from: http://www.examiner.com/x-18425-LA-County-Nonpartisan-Examiner

“The only thing new in the world is the history you don't know.” – Harry Truman, as quoted in Plain Speaking : An Oral Biography of Harry S Truman (1974) by Merle Miller, p. 26.

Senator Lieberman, Secretary of State Clinton, and former UN Ambassador John Bolton have resumed rhetoric of a United States attack upon Iran. As my other articles have demonstrated, that rhetoric is false and intentional propaganda attempting to justify another US War of Aggression. We should understand that the rhetoric for war with Iraq was also known to be false at the time it was told. The following is from my brief, “War with Iraq and Afghanistan, rhetoric for war with Iran": http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/41708

Please use this information in any way helpful to build a brighter future.

Justifications for War with Iraq: The Bush administration asked the American public for their support for war with Iraq based on the primary claim that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) that he would soon use against the US. The US government would have to invade to avoid the coming attack by Iraq or agents that Iraq would supply. The timing was urgent,[1] pre-empting UN approval. Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rumsfeld, Powell and others made claims of known biological and chemical WMD, attempts to develop nuclear weapons through purchase of aluminum tubes for nuclear refinement, attempts to buy uranium yellowcake from Niger, and direct relations with Al Qaeda.

Advocates for the “War on Terror,” also claim the need for action against “Islamofascism,” an interpretation that Muslim fanatics are the majority force in the Middle East that requires US military response to crush and our direct intervention to rebuild their society.[2] This position sees inevitable increase of Islamic fanaticism that will increase terrorism until their social evolution reaches a “Renaissance” that tolerates other religious and political views. The primary evidence for Islamofascism is the attacks of September 11, 2001. War advocates link this attack to all Muslim fanaticism, predicting further attacks from various sources until we destroy this philosophy. Advocates believe war is an effective strategy to help evolve religious fanaticism into tolerance despite rhetoric that fanaticism is an anomaly among Muslims.[3]

Independent reporting, the US State Department, and the US National Intelligence Estimate from April 2006 report increasing terrorism in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.[4] This data sparks war advocates’ response for increased militarism rather than alternative strategy, perhaps best argued by famous US historian Howard Zinn.[5] They point to the US troop “surge” as a sign of success, as sectarian violence in Iraq decreased in late 2007.[6] The US Government Accountability Office reported ethnic violence might be decreasing only because killings have forced up to 100,000 people a month to abandon their homes when they are the ethnic minority.[7] Reports from Iraq journalists, rather than US major media, claim that people will be killed if they cross US-constructed concrete walls (12 feet high) into hostile neighborhoods between Sunni and Shia, bombings are frequent, and living standards for clean water, sewage, electricity, and basic infrastructure have devolved to primitive levels.[8]

In assessing the reasons for war with Iraq, we now know through declassified intelligence reports, congressional testimony, official documents such as the Senate Committee on Intelligence and the 9/11 Commission, and other documented and corroborated sources that the claims of WMD as an immediate threat to the US, aluminum tubes for use in making nuclear weapons, uranium yellowcake to produce nuclear weapons, and links to Al Qaeda were known by the Bush administration to be false at the time they were told to the American public.[9] There are several best-selling books that document this information;[10] you can also find accurate documentation of these public records on the Internet, along with supporting circumstantial evidence and testimony.[11]

The WMD was chemical and biological weapons. Assuming that the US was concerned about these weapons that the US originally supplied Saddam during his invasion of Iran from 1980-1988,[12] the conservative first option should have been the UN Security Council voting for the UN WMD agency, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to directly request Saddam to submit to OPCW’s authority. The Director-general of OPCW, Jose Bustani, was in talks with Saddam to do so. Instead of supporting this reasonable alternative to war, the US promised to withhold its funding of the UN (22% of the UN’s budget) until Bustani was fired. The US called Bustani’s talks with Saddam an “ill-considered initiative.” The US request was honored; the US then paid its 2002 UN dues in April 2002; less than one year before the US invasion of Iraq. This was the first time in UN history where the Director of an international program was fired.[13] By the way, the US does not cooperate with the OPCW to ensure US compliance with International Laws of chemical and biological WMD.

The US Congressional authorization for military force in Iraq relied heavily upon the Bush administration’s claims of Saddam’s WMD. On November 3, 2002, Iraq submitted to the UN an 11,800 page report of its history of WMD. The US requested that over 8,000 pages of the report be removed for US “national security.” The US media complied, but not the international media. What these redacted pages documented was US supplying Iraq with all elements of the WMD program in support of Saddam’s dictatorship and Iraq’s War of Aggression against Iran.[14] The US was one of many countries supplying these materials.

CIA Director George Tenet explicitly stated that the October 2002 CIA National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) reported that Iraq was not an imminent threat to the US because any attack would cause war with the world’s most powerful military.[15] This assessment was subsequently repeated in official reports from several agencies.[16] However, the October NIE remained classified to Congress before their vote to authorize President Bush to use our military against Iraq. Instead, the Bush Administration declassified a “White Paper” that changed language to escalate the appearance of threat from Iraq and removed the language that Iraq was not an imminent threat to US security.[17] The White Paper for Congress was titled, “Iraq’s Continuing Programs for WMD.” Again, because we know that all of the alleged evidence was known to be false at the time it was reported, the title of this “report” is misinformation. Republican chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kansas), understated this conclusion: "[T]oday we know these assessments were wrong. And, as our inquiry will show, they were also unreasonable and largely unsupported by the available evidence."[18]

Congress passed the “Joint Resolution Authorizing Use of Force Against Iraq” in October 2002 (the Iraq Resolution)[19] that authorized President Bush to act pursuant to the War Powers Act of 1973 (WPA) regarding military action in Iraq. This legal authorization, H.J. Resolution 114, states in Section 3 (c) (2): “Nothing in this joint resolution supersedes any requirement of the War Powers Resolution.”

The WPA[20] states in Section 8 (d) (1): “Nothing in this joint resolution-- (1) is intended to alter the constitutional authority of the Congress or of the President, or the provision of existing treaties.” The applicable treaties are the UN Charter[21] and the Nuremburg Charter.[22] As a consequence of humanity’s experience of two global wars, all country-initiated warfare was declared illegal except defensive wars when under direct attack. Iraq did not attack the US. The NIE found no evidence of imminent danger of attack upon the US. To date, President Bush has not presented such evidence. Therefore, the military campaign failed to meet the prima facie legal requirement of defensive war and is illegal under US and international law.[23] Specifically, the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan are Wars of Aggression.[24]

No evidence of WMD was found in Iraq either before the war with UN inspections from November 2002 to March 2003, or after the war.[25] The Bush administration attacked Iraq even though weapons inspections were in full progress.

The Bush administration claim of aluminum tubes that could only be used as centrifuges to refine fissionable material for nuclear weapons[26] is directly refuted by the best expert witnesses available, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Their conclusion is that the tubes in question had diameters too small, the tubes were too thick, using aluminum as the material would be “a huge step backwards,” and the surface was anodized that made them impossible to serve this purpose.[27] They also found that the tubes were easily explained for use of conventional weapon manufacturing, as the specifications perfectly matched tubing for that purpose.

This clear refutation by the agency best able to assess the technical data was then spun by the CIA in the 2002 NIE in the classified report and the white paper.[28] The classified NIE:
“Most agencies believe that Saddam's personal interest in and Iraq's aggressive attempts to obtain high-strength aluminum tubes for centrifuge rotors - as well as Iraq's attempts to acquire magnets, high-speed balancing machines, and machine tools - provide compelling evidence that Saddam is reconstituting a uranium enrichment effort for Baghdad's nuclear weapons program. (The Department of Energy (DOE) agrees that reconstitution of the nuclear program is underway but assesses that the tubes probably are not part of the program.)”

The white paper:
“Iraq's aggressive attempts to obtain proscribed high-strength aluminum tubes are of significant concern. All intelligence experts agree that Iraq is seeking nuclear weapons and that these tubes could be used in a centrifuge enrichment program. Most intelligence specialists assess this to be the intended use, but some believe that these tubes are probably intended for conventional weapons programs.”

I have not found whether DOE was asked for their technical assessment on the use of magnets, balancing machines and machine tools. The IAEA assessed the magnets were for telephones or other uses,[29] and the postwar findings of the Senate Intelligence Committee concluded these components were for other industries.[30] The Senate Select Intelligence Committee in July 2004 concluded that this was one of many statements “not supported by the underlying intelligence reporting.”[31] The NIE also chose to ignore the IAEA reports from 1992-2002, which documented their on-the-ground assessment that Iraq had no nuclear weapon program.[32] The DOE representative the CIA accepted to discuss their findings at CIA headquarters for the 2002 NIE was a human resources bureaucrat who agreed to CIA Director Tenet framing DOE’s position as in agreement with CIA except “probably” not for the aluminum tubes.[33]

The general public has no knowledge of the details of equipment for fissionable refinement. For the CIA to take a clear technical evaluation from the agency responsible for understanding that exact equipment and then publicly report any concern is a lie, a known falsehood. Apparently, President Bush disagreed; he awarded CIA Director Tenet with the Medal of Freedom in 2004.[34]

President Bush claimed in his January 2003 State of the Union Address that Saddam attempted to buy enriched uranium from Niger, implying the danger that this would be used to create nuclear weapons.[35] However, the Niger documents were written in grammatically poor French, had a “childlike” forgery of the Niger President’s signature, and had a document signed by a foreign minister who had been out of office for 14 years prior to the date on the document.[36] The forgeries showed-up shortly after the Niger embassy in Rome was robbed, with the only missing items being stationery and Niger government stamps.[37] The same stationery and stamps were used for the forged documents. The CIA warned President Bush on at least three occasions to not make the claim due to the ridiculous evidence.[38] In addition, if Saddam really was making an illegal uranium purchase, it’s likely that both Saddam and the Niger government officials would insist on not having a written record that would document the crime. Republican US Ambassador to Niger, Joseph Wilson, confirmed this information and reported in detail to Vice President Cheney’s office and the CIA.

When Wilson wrote his story for the New York Times to end the ongoing disinformation (“What I Didn’t Find in Africa”) [39], the Bush administration leaked the identity of Wilson’s wife to the press, Valerie Plame, blowing her cover as a covert CIA agent, ending her career and threatening her life.[40] Ironically, Plame’s spy work was in the area of preventing the spread of nuclear weapons.[41]
The Justice Department ended its investigation into who leaked Plame’s name with the prosecution of Vice President Cheney’s Chief of Staff, Scooter Libby, for Perjury, Obstruction of Justice, and False Statements to a Grand Jury. Because Mr. Libby obstructed the investigation through lies and non-cooperation, we still don’t know who authorized the leak of Ms. Plame’s identity to the press. President Bush commuted Mr. Libby’s prison sentence. Wilson and Plame are proceeding with a civil suit; President Bush is blocking any legal access to records of the Vice President’s actions concerning the leak.[42] Although there is much disinformation as to the above facts, please verify them for yourself.

As to the claim of a relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda, all US intelligence agencies reported that no such relationship existed.[43]

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[1] MoveOn.org: The Administration’s use of the word “imminent.” http://civic.moveon.org/censure//imminent.html
[2] Consider Amazon.com review discussion of Norman Podhoretz, World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism: http://www.amazon.com/World-War-IV-Struggle-Islamofascism/dp/0385522215 , and Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamofascism .
[3] DanielPipes.org. (President Bush and) Naming the enemy. New York Sun. Aug. 17, 2004: http://www.danielpipes.org/article/2021 .
[4] Washington Post. Glasser, S. US Figures Show Sharp Global Rise in Terrorism. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/04/26/AR2005042601623.html . New York Times. Mazzetti, M. Spy Agencies Says Iraq War Worsens Terrorism: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/24/world/middleeast/24terror.html?_r=1&oref=slogin , Foreign Policy.com: Terrorism Index. September/October, 2007: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3924 .
[5] Boston Globe. Zinn, H. http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/07/17/memo_to_obama_mccain_no_one_wins_in_a_war/ .
[6] CNN. Pentagon: Violence down in Iraq since ‘surge.’ June 23, 2008: http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/06/23/iraq.security/ .
[7] The Australian. Surge hasn’t curbed violence in Iraq. Sept. 5, 2007. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22366787-2703,00.html , and Alternet. Cole, J. Forget the Surge – violence is down in Iraq because ethnic cleansing was brutally effective. July 29, 2008: http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/93081/forget_the_surge_--_violence_is_down_in_iraq_because_ethnic_cleansing_was_brutally... .
[8] Alternet. Heller, Z.P. Baghdad 5 years on: city of walls. Aug. 7, 2008: http://www.alternet.org/blogs/waroniraq/94234/baghdad_5_years_on%3A_city_of_walls/ .
[9] Center for Public Integrity. Iraq: The War Card. Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War: http://www.publicintegrity.org/projects/entry/276/ , and What Really Happened. Iraq WMD Lies: Words of Mass Deception: http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/WMDlies.html . Lies began immidiately after 9/11: Bush Caught Lying About September 11th: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sm73wOuPL60&feature=related .
[10] I recommend the four I’ve read: Elizabeth de la Vega’s U.S. V. Bush, Dave Lindorff and Barbara Olshansky’s The Case for Impeachment, Naomi Wolf’s The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot, and Dennis Loo and Peter Phillips’ edited essays Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney .
[11] Try Common Dreams. Perry, S. The Bush Administration's Top 40 Lies about War and Terrorism Bring 'em On! July 30, 2003: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0730-06.htm , Impeach Bush homepage: http://www.impeachbush.tv/index.html , Impeach Bush/Vote to Impeach homepage: http://www.impeachbush.org/site/PageServer , and Seymour Hersh’s article from The New Yorker, “The Stovepipe,” Oct. 27, 2003: http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/031027fa_fact?031027fa_fact .
[12] US Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs: Second Staff Report on U.S. Chemical and Biological Warfare-Related Dual-Use Exports to Iraq and The Possible Impact on the Health Consequences of the War. May 25, 1994: http://www.gulfwarvets.com/arison/banking.htm , DemocracyRising.US. Arming of Iraq and the Iraq-Iran War: http://democracyrising.us/content/view/30/74/ , National Security Archive. Battle, J. Shaking Hands with Saddam Hussein. Feb. 25, 2003: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/ , and Wikipedia background summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._support_for_Iraq_during_the_Iran-Iraq_war .
[13] Wanttoknow.info. Burks, F. Key move made quietly in 2002 set the stage for war with Iraq: http://www.wanttoknow.info/iraqwarsetup .
[14] Project Censored. Lough, T. & Brage, L. #3 in top 25 censored stories for 2004: US illegally removes pages from Iraq UN report: http://www.projectcensored.org/top-stories/articles/3-us-illegally-removes-pages-from-iraq-un-report/ .
[15] Information Clearing House. Bugliosi, V. The prosecution of George W. Bush for murder. May 10, 2008: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article19903.htm and Democracy Now! CIA’s Tenet: Iraq posed no imminent threat: http://www.democracynow.org/2004/2/6/cias_tenet_iraq_posed_no_imminent .
[16] Center for American Progress. Neglecting intelligence, ignoring warnings. Jan. 29, 2004: http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/kfiles/b24889.html .
[17] Information Clearing House. Bugliosi, V. Ibid. FAS.org. Levin, C. Opening statement of Senator Carl Levin at the Senate Armed Services Committee with DCI Tenet and DIA Director Jacoby. March 9, 2004. http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2004_cr/levin030904.html , and excerpts from Vincent Bugliosi’s book, The prosecution of George W. Bush for murder. Indictment for dummies: http://ralphlopezworld.com/vince.html .
[18] The National Security Archive. CIA whites out controversial estimate on Iraq weapons. July 9, 2008: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB129/index.htm .
[19] THOMAS (Library of Congress): http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?c107:5:./temp/~c107F27y2K:: .
[20] Avalon Project. The War Powers Act: http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/warpower.asp .
[21] United Nations: http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/ ; Articles 2, 33, 39, and 51.
[22] ICRC. International Humanitarian Law: Principles Nuremburg Tribunal 1950: http://www.icrc.org/ihl.nsf/FULL/390?OpenDocument .
[23] The Modern Tribune. Young, D. L. Accountability for an illegal war. Jan. 14, 2005: http://www.themoderntribune.com/iraq_war_violating_the_war_powers_act.htm .
[24] For commentary, consider Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_aggression .
[25] BBC. Report Concludes no WMD in Iraq. Oct. 7, 2004: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3718150.stm , GWU. Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction. National Security Archive Briefing Book #80. Updated Feb. 11, 2004: http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB80/ , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destruction .
[26] ImpeachBush. Bush lied about aluminum tubes in Iraq. http://www.impeachbush.tv/args/altubes.html .
[27] Tomgram. De La Vega: Bush’s War: A Case of Presidential War? Oct. 29, 2005: http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/32550/de_la_vega_bush_s_war_a_case_of_presidential_fraud_ and Left Coaster. Eriposte. WMDgate: Fixing Intelligence Around Policy – The Aluminum Tubes, Part 2A-3. Nov. 19, 2005: http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/006070.php .
[28] GlobalSecurity.org. Report on the US intelligence community’s prewar intelligence assessments on Iraq. http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/2004_rpt/iraq-wmd-intell_chapter10-a.htm .
[29] GlobalPolicy.org. Judis, J. & Ackerman, S. The Selling of the Iraq War: the first casualty. New Republic. June 30, 2003: http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/unmovic/2003/0630selling.htm .
[30] Senate.gov. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Phase II investigation. intelligence.senate.gov/080605/phase2a.pdf
[31] Globalsecurity.org. ibid: http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/congress/2004_rpt/iraq-wmd-intell_intro-b.htm .
[32] Antiwar.com. Prather, G. Justifying the Iraq war: why the NIE is wrong. Dec. 22, 2007: http://www.antiwar.com/prather/?articleid=12092 .
[33] WorldNetDaily. Energy rep at Iraq meeting lacked intelligence savvy. Aug. 6, 2003: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.printable&pageId=20148 .
[34] MedalofFreedom.com. George Tenet. http://www.medaloffreedom.com/GeorgeTenet.htm .
[35] ImpeachBush. False claims about uranium from Niger: http://www.impeachbush.tv/args/uniger.html .
[36] CNN. Ensor, D. Fake Iraq Documents “Embarrassing” for US. March 14, 2003: http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/14/sprj.irq.documents/ .
[37] Counterpunch. Lindorff, D. Forging the case for war. Aug. 16, 2008: http://www.counterpunch.org/lindorff08162008.html .
[38] US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Dec. 18, 2008. The President’s claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger: http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20081218120632.pdf .
[39] Wilson, J. What I Didn’t Find in Africa. July 6, 2003: http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm .
[40] Think Progress. 23 Administration Officials Involved in Plame Leak: http://thinkprogress.org/leak-scandal , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CIA_leak_scandal .
[41] The Raw Story. Kane, M., Edwards, D. CBS confirms Raw Story scoop: Plame’s job was to keep nukes from Iran. Oct. 20, 2007: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/CBS_confirms_2006_Raw_Story_scoop_1020.html .
[42] Wilson’s Statement on Bush’s Invocation of Executive Privilege to Protect Cheney. July 16, 2008: http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/07/16/wilson-statement-on-bushs-invocation-of-executive-privilege-to-protect-cheney/ .
[43] Washington Post. Pincus, W & Milbank, D. Al Qaeda-Hussein Link is Dismissed. June 17, 2004: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A47812-2004Jun16.html , MSNBC. AP report. No Saddam, al-Qaida Link Found. Sept. 8, 2007: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14728447/ , Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saddam_Hussein_and_al-Qaeda .