Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction

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2008Nov 16

The purpose of this video is simply to present the facts of the Iraqi Survey Group and the conclusions of the Robb Silbermann report. Many people continue to believe that some of the intelligence regarding Iraq's WMD was accurate, or that Iraq had a small scale weapon's program. The Robb Silbermann report repudiates all of these claims. Also the failure to discover WMD in Iraq has generated a cottage conspiracy theory industry among some on the Right. There are allegations that Iraq shipped its weapons to Syria, or that the Russians assisted Iraq in removing its WMD, or that Saddam destroyed his weapons right before the war, or that Iraq sought uranium from Niger. These conspiracies are false. The story many Americans were led to believe in 2002 about Iraq stockpiling, amassing, and producing tons of deadly WMD in which to threaten the United States was fictional -- a fairy-tale. I still think the most important chapter in the WMD saga has yet to be written. How did the October 2002 NIE on Iraq end up being so terribly wrong? Did lots of bad intelligence just happen to fall fortuitously into the CIA's lap as the Bush Administration was trying to build a case for war? Do you believe it? More on the claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger: "The Iraq Survey Group also found no evidence that Iraq sought uranium from abroad after 1991. 113 With respect to the reports that Iraq sought uranium from Niger, ISG interviews with Ja'far Diya Ja'far, the head of Iraq's pre-1991 enrichment programs, indicated that Iraq had only two contacts with the Nigerien government after 1998--neither of which was related to uranium. 114 One such contact was a visit to Niger by the Iraqi Ambassador to the Vatican Wissam Zahawie, the purpose of which Ja'far said was to invite the Nigerien President to visit Iraq (a story told publicly by Zahawie). 115 The second contact was a visit to Iraq by a Nigerien minister to discuss Nigerien purchases of oil from Iraq--with no mention of "any kind of payment, quid pro quo, or offer to provide Iraq with uranium ore, other than cash in exchange for petroleum." 116 The use of the last method of payment is supported by a crude oil contract, dated June 26, 2001, recovered by the ISG."