[continued from previous email on topic:]


6.

'BLAIR'S AUTHORITY IS DIMINSHED'

** Lack of smoking gun prompts calls for an inquiry **

The Guardian
June 2, 2003

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,968319,00.html

INDEPENDENT
Editorial, June 1

"Is it possible that Tony Blair misled parliament and the people in his
ardent warnings about the weapons of mass destruction (WMD)? We hope
that the answer is an emphatic no... Perhaps this is a story of bungled
intelligence. Perhaps there was genuine confusion between political
leaders and intelligence services. We do not know.

"The unanswered questions can only be properly addressed by an official
inquiry ... Nobody knows what a genuinely impartial inquiry would find
in relation to Iraq and the missing weapons. But we need answers. Mr
Blair needs answers too. The uncertainty is doing him no good at all ...
Why did he go to war? Until this question is properly answered his
authority on other issues is inevitably diminished."

SUNDAY TIMES
Editorial, June 1

"The debate over WMD and the extent to which Mr Blair exaggerated the
evidence beyond what the security services were comfortable with go to
the heart of this government's [general] approach and demonstrate why,
despite its electoral success, it remains unloved and engenders
suspicion rather than trust. The picture that emerges is of a government
that uses and manipulates the official machine in a way that its
predecessors did not.

"We were told... spin would be replaced by honesty and delivery. The
dark arts would be abandoned... If anything, the culture of spin is more
ingrained than before, as the WMD episode shows ... [Alastair] Campbell
should consider whether the prime minister and the government are well
served by his presence. The best way of weaning the government off its
addiction to spin is by removing those who supply it."

SUNDAY MIRROR
Editorial, June 1

"No 10 exaggerated the importance of a single-sourced allegation that
Saddam Hussein could deploy [WMD] in 45 minutes. It was rubbish and the
prime minister's men and security chiefs knew it was iffy when Mr Blair
told the Commons. That is disgraceful - a nation doesn't go to war on
'evidence' like that ... Nations should declare war only for the gravest
reasons of self-defence, backed by irrefutable evidence. We had neither.
The people's trust is a prime minister's most precious commodity. It is
disappearing fast."

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Matthew d'Ancona, June 1

"There was more to the prime minister's readiness to support President
Bush than the specific fear of specific weapons... The PM is a
compulsive participant, a man who hates to be left out ... He is also a
compulsive adherent to what he regards as destiny. The trouble is that
very few people think like that ... They seek reassurance, not the road
map to the promised land. They want to escape history's tribulations,
not rush towards its most fiery crucible ...

"Personal zeal does not always inspire public confidence: quite the
opposite, sometimes. A man who believes he has history on his side can
forget about keeping the electorate there, too ... To the public, for
the most part, the Almighty's steps are not only inaudible, but
irrelevant. Alas for Mr Blair, their concerns are much more mundane:
better schools, better health care, secure pensions, that sort of thing.
Destiny is all very well. But it isn't a vote-winner."

DAILY EXPRESS
Editorial, May 31

"The question of whether the US and Britain really feared Saddam's [WMD]
or whether this was used as a pretext for war has already become a murky
one ... [But] this is not about whether going to war was justified; we
only need to look at Saddam's horrific human rights record to know it
was. It is about important concerns over the way the government
presented intelligence information in the run-up to war. Our leaders
seem intent on hedging the issue. That it why it is vital a Commons
inquiry is set up."

MAIL ON SUNDAY
Peter Hitchens, June 1

"When [the British armed forces] march into some ghastly zone of
barbarism, they transform it - just as the British empire did. But New
Labour ... doesn't believe in permanent civilising missions to do good
to the people involved, only in short-term ones, to impress the voters
and make the premier feel good about himself ... As for Iraq, Britain
was too poor and weak to run that turbulent country the first time we
tried to do so 83 years ago. And we certainly do not have the troops or
money to do so now. The operation is, ultimately, a fraud. That is not
just because the pretext for it - WMD - looks more phoney by the day, it
is because it is an empty short-term gesture that has no serious purpose."

HERALD (GLASGOW)
Editorial, May 31

"Failure to find the smoking gun has put the prime minister on the back
foot, much to his irritation ... The shifting sands of justifying war
have moved again ... [but] Mr Bush and Mr Blair cannot claim a
humanitarian justification for their war ... [It] was waged on the basis
that Saddam was a clear and imminent danger ... Mr Blair still insists
that weapons will be found. All that is needed is 'a little bit of
patience'. It is not a commodity he or Mr Bush has in abundance. Their
grounds for war grow shakier by the day. Mr Blair has much to answer for."



--
Mark K. Jensen
Associate Professor of French
Chair, Dept. of Languages and Literatures
Pacific Lutheran University
http://www.plu.edu/~jensenmk/
253-535-7219

==================== Related Great Forward ================

ubj: Weapons of Mass Destruction: Who Said What When
Date: 6/1/03 3:26:56 AM Pacific Daylight Time
From: PeaceAction98020
To: PeaceAction98020
BCC: Chaliser



May 29, 2003
Weapons of Mass Destruction: Who Said What When

CounterPunch Wire

Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of
mass destruction.
Dick Cheney August 26, 2002

Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for
the production of biological weapons.
George W. Bush September 12, 2002

If he declares he has none, then we will know that Saddam Hussein is
once again misleading the world.
Ari Fleischer December 2, 2002

We know for a fact that there are weapons there.
Ari Fleischer January 9, 2003

Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the
materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve
agent.
George W. Bush January 28, 2003

We know that Saddam Hussein is determined to keep his weapons of mass
destruction, is determined to make more.
Colin Powell February 5, 2003

We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized
Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons -- the very weapons the
dictator tells us he does not have.
George Bush February 8, 2003

So has the strategic decision been made to disarm Iraq of its weapons of
mass destruction by the leadership in Baghdad? I think our judgment has
to be clearly not.
Colin Powell March 8, 2003

Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that
the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal
weapons ever devised.
George Bush March 17, 2003

Well, there is no question that we have evidence and information that
Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical
particularly . . . all this will be made clear in the course of the
operation, for whatever duration it takes.
Ari Fleisher March 21, 2003

There is no doubt that the regime of Saddam Hussein possesses weapons of
mass destruction. As this operation continues, those weapons will be
identified, found, along with the people who have produced them and who
guard them.
Gen. Tommy Franks March 22, 2003

I have no doubt we're going to find big stores of weapons of mass
destruction.
Kenneth Adelman, Defense Policy Board , March 23, 2003

One of our top objectives is to find and destroy the WMD. There are a
number of sites.
Pentagon Spokeswoman Victoria Clark March 22, 2003

We know where they are. They are in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad.
Donald Rumsfeld March 30, 2003

Obviously the administration intends to publicize all the weapons of
mass destruction U.S. forces find -- and there will be plenty.
Neocon scholar Robert Kagan April 9, 2003

I think you have always heard, and you continue to hear from officials,
a measure of high confidence that, indeed, the weapons of mass
destruction will be found.
Ari Fleischer April 10, 2003

We are learning more as we interrogate or have discussions with Iraqi
scientists and people within the Iraqi structure, that perhaps he
destroyed some, perhaps he dispersed some. And so we will find them.
George Bush April 24, 2003

There are people who in large measure have information that we need . .
. so that we can track down the weapons of mass destruction in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld April 25, 2003

We'll find them. It'll be a matter of time to do so.
George Bush May 3, 2003

I am confident that we will find evidence that makes it clear he had
weapons of mass destruction.
Colin Powell May 4, 2003

I never believed that we'd just tumble over weapons of mass destruction
in that country.
Donald Rumsfeld May 4, 2003

I'm not surprised if we begin to uncover the weapons program of Saddam
Hussein -- because he had a weapons program.
George W. Bush May 6, 2003

U.S. officials never expected that "we were going to open garages and
find" weapons of mass destruction.
Condoleeza Rice May 12, 2003

I just don't know whether it was all destroyed years ago -- I mean,
there's no question that there were chemical weapons years ago --
whether they were destroyed right before the war, (or) whether they're
still hidden.
Maj. Gen. David Petraeus,
Commander 101st Airborne May 13, 2003

Before the war, there's no doubt in my mind that Saddam Hussein had
weapons of mass destruction, biological and chemical. I expected them to
be found. I still expect them to be found.
Gen. Michael Hagee,
Commandant of the Marine Corps May 21, 2003

Given time, given the number of prisoners now that we're interrogating,
I'm confident that we're going to find weapons of mass destruction.
Gen. Richard Myers,
Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff May 26, 2003

They may have had time to destroy them, and I don't know the answer.
Donald Rumsfeld May 27, 2003

For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass
destruction (as justification for invading Iraq) because it was the one
reason everyone could agree on.
Paul Wolfowitz May 28, 2003

http://www.counterpunch.org/wmd05292003.html


******************************************
e-mail:
myth@iresist.com
Web site:
www.mythoftheinnocentcivilian.com


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