Gasp-worthy revelation about the war build up

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/15/04 at 11:26pm

Maybe people knew this already, but this revelation made me GOL (gasp out loud).

"Senator Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat, said that the previous fall, during the run-up to the congressional vote authorizing force to remove Saddam Hussein from power, an administration official secretly told about 75 senators that Iraq was capable of attacking the United States with airborne poisons.

"Nelson said the senators were told Iraq had both biological and chemical weapons, notably anthrax, and it could deliver them to cities along the Eastern seaboard via unmanned aerial vehicles, commonly known as drones," wrote staff reporter John McCarthy. The article added that Nelson — who ultimately voted in favor of the authorization (and who wouldn’t under those circumstances?) — declined to reveal the identity of the administration official who gave the classified briefing."

Here's a link to the whole article. Cuz there's a hell of a lot more where that came from.


Link

Updated On: 4/15/04 at 11:26 PM

[~*Triple Star On Broadway*~]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 1:43am

Namo, just come to Canada and we'll protect you . Ok, that article has made me terrified and I don't even live in the US. We're all in danger is what I believe.

[iflitifloat]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 6:21am

Guess it's only newsworthy if you lie about sex. *That's* enough to bring the government to a standstill while we investigate the blow by blow details.

How is it that GW hasn't been held accountable for consistent and deliberate misinformation that has had unfathomable global consequences? I think the magnitude of the implications are so massive, and the consistent fear alerts so calculated, that both the press and the public are frozen in place.

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 8:42am

The Woodward book, due next week (see AOL blurb di giorno) promises to stir the pot. I love the idea of Bush telling him he didn't want to appear "too eager" to start a war in Iraq. I hate to break it to W at this late date, but he wears his eagerness on his cowboy shirt sleeve.

Updated On: 4/16/04 at 08:42 AM

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 9:10am

silly auggie, that's not eagerness, that's a horsey...tsk, tsk.

i remember reading about the uavs (unmanned aerial vehicle) way back when things were getting cranked up. the story i recall was that they could be launched from a commercial vessel off the coast.

now, if people (not anyone here, of course) are going to say that they (or he) should have known from the august 6th pdb that 9/11 was coming and that they (or he) are culpable for not doing anything, then post 9/11 i don't think they (the aforementioned people who are not here) can criticize them (or him) for taking any threat seriously. that's kinda like faulty logic, ain't it?

[Auggie27]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 9:36am

(Papa: 'Course, he also has an "R" on the right sleeve, and an "L" on the left. And underneath on his arm, written in ink, daily, Dick Cheney's cell phone number.)

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 9:40am

oh please, auggie, that is just absolutely preposterous! i cannot believe that you'd sink to such levels and revel in what is an obvious untruth.

whether you like it or not, george w. bush is the president of the united states and if he wants to talk to his vice president dick cheney, all he has to do is say, "get me chrome dome!"

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 11:18am

But papa... the drones thing turned out to be a big fat lie from WITHIN the administration. I'm shocked they stopped at drones and didn't go all the way to fire-breathing robots!

Anyhoo, as if that article isn't depressing enough, there is an article with nine people from across the political spectrum in the same paper. And I think even people I love but disagree with (papa, can you hear me? can you feel me near you?) are going to have to face that when it ain't just coming from the usual lefty subjects (although Howard Zinn is reprezentin!) the tide is seriously turning.

I was particularly surprised by Jessica Stern's stating:

"I am not very political — in fact, I’m quite allergic to politics — but I feel that the Bush administration is quite dangerous on national-security grounds. I think they have made Americans less safe. I think they are dangerous. This administration has so many times, for no real reason, offended its allies. We gratuitously offend our allies on a regular basis, and now we need them and, big surprise, they don’t really want to help us out. If there’s any hope that we’re going to get the international community willing and able to do something for us in Iraq, a Kerry administration would be far more likely to pull that off."

Where do we go from here?

Updated On: 4/16/04 at 11:18 AM

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 11:40am

they got the guardian in on this thing too?

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,889844,00.html

scroll down to the section on uavs. where do you suppose they got the cia to do the film that they used? now regardless of whether it was able to fly the requisite 500km, to deny that it existed at all?

according to this 2002 cia report, they had them

http://www.cia.gov/cia/reports/iraq_wmd/Iraq_Oct_2002.htm

specifically the quote: "baghdad's uavs—especially if used for delivery of chemical and biological warfare (cbw) agents—could threaten iraq's neighbors, us forces in the persian gulf, and the united states if brought close to, or into, the us homeland."

now i can see that the dastardly folks in karl rove's demonic possession coming up with all kindsa new facts on their own, but this comes right from an unclassified cia document.

Updated On: 4/16/04 at 11:40 AM

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 12:07pm

On the other hand, in a section above the one you mention, Powell says the film was obtained "some years ago." Some years ago? Then why not a clandestine meeting to scare those 75 legislators into okaying a war on Iraq then? And what of the conditions Bush said he met, but didn't?

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 12:16pm

because when they were obtained, the president at the time (who shall remain nameless) looked at them and said, "hey, this is just like that scene in goldfinger."

besides, the film that you mention was film of an f1 mirage (a french jet) with wing spray tanks not the smaller uavs that were mentioned in the later section.

as far as conditions, which ones which ones ya big burly fuzzball?

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 12:19pm

It probably WAS a scene from Goldfinger!

[papalovesmambo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 12:22pm

"my name is **** galore"

"i must be dreaming ."

now why doesn't that work? ahhhhh, son, you have pleased papa. there will be m,uch bourbon for you...and oreos too.

Updated On: 4/16/04 at 12:22 PM

[son_of_a_gunn_25]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 12:41pm

You have to be smarter than the code. Switch the [] to <> and it'll work.

Updated On: 4/16/04 at 12:41 PM

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 12:59pm

This is truly disturbing, if true. It makes you wonder about the anthrax scare. Was it all invented to frighten Americans into support for the war? Boy did that work. "Hey, guys, send some powdery white substance to some congressman a couple of big shot networks, they'll let us do anything to stop the madness of the "terrorists".

[FindingNamo]

Posted: 4/16/04 at 1:06pm

I don't think the anthrax scare was invented... even I don't think this administration would "use chemicals on its own citizens." I think the anthrax was sent by that scary guy totally profiled and all but accused in a lengthy recent Vanity Fair article. The synergy of that event and the administration's desire to go into Iraq for any available reason was perfect for them, however.