Call US Tips "Garbage" http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/18/iraq/main537096.shtml ] 
 
9--[The Washington Post article goes on to insinuate extremely rough handling of Iraqis with possible knowledge of the weapons program, including what sounds like threats:] "American experts are counting on many Iraqis to cooperate eagerly, but others, one official directly involved in the planning said, will be faced with "an interrogation that doesn't look anything like an interview with U.N. inspectors." The Iraqis can tell what they know, the official said, or face "handling as enemy combatants. They'll go to a war crimes tribunal with Saddam, or they will be in prison. You have a lot of leverage over them."
 
CONCLUSION. This article tells us that the Inspections were always a farce and a set-up, at least as viewed by us. First because we were not interested in disarmament in the first place, or we would have planned for it - rather than planning to attack Iraq for a year before we got around to dealing with disarmament. And secondly, because we sabotaged the very inspections that we insisted on being held. We are furthermore going to supplant the UN's legitimate role in post-war inspections and replace it with a team of people who spied for us on the previous set of sham UN inspections (which, please notice, after 2 years of spying had STILL FAILED to come up with the "goods.") Not only will this be dishonest, it will be spitting in the face of whatever Iraqi authorities remain standing for they all know what preceded Clinton's 70 hour cruise-missile strike of Baghdad in 1998 was information obtained from this espionage. The whole thrust of the new "inspections" team they are setting up is only to come up with a "smoking gun," and fast. It is all appearances, all fakery.
 
We are faced with a raging flood of disinformation. Each of us must develop tactics to keep our heads above water. I am going to copy this analysis and distribute it by the hundreds at today's rally.

Every second counts right now. Every body. Every word. I am sure that international opinion has stayed their hand, if for but a moment. And remember -- no one, NO ONE, can lie ALL of the time. We have to keep a sharp look out for the truth when it slips out.

LET'S HOPE!

Mary - NYC

A BUZZFLASH READER COMMENTARY