[lbo-talk] Fw: Guardian: Powell had doubts about WMDs

[Chris Kromm]

> If Powell really felt this way and *still* gave that bullshit speech at
the
> U.N. about Iraq's supposed "stockpiles" of WMDs, my already very low
> estimation of this unreconstructed warmonger (whose rise began with trying
> to cover up the Mai Lai massacre in Vietnam) will sink even further.
> CK
>
> Straw, Powell had serious doubts over their Iraqi weapons claims
>
> Secret transcript revealed
>
> Dan Plesch and Richard Norton-Taylor
> Saturday May 31, 2003
> The Guardian
>
> Jack Straw and his US counterpart, Colin Powell, privately expressed
serious
> doubts about the quality of intelligence on Iraq's banned weapons
programme
> at the very time they were publicly trumpeting it to get UN support for a
> war on Iraq, the Guardian has learned.
>
> Their deep concerns about the intelligence - and about claims being made
by
> their political bosses, Tony Blair and George Bush - emerged at a private
> meeting between the two men shortly before a crucial UN security council
> session on February 5.
>
> The meeting took place at the Waldorf hotel in New York, where they
> discussed the growing diplomatic crisis. The exchange about the validity
of
> their respective governments' intelligence reports on Iraq lasted less
than
> 10 minutes, according to a diplomatic source who has read a transcript of
> the conversation.
>
> The foreign secretary reportedly expressed concern that claims being made
by
> Mr Blair and President Bush could not be proved. The problem, explained Mr
> Straw, was the lack of corroborative evidence to back up the claims.
>
> Much of the intelligence were assumptions and assessments not supported by
> hard facts or other sources.
>
> Mr Powell shared the concern about intelligence assessments, especially
> those being presented by the Pentagon's office of special plans set up by
> the US deputy defence secretary, Paul Wolfowitz.
>
> Mr Powell said he had all but "moved in" with US intelligence to prepare
his
> briefings for the UN security council, according to the transcripts.
>
> But he told Mr Straw he had come away from the meetings "apprehensive"
about
> what he called, at best, circumstantial evidence highly tilted in favour
of
> assessments drawn from them, rather than any actual raw intelligence.
>
> Mr Powell told the foreign secretary he hoped the facts, when they came
out,
> would not "explode in their faces".
>
> What are called the "Waldorf transcripts" are being circulated in Nato
> diplomatic circles. It is not being revealed how the transcripts came to
be
> made; however, they appear to have been leaked by diplomats who supported
> the war against Iraq even when the evidence about Saddam Hussein's
programme
> of weapons of mass destruction was fuzzy, and who now believe they were
lied
> to.
>
> People circulating the transcripts call themselves "allied sources
> supportive of US war aims in Iraq at the time".
>
> The transcripts will fuel the controversy in Britain and the US over
claims
> that London and Washington distorted and exaggerated the intelligence
> assessments about Saddam's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons
> programme.
>
> An unnamed intelligence official told the BBC on Thursday that a key claim
> in the dossier on Iraq's weapons released by the British government last
> September - that Iraq could launch a chemical or biological attack within
45
> minutes of an order - was inserted on the instructions of officials in 10
> Downing Street.
>
> Adam Ingram, the armed forces minister, admitted the claim was made by "a
> single source; it wasn't corroborated".
>
> Speaking yesterday in Warsaw, the Polish capital, Mr Blair said the
evidence
> of weapons of mass destruction in the dossier was "evidence the truth of
> which I have absolutely no doubt about at all".
>
> He said he had consulted the heads of the security and intelligence
services
> before emphatically denying that Downing Street had leaned on them to
> strengthen their assessment of the WMD threat in Iraq. He insisted he had
> "absolutely no doubt" that proof of banned weapons would eventually be
found
> in Iraq. Whitehall sources make it clear they do not share the prime
> minister's optimism.
>
> The Waldorf transcripts are all the more damaging given Mr Powell's
dramatic
> 75-minute speech to the UN security council on February 5, when he
presented
> declassified satellite images, and communications intercepts of what were
> purported to be conversations between Iraqi commanders, and held up a vial
> that, he said, could contain anthrax.
>
> Evidence, he said, had come from "people who have risked their lives to
let
> the world know what Saddam is really up to".
>
> Some of the intelligence used by Mr Powell was provided by Britain.
>
> The US secretary of state, who was praised by Mr Straw as having made a
> "most powerful and authoritative case", also drew links between al-Qaida
and
> Iraq - a connection dismissed by British intelligence agencies. His speech
> did not persuade France, Germany and Russia, who stuck to their previous
> insistence that the UN weapons inspectors in Iraq should be given more
time
> to do their job.
>
> The Waldorf meeting took place a few days after Downing Street presented
Mr
> Powell with a separate dossier on Iraq's banned weapons which he used to
try
> to strengthen the impact of his UN speech.
>
> A few days later, Downing Street admitted that much of its dossier was
> lifted from academic sources and included a plagiarised section written by
> an American PhD student.
>
> Mr Wolfowitz set up the Pentagon's office of special plans to counter what
> he and his boss, Donald Rumsfeld, considered inadequate - and unwelcome -
> intelligence from the CIA.
>
> He angered critics of the war this week in a Vanity Fair magazine
interview
> in which he cited "bureaucratic reasons" for the White House focusing on
> Iraq's alleged arsenal as the reason for the war. In reality, a "huge"
> reason for the conflict was to enable the US to withdraw its troops from
> Saudi Arabia, he said.
>
> Earlier in the week, Mr Rumsfeld suggested that Saddam might have
destroyed
> such weapons before the war.
>
>
>
> Chris Kromm
> Director, Institute for Southern Studies
> 919-949-9415 (cell)
>
> Free Iraq!
> www.unitedforpeace.org
>