Harold Pinter acknowledgement speech

[Jester]

My recollection was that the intelligence they had was wrong, and the corroboration of the source evidence was poor.  Iraq had WMD programs and used WMD in the past.  They had a number of ex-Iraqi scientists who were indicating vast weapons programs were in place.  And, there was also the lack of evidence of destruction, or existence of the known imported precursor chemicals and reagents.  And, finally, the refusal by Saddam to allow the UN inspectors to interview known scientists or people involved with the programs or the destruction.
[right][snapback]97512[/snapback][/right]

But yet, every time Dr. Blix followed up on any tip they got, even from US intelligence, they found nothing. Not even the tiny traces that would indicate concealment. Nothing.

When Powell went to the UN, what did he have? Rumour, insinuation, tautology and some sattelite photos that showed, beyond a doubt, that Iraq has both buildings and trucks. That was even after he threw out a huge chunk of it for being "bull#$%&".

And yet the US would not wait. Powell's mission was not about fact, but about convincing people to join up, since the war was going to happen anyway. Why was that? Why were they so bloody itchy to invade? Couldn't they have just waited until something turned up? If the Bush administration was right, they wouldn't have had long to wait. But no, no waiting. Invasion.

A bunch of Iraqi exiles, well known for making up stuff out of whole cloth, spun a thousand tales to get what they wanted: Saddam ousted. Now they're "Heroes in error," and the US picks up the tab. If "Curveball" is anyone's idea of a reliable source, I'd like to sell the oil rights for the Moon to them. The US knew he was unreliable. The CIA was skeptical. German intelligence thought he was a sack of crap. And he was the man telling us about mobile biological labs.

It was junk then, it's junk now.

-Jester