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| Down Under |
| War justified and WMD might be found: Aussie PM |
| 2004-07-15 |
| Prime Minister John Howard today maintained that intelligence at the time justified Australia’s decision to go to war in Iraq and he would still make the same decision in the circumstances. A long-awaited report by former top British civil servant Lord Butler, released overnight, found some British pre-war intelligence was seriously flawed and unreliable, but found no evidence of deliberate distortion or culpable negligence. It discredited one key claim Blair used to justify the war in Iraq - that Saddam Hussein could deploy weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in 45 minutes. No such weapons have been found more than a year after the invasion. Mr Howard welcomed the findings of the Butler report, which said it was impossible to rule out the existence of WMD. "He said, and I quote, ’It would be a rash person to say at this stage that stocks do not exist and will not be found’," Mr Howard told Sky News. "My position remains that we had strong intelligence to justify our decision and nothing in the Butler report alters that position. "If we’d have had our time over again I would have taken the same decision." |
| Posted by:Mark Espinola |
| #18 Howard is a coward hiding behind a Bush |
| Posted by: Antiwar 2004-07-15 9:31:39 AM |
| #17 The bulk of Saddam's WMD which could be shipped out of Iraq via truck, were, some weeks prior to the ground war starting. Syria paid Saddam & sons, some 31 million in U.S. currency & Euros. Some of the WMD made there way to northern Lebanon under the control of Syrian-Hizballah 'overseers'. This issue will only be resolved once the current dictatorships in Syria, and the Iranian backed & funded Hizballah infested rouge state in the Lebanon has be erased. |
| Posted by: Mark Espinola 2004-07-15 5:56:12 PM |
| #16 heard they had a bumper crop of hoses and chamois this year |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-07-15 4:11:21 PM |
| #15 Martians in it for the brains? Poor naif euro boy. The Martians are in it for the high quality garden hoses to be found near Kirkuk. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-07-15 3:42:20 PM |
| #14 " . . . it would be a very rash person who said that Saddam Hussain never had weapons of mass destruction and they wouldn’t be discovered.’’ Quite. |
| Posted by: ex-lib 2004-07-15 2:40:16 PM |
| #13 trailing wife--Thanks for the tip. I don't normally check the Sink Trap nor do I have time to read every article, much less every comment. I can certainly understand now why Antigum's crap was removed! |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-07-15 12:48:23 PM |
| #12 Aris, there may be a better reason why western intel was, perhaps, incorrect. Saddam ran a paranoid murderous regime that was highly secretive and based upon clan ties. This type of organization is extraordinarily difficult to penetrate with agents in whom you have complete trust. There is also the difficulty of an Iraqi or an American of Iraqi descent filling this role. Could they penetrate to get the information? Would it be a death sentence? Who knows. I'm pretty sure that the odds would not be good. Overall, western intelligence agencies human intelligence in key threat regions has been weakened significantly during the past 30 years. The result is that the intel we do have is poor or suspect and in hindsight often inaccurate. I don't think that a predisposition to kick Saddam out was what made the intel bad. No logical link there. |
| Posted by: remote man 2004-07-15 12:41:12 PM |
| #11 The Iranians are punch drunk if they really believe that is possible. As for the Russians, well I am not that up to speed on them. However, I will say the rift between Europe and the US is hardly in shambles. So we lost a few shakey friends. We also made quite a few new ones in the East. |
| Posted by: Dragon Fly 2004-07-15 12:40:21 PM |
| #10 Dragon Fly> The Iranians, because they believe they'll dominate a Saddam-less Iraq, not to mention that USA attacking Iraq meant that USA would for years be too tied-up to attack *them*. That's obvious. With the Russians the conspiracy theory was quite a bit more complex, but it mainly involved the fact that Iraq made Europe and USA mad at each other and caused divisions even inside Europe. ("Thus the highest realization of warfare is to attack the enemy's plans; next is to attack their alliances; next to attack their army; and the lowest is to attack their fortified cities. -- Sun Tzu." According to that theory therefore, Russia managed to attack the West's alliances, by making it attack Iraq's armies and fortified cities.) Also the possibility of a UN administration for the new Iraq, which Russia would basically control. But as I told you that's just a conspiracy theory and rather far-fetched also -- so I would need more in order to believe it. "China/Castro" were jokes on my part. The Martians are just in it for the brains. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-07-15 12:36:10 PM |
| #9 I'd block the bitches' IP if I was Fred..... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-07-15 12:31:35 PM |
| #8 Dar, Check the sink trap for the past week or so. As Fred commented, "Eeewwww, [you] eat with that mouth?!?" |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2004-07-15 12:15:30 PM |
| #7 good for Iran/Russia/China/Castro/the Martians Care to elaborate? What good has come of the liberation of Iraq for the previously named countries? |
| Posted by: Dragon Fly 2004-07-15 12:15:13 PM |
| #6 What was it that caused all the important intelligence ops to be so lame? My own guess, for what little it counts, is that this is what happens when you use intelligence gathering in order to justify a decision already made, rather than in order to actually determine your course of action. There's also the conspiracy theory I've heard but like all conspiracy theories I would need more info in order to either believe or dismiss -- namely that the US and UK intelligence services were both hopelessly manipulated by double agents (working either as false informants or as actual agents) in order to throw USA against Iraq, with all the harm to the USA and good for Iran/Russia/China/Castro/the Martians, that this would entail. |
| Posted by: Aris Katsaris 2004-07-15 12:13:13 PM |
| #5 Wha...? Much as I despise Antigum and her lunacy, I'm surprised to see her comment removed. She is not like that spamming bigot who posts totally OT and inflammatory drivel with the URL to his hate site. Isn't this going a little far? |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-07-15 11:31:27 AM |
| #4 Considering the ones we've found so far have been unmarked, we may well have walked by huge caches of the stuff. |
| Posted by: eLarson 2004-07-15 11:10:05 AM |
| #3 Been reading Dr. Seuss again, Antigum? |
| Posted by: Dar 2004-07-15 9:44:46 AM |
| #2 [Off-topic or abusive comments deleted] |
| Posted by: Antiwar TROLL 2004-07-15 9:31:39 AM |
| #1 What was it that caused all the important intelligence ops to be so lame? I'm still good with the outcome though. |
| Posted by: Lucky 2004-07-15 1:24:11 AM |