[lbo-talk] WMDs

[Devine, James]

from MS SLATE's daily news summary:
>A frontpage investigative piece by the [Washington POST]'s Barton Gellman finds
evidence of an Iraqi "nonconventional arms establishment that was
far less capable than U.S. analysts judged before the war." Iraqi
scientists did hide plans for various banned programs, but the
planned didn't seem to be beyond the brainstorming stages, having
been limited because of sanctions, the Gulf War I, and U.N.
inspections. Of course, none of that is new. But Gellman has
endless details, including an internal Saddam-era Iraqi memo
(that he corroborated), stating that the total "destruction of
the biological weapons agents took place in the summer of 1991."
As for Iraq's nuclear efforts--which the administration played
up--one scientist said, "We would have had to start from less
than zero. The country was cornered. We were boycotted. We were
embargoed. The truth is, we disintegrated." 

 
>Gellman also finds evidence supporting the long-floated theory
that Saddam's scientists were lying to him. In some cases,
researchers "worked" on absurd, sure-to-fail weapons programs
that Saddam was told would work. They then had to hide the
programs' documents from inspectors. "Saddam Hussein ordered this
work, but where would we get the materials?" said a former Iraqi
general. "This was the case in every field. People would prepare
reports under the order of Saddam Hussein and the supervision of
the people around Saddam Hussein. But it was not real." <

in addition, the US power elite _wanted_ to believe that the WMDs existed, and more importantly, wanted _us_ to believe it.
Jim D.