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New Smoking Gun: U.S. and UK KNEW Saddam Did NOT Possess WMDs
We've reported again and again and again and again and again that everyone knew that Iraq didn’t have weapons of mass destruction (WMDs).
Indeed, the architects of the Iraq war admitted that it was illegal ... and really fought for oil (and Israel).
Today, a new smoking gun has been disclosed. The Guardian notes:
Tony Blair went to war in Iraq despite a report by South African experts with unique knowledge of the country that showed it did not possess weapons of mass destruction, according to a book published on Sunday.
God, Spies and Lies, by South African journalist John Matisonn, describes how then president Thabo Mbeki tried in vain to convince both Blair and President George W Bush that toppling Saddam Hussein in 2003 would be a terrible mistake.
Mbeki’s predecessor, Nelson Mandela, also tried to convince the American leader, but was left fuming that “President Bush doesn’t know how to think”.
***
The claim was this week supported by Mbeki’s office, which confirmed that he pleaded with both leaders to heed the WMD experts and even offered to become their intermediary with Saddam in a bid to maintain peace.
South Africa had a special insight into Iraq’s potential for WMD because the apartheid government’s own biological, chemical and nuclear weapons programme in the 1980s led the countries to collaborate. The programme was abandoned after the end of white minority rule in 1994 but the expert team, known as Project Coast, was put back together by Mbeki to investigate the US and UK assertion that Saddam had WMD – the central premise for mounting an invasion.
Mbeki, who enjoyed positive relations with both Blair and Saddam, asked for the team to be granted access.
“Saddam agreed, and gave the South African team the freedom to roam unfettered throughout Iraq,” writes Matisonn, who says he drew on sources in Whitehall and the South African cabinet. “They had access to UN intelligence on possible WMD sites. The US, UK and UN were kept informed of the mission and its progress.”
The experts put their prior knowledge of the facilities to good use, Matisonn writes. “They already knew the terrain, because they had travelled there as welcome guests of Saddam when both countries were building WMD.”
On their return, they reported that there were no WMDs in Iraq. “They knew where the sites in Iraq had been, and what they needed to look like. But there were now none in Iraq.”
In January 2003, Mbeki, who succeeded Mandela as president, sent a team to Washington to explain the findings, but with little success. Mbeki himself then met Blair for three hours at Chequers on 1 February, the book relates.
He warned that the wholesale removal of Saddam’s Ba’ath party could lead to a national resistance to the occupying coalition forces. But with huge military deployments already under way, Blair’s mind was clearly made up. When Frank Chikane, director-general in the president’s office, realised that the South Africans would be ignored, it was “one of the greatest shocks of my life”, he later wrote in a memoir.
Matisonn adds: “Mandela, now retired, had tried as well. On Iraq, if not other issues, Mandela and Mbeki were on the same page. Mandela phoned the White House and asked for Bush. Bush fobbed him off to [Condoleezza] Rice. Undeterred, Mandela called former President Bush Sr, and Bush Sr called his son the president to advise him to take Mandela’s call. Mandela had no impact. He was so incensed he gave an uncomfortable comment to the cameras: ‘President Bush doesn’t know how to think,’ he said with visible anger.”
***
Mbeki’s spokesman, Mukoni Ratshitanga, confirmed that Mbeki met Blair at Chequers to advise against the war and the UK’s involvement in it. Blair disagreed, Ratshitanga said, insisting that he would side with Bush.
“President Mbeki informed the prime minister that the South African government was about to send its own experts to assist and encourage the Iraqis to extend full cooperation to the UN weapons inspector, Dr Hans Blix,” Ratshitanga said. “He urged the prime minister to await the report of the SA experts before making any final commitment about going to war against Iraq.
***
Mbeki also had a phone conversation with Bush in 2003 and tried to discourage him from going to war, the spokesman said. “President Bush said he would rather not go to war but needed a clear and convincing signal that the Iraqis did not have WMDs to enable him to avoid the invasion of Iraq.
“President Mbeki informed him about the report of the SA experts which by then had already been sent to the UN secretary general, Dr Hans Blix and the UN security council. He informed President Bush that the report of the SA experts said Iraq had no WMDs. President Bush said he did not know about the report but would obtain a copy from the US ambassador at the UN, New York.”
It is not known whether Bush did obtain a copy of the report.
Mbeki later contacted Blair to ask him to find out from the US president what would constitute a “convincing signal” from Saddam, promising that he would contact Saddam to persuade him to send such a signal, according to Ratshitanga. “President
Mbeki understood from his sources and was convinced that Prime Minister Blair received his message as reported above, but did not convey it to President Bush.”
Blair’s office did not deny the meeting with Mbeki or the specifics of what was said.
But the U.S. and UK wanted war ... not peace. They even rejected an offer from Saddam Hussein to leave Iraq and allow in weapons inspectors.
Obama and Clinton did the same thing in Libya and Syria. They also falsely blamed those regimes of using WMDS or the like, and supported Islamic terrorists in both Libya and Syria.
Related ... Research Paper: ISIS-Turkey List
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he was anti-anti-saddam.
Ok, George. This is fucking bullshit!
Iraq was running a massive denial & deception campaign which lead to an over estimate in his capabilities... and he did have some inventory of munitions which were only a threat to the poor pricks that had to work around them. We were destroying them well after 2003. So, you're wrong, fuck you.
What was bullshit was Bush & Blair making the world think the Saddamizer was some kind of global threat. The intel sat in drawer 13 for several years before they decided to act on it. Saddam was a threat to the oil establishment... that's it.
I'm sick and fucking tired of dipshits trying to rewrite the WMD history there. The shit Colin Powel presented to the UN was not fabricated by the Bush WH. You're a tin hat wearing fucknut if you think that. Cheney, et al just decided to use what they had available to launch a war.
Wrong.
http://m.motherjones.com/politics/2004/01/lie-factory
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/jul/09/usa.iraq2
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_Dossier
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niger_uranium_forgeries
Lots of forged and sexed up intel, even if saddam still had some of the chem weapons WHICH THE US GAVE HIM.
Oh, VladLeninCula, there you are... my bad. I was in such a rush that I lost you.
Just like someone else we all remember. I thank him for the state of the world every day.
You remember?:
WMD, "over here? No, not here. How about over here? Nope. Not over here."
Yeah. It wasn't funny then either.
"Saddam was a threat to the oil establishment... that's it."
...and everyone knows that has little influence over foreign policy
and we all know Bush and Cheney have little connection to petroleum
actually saddam was a threat to the the PetroDollar, something different from oil
Saddam wan't a threat to the PetroDollar as he had actually been selling ALL Iraqi oil in Euros since before Dubya was president and Jake Siewert moved from the White Hut PR office to the Goldman PR office. Saddam Hussein was making muppets of wanna-be F/X gurus long before Stolper was. Of course since the tinfoil conspiracy peddlers don't actually know history... that fact doesn't tend to show up on their websites.
and not only that. he was offering $25,000 to the families of suicide bombers of israel. that got lots of attention.
the people pressing for an invasion of iraq were nearly universally zionists: Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, R. James Woolsey, Elliot Abrams, Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Zoellick, John Bolton, judy miller, and years before the election of george w. bush.
The shit Colin Powel presented to the UN was not fabricated by the Bush WH. You're a tin hat wearing fucknut if you think that. Cheney, et al just decided to use what they had available to launch a war.
How much did saddam have to pay these people to keep trying to rewrite his memory? There have been recent reports of the Iraquis being worried that ISIS will gain control of the Saddam WMD. Interesting to read that so many still long for the return of that murderous dictator.
read the article posted by gw about saddam's wmd, their genesis and their subsequent distribution following the invasion that, let me guess, you supported and still think of fondly.
the murderous dictators are named bush and obama.
Why Bush Censored Discovery of Chemical Weapons in Iraq
How does that square with the title of this post? Did he "censor the discovery" or did he "know that Saddam did NOT possess"? This plays like a massive doublethink exercise. But then again, you are relying on the Guardians uncritical reporting of Mbeki's supposed actions regarding this. Gee, no wonder the ANC darling was "too busy" to restrain Mugabe.
Iraq was running a massive denial & deception campaign which lead to an over estimate in his capabilities
Yes, opening Iraq to inspection by the UN was surely deceptive. How dare he submit to a full, unfettered search of every square inch of the country and not expect folks to think he was hiding something!
but sadaam didn't so obviously you suck cock
I am so tempted to vote you up for best laugh ever ... .. .
.
No.
Not really.
i'm convinced.
you just have a way with words.
Vocabulary delivers.
I am still laughing!!!!
An obvious case of Ratshitanga.
So, who you going to believe ? This raving author ?
Perhaps read the book "PLAN OF ATTACK" written by Bob Woodward.
Woodward spent years building his information about the lead up to Iraq war.
The raving author of this article must have spent all of one day preparing to write his attention getting piece.
The article, which is largely a book excerpt ; seemed pretty coherent to me. It fits in with what I know to be true.
The reactions of Bush and Blair is exactly what I would expect from someone who has be told to do something which they must go along with. Both those guys are basically sock puppets for those who really call the shots.
So, who you going to believe ?
Not you?
Bob Woodward is in the lead of the running for misquote of the millennium.
What was more likely said in the oval office that day was that the WMD case in Iraq was NO SLAM DUNK.
How exactly the whole "SLAM DUNK" nomenclature infiltrated the far more serious and precise CIA executives' conversations I am not exactly sure, but I blame DUBYA, since not even Andy Card would use such a buffoon term.
edit: It's also possible that Tenet said something to the effect we can make a case in the media that will be a slam dunk... or something to that effect, but he would not have said that the WMD case is a slam dunk.
Soooo....tell us something we didn't know!!
Nice Number 15!
Hey - wait a minute! Were there not two troll posts there one minute ago? That you were answering? I just now got here... where did they go?
Maybe it was just my lying eyes...
Geo Wash only writes Troll articles.
but does he troll written articles?
So a..lets get this revolution going!
Well, except for the chemical weapons that he possessed and used on his own people. Other than those WMDs he possessed NONE!!!
So it was Bush's plan to use his time machine to return to 1988 in order to deprive Saddam of WMD? Do you have any evidence for that claim?
If Bush did use his time machine wouldn't it have been more efficient to have returned to DC during the Reagan administration and tell them not to give WMD to Saddam in the first place?
it would have been more efficient.
s/he'll be more knowledgeable when s/he's been here three months.
They lost the receipt ?
How could Rumsfied have been so wrong, when Rumsfield sold Saddam WMD 20 years prior? Perhaps Rumsfield did not care for facts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaP7ZrmkcuU
The Ministry of Truth has little use for facts.
Info known to everyone, even those schoolkids reading
My Pet Goat
Neocons have NO Souls
They summer camp at the grove and kneel before the owl to absolve themselves of the evil that they must do for the greater good.
Is the owl queer as well?
the greater greed.
gee and the jews didnt burn the reichstag...god i cant believe any of the history books.
Now Cameron is supplying ISIS with weapons and acting as their airforce.