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2023-03-14 Iraq

BBC Report: How the search for Iraq's secret weapons fell apart

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Posted by trailing wife 2023-03-14 00:00|| || Front Page|| [8 views ] Top

#1 ...If, after DESERT STORM and the other DESERT operations and the fury that followed 9/11, His Majesty's Secret Service was surprised that an attack on Iraq was coming, then they're as screwed up as the CIA.

Mike

Posted by MikeKozlowski 2023-03-14 09:46|| 2023-03-14 09:46|| Front Page Top

#2 What would lead you to believe they're any better than the CIA?

Posted by Abu Uluque 2023-03-14 12:46|| 2023-03-14 12:46|| Front Page Top

#3 Sources and methods kept the story from being examined in detail. But a reliable opinion might be formed that most of the assessments and conclusions were based on SIGINT, IMINT, MEASINT and NOT Technical HUMINT. A lot of WMD budget money was sloshing around the senior leadership of Iraq, a lot of it stolen or used in corruption pyramids, and they were telling Saddam and his leaders a hierarchy of lies and half-truths about much of the WMD assets supposedly on-hand. There were Chem rounds with Sarin discovered, and traces of potential biologics, and suspicious movement of convoys into Iran towards the end. But no real WMD capabilities of scale.

After the Church hearings of the 70's, old school professionals were convinced the Agency et al, lost huge levels of actual HUMINT assets and went to the politically safer, less messy but more removed technical means. Just an opinion based on Open Source readings over the years, nothing more.

Posted by NoMoreBS 2023-03-14 13:21|| 2023-03-14 13:21|| Front Page Top

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