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Dick Cheney's Fantasy World
Despite the facts, the vice-president still insists that Saddam Hussein could have produced weapons of mass destruction
In yet another attempt at revisionist history by the outgoing Bush administration, vice-president Dick Cheney, in an exclusive interview with ABC News, took exception to former presidential adviser Karl Rove's contention that the US would not have gone to war if available intelligence before the invasion had shown Iraq not to possess weapons of mass destruction. Cheney noted that the only thing the US got wrong on Iraq was that there were no stockpiles of WMD at the time of the 2003 invasion. "What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction. He had the technology, he had the people, he had the basic feed stock."
The vice-president should re-check both his history and his facts. Just prior to President Bush's decision to invade Iraq, the UN had teams of weapons inspectors operating inside Iraq, blanketing the totality of Iraq's industrial infrastructure. They found no evidence of either retained WMD, or efforts undertaken by Iraq to reconstitute a WMD manufacturing capability. Whatever dual-use industrial capability that did exist (so-called because the industrial processes involved to produce legitimate civilian or military items could, if modified, be used to produce materials associated with WMD) had been so degraded as a result of economic sanctions and war that any meaningful WMD production was almost moot. To say that Saddam had the capability or the technology to produce WMD at the time of the US invasion is a gross misrepresentation of the facts.
While one can make the argument that Saddam had the people, insofar as the scientists who had participated in the WMD programmes of the 1980s were still in Iraq and, in many cases, still employed by the government, these human resources were irrelevant without either the industrial infrastructure, the economic base or the political direction needed to produce WMD. None of these existed. The argument Cheney makes on feed stock is even more ludicrous. Precursor chemicals used in the lawful manufacture of chemical pesticides were present in Iraq at the time of the invasion, but these were unable to be used in manufacturing the sarin, tabun or VX chemical nerve agents the Bush administration claimed existed inside Iraq in stockpile quantities prior to the invasion.
The same can be said about Iraqi biological capability. The discovery after the invasion of a few vials of botulinum toxin suitable for botox treatments, but unusable for any weapons purposes, does not constitute a feed stock. And as for the smoking gun that the Bush administration did not want to come in the form of a mushroom cloud, there was no nuclear weapons programme in Iraq in any way shape or form, nor had there been since it was dismantled in 1991. Cheney's dissimilation of the facts surrounding Iraqi WMD serves as a distraction from the reality of the situation. Not only did the entire Bush administration know that the intelligence data about Iraqi WMD was fundamentally flawed prior to the invasion, but they also knew that it did not matter in the end. Bush was going to invade Iraq no matter what the facts proved.
Cheney defended the invasion and subsequent removal of Saddam from power by noting that "this was a bad actor and the country's better off, the world's better off with Saddam gone". This is the argument of the intellectually feeble. It would be very difficult for anyone to articulate that life today is better in Baghdad, Mosul, Basra or any non-Kurdish city than it was under Saddam. Ask the average Iraqi adult female if she is better off today than she was under Saddam, and outside of a few select areas in Kurdistan, the answer will be a resounding "no".
The occupation of Iraq by the United States is far more brutal, bloody and destructive than anything Saddam ever did during his reign. When one examines the record of the US military in Iraq in terms of private homes brutally invaded, families torn apart and civilians falsely imprisoned (the prison population in Iraq during the US occupation dwarfs that of Saddam's regime), what is clear is that the only difference between the reign of terror inflicted on the Iraqi people today and under Saddam is that the US has been far less selective in applying terror than Saddam ever was.
At a time when the US and the world struggle with a resurgent Iran, the Iranian-dominated Dawa party of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki governs Iraq today in name only. The stability enjoyed by Iraq today has been bought with the presence of 150,000 US troops who have overseen the ethnic cleansing of entire neighbourhoods in cities around Iraq, and who have struck temporary alliances with Shia and Sunni alike which cannot be sustained once these forces leave (as they are scheduled to do by 2011).
Invading Iraq and removing Saddam, the glue that held that nation together as a secular entity, was the worst action the US could have undertaken for the people of Iraq, the Middle East as a whole and indeed the entire world. For Cheney to articulate otherwise, regardless of his fundamentally flawed argument on WMD, only demonstrates the level to which fantasy has intruded into the mind of the vice-president.
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45 Comments so far
Show AllThank you Scott for all the work you have done to un-mask this arrogant, immoral and greedy person and his minions just by telling the TRUTH!
Scott,
I critically read all of your work and I want to quote you every time I confront lunatics on the other side of reality.
Thanks for your courage.
Peace
There is a review of Scott's history and with the media at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Ritter
"What they found was that Saddam Hussein still had the capability to produce weapons of mass destruction"
Anybody with a high school level education in physics and chemistry has the theoretical knowledge of creating nucular (ala W) or biological WMDs.
My father in law was part of the UN team that over saw the embargo and sanctions put on Iraq after that first gulf war.
According to him, Iraq was barred from importing A-level physics books since it discusses the theoretical nuclear cycle on a very high level, regular pencils (lead in the pencils can be used as a moderator in the nuclear cycle!) as well as various chemicals that are required for water filtration and purification such as chlorine (could be used in chem weapons).
If anybody knows, the water from Tigris and Euphrates river has a very high salt level. Iraq had over 20 huge water filtration plants akin to desalination plants used to filter sea water for consumption across the country. These plants were deemed "high Value" targets and bombed during initial air campaign and afterwards made inoperable w/o the necessary parts and chemicals. This resulted unnecessary deaths of thousands of innocent Iraqis especially infants due to chronic stomach illnesses. If you ask Madeline Albright, it was all worth it!
Tell me if that is not terrorism???
The destruction of water treatment plants was an act of biological warfare. Destroying essential infrastructure for the general population, is a war crime, as is biological warfare. These are all acts of terrorism against innocent people.
Simply put, the Bush administration needs to be held responsible for the mayhem, madness, torture, murder and blatant acts of terrorism they've carried out in Iraq. The world should, if there is any justice, embargo ALL American products until Bush and his gang of thugs are turned over to the authority of the International Court of Justice. Only that court is capable of meting out the justice that is called for, for these heinous crimes against humanity. No American court will ever prosecute a President and/or his entire administration...regardless of how blatant the crimes.
The only way that they can get to Americans in general, is to hit them in their wallets. If Americans don't feel that sting, they'll continue as the fat, happy, clueless idiots that the Bush administration believes them to be. That's the only reason that they've gotten away with their endless crimes against humanity, because the contempt they have for America, and the American people, is founded in the reality that Americans are, as a group, intensely self-centered, self-possessed, and completely oblivious to the crimes that are done in their name. Americans are delusional in regards to their own complicity in these acts. And as such, are easily manipulated by psychopathic criminals like the Bush gang.
Don't hold back now; tell us what you really think!
But you're right.
Excellent. Thank you.
General American apathy toward 1) Ritter's truthtelling, and 2) Cheney's revisionist history will condemn this country to continually commit the same type of atrocities, with the same people in charge, albeit quietly sequestered in the shadows. There is but one singular answer: accountability. Killing with impunity must end. There is a growing movement in this country that is taking form, pushing harder and harder for such accountability. That struggle should be actively joined by every human being who believes in mankind and in a decent future for all children - yours and theirs. The recent push to revise history (Bush - Cheney - Rove - Gaffney et al) is not merely to leave a legacy, it is more like to create a case for their innocence when and if the international community holds them accountable for their crimes. They must indoctrinate Americans against the possibility that foreigners will hold them accountable. They have routinely criticized the UN for exactly this same reason. I wrote both my US senators last night demanding justice for the war crimes that have been committed by this administration. Do I get paranoid about sticking my neck out - honestly - I do. Is there an alternative - NO. They rely on our fear, our ignorance, our inability to mass together to seek true justice. And, to a large extent, the continuing ignorance of the masses will ensure their victory.
There is no need for paranoia about sticking your neck out. They aren't worried about you. I've been publicly advocating that a SWAT team should put a stop to BuscCo's crime spree for six years now. They let me get on airplanes. Black helicopters don't fly over my house. The reason is because of the apathy you mention. The vast majority of Americans remain passive, gullible idiots. I don't get the sense that anybody is afraid, except in a general, existential way. Making us afraid is unnecessary when general ignorance, torpor and groupthink are more than adequate to maintain authority. When giving away our money to a pack of loan sharks doesn't create mass anger, you know you are dealing with zero vital signs.
Sioux Rose
VOX: Damned pithy assurance, and rather unimpeachable argument. Now I can get those tickets to fly!
Did you ever see the film, "Little Murders?" During the part where Elliot Gould's character heads home to ask his mother if he was breast or bottle fed in an effort to locate where his sense of detached behavior began, the mother rushes to the book shelf while asking her husband who was the most notable source ON THE SUBJECT during the time they raised the baby, i.e. Elliott.
Could it be that American society has become so inured to its own judgment call due to a battery of experts telling us what we think and feel, even down to the "why" of it all? "Try this pain reliever" style? The voice of 'god' in America is the well-dressed medical expert peddling the latest somnabulistic formula.
Sioux Rose
ODOCO: Thank you for your powerful words and living true to your conviction for social justice.
From the invasion and occupation of Iraq to the war against science, the Bush/Cheney regime has been marked by a not totally unique combination of cynicism and mind blowing stupidity. I thought for sure Cheney would leave office without saying anything, his final act of "fuck you" to the world. This is unlike George Wanker Bush who is currently acting like he got caught masturbating behind the dais while holding a press conference. Cheney, however, is now trotting out the dead-as-a-doornail and continuously revised Neocon talking points. He too knows that history has seen him naked, with the long and still red and raw scar across his chest, his little shriveled penis and the Death's Head tattoo on his right shoulder with the words "Geld und Tod" just beneath it. The fact that he will go down in history as a political serial killer, a financial vampire and a truly and thoroughly evil person is present to some small degree in his mind. That's one of the reasons he's going out on this worn out carpet of lies before he immerses himself once again in the DNA of business deals and grab, grab, grab and keep grabbing until you die.
"The vice-president should re-check both his history and his facts."
I appreciate Mr. Ritters analysis, but he does seem to always miss the central point behind Bush/Cheney. It's not that they should recheck facts and history. The have all the facts and history they need. It's that they don't care one way or the other. Similarly, some pundit asked another pundit whether Bush even realizes what the shoe event meant in the Arabic world. He too missed the point. Sure Bush knows, or knows now. Doesn't matter one bit. When you operate with the mindset that the Ends Justify the Means, none of that matters.
Aye. Nothing at all wrong with Cheney's facts.
They're just a completely separate set of facts from those supported by evidence.
Mr. Ritter, I saw you on CNN a few days ago.
The interviewer, who was acting very goofy, tried to blame you for the war in Iraq because you were too "strident"?
Even to those of us who know we're getting Pentagon propaganda on networks such as CNN that was a bizarro moment.
Was that guy on drugs?
Was he seriously trying to blame you, the person who was yelling the loudest about the WMD lies, for the last five years?
WTF???
What's the point?
The truth or rationality doesnt matter.
In other words,
So?
Thank you Mr. Ritter. Keep hammering away. Sooner that later all of these sick children of privilege will have to step up to Scratch. Left on their, own in the face of Truth, they are sure to self immolate.
I got an invitation the other day like many of you to put down in words 100 or less what Obama should do in the first 100 days in office. WHAT A JOKE!!!????!!!
I like many of you keep my thoughts and ideas down in WORD. I think there is close to 250,000 words now generated since the middle of the last campaign. SO THAR YOU GO JOE good luck on 100 words or less.
Now what OBAMA needs to do about this subject is increase the staff in the Justice department by five fold. Then in SHORT TERM less than six months begin rounding them up and branding them so they cant get away from us NO MORE. IF YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN ---- FROM A MAN WHO STILL WEARS JEANS. And proud of it.
It seems to me stupid to blow up water works when you could easily seize them and control the water so it doesn't flow to areas that are violent.
But then again I couldn't see the logic in fighting the first Gulf War because Kuwait was ever bit as evil as Saddam and neither one could eat the oil so whoever sits on it must sell it at a reasonable price or everyone finds alternatives and demand drops.
Of course that would be an actual free market, not the fascist corporate admiration society that has been increasing their control of America and the world at every opportunity since WW2. They all make up stories the media pumps out without question like higher taxes for labor than capital being good for the economy.
The economy only exists to serve the people. It has no other purpose and should never be used to abuse the people.
My theory is that America has a little problem with blowing things up.
It's an addiction.
America needs to wear a patch.
“Milton Friedman’s misfortune is that his policies have been tried.”
---John Kenneth Galbraith
"They all make up stories the media pumps out without question like higher taxes for labor than capital being good for the economy."
What is "capital"? Capital is NOT money, though money can be used to purchase capital. Capital is bricks and mortar, machinery, raw materials, hard goods that can be used to produce other hard goods. How is capital created? Every single bit of capital, and I mean everything, is created by LABOR. Without labor there is no mining of iron ore. Without labor there are no factory buildings produced. Without labor there is no public infrastructure to support private enterprise. Without labor there can be no "capitalists" because there can be no capital. Capitalists, captains of industry, would do well to remember this.
-- EKATON --
This is why I don't buy the false intelligence ruse. Scott was shouting from the rooftops that there were no WMDs for some time prior to the invasion.
We have a Liberal party candidate here in Canada (Michael Ignatieff) who is trying the same thing. I also attended a meeting at which Keith Martin, MP expounded on the fact that the (then) imminent attack on Iraq was all about U.S. "security". I almost choked (having followed Scott's articles up to that point).
I might spend some time with these MPs, and show them how to use Google. I'm not sure about our "Honourable" MPs, but I used to get my mouth washed out with soap for similar antics.
“Milton Friedman’s misfortune is that his policies have been tried.”
---John Kenneth Galbraith
It important to remember that while Scott Ritter was trying his best to tell the world that the US was lying about Saddams WMD's, the MSM was mocking him even as they tried to show their impartiality by having him on television from time to time.
Paula Zahn laughed when Scott claimed Saddam had dismantled his WMDS and said OUT LOUD that he had drank Saddams Koolaid.
It was not just Scott Ritter who was trying to get this infomartion out there. There was a wealth of information out there that demonstrated that the US claims were NOT CREDIBLE.
Now when I myself tried to link other peoples to these sites and news reports, these people simply mocked them and claimed "Those websites are NOT credible". They never bothered to read the information and rebut it. They simply IGNORED it.
So the question is why would they simply ignore information that was in fact the truth and decide instead to claim as credible information we know as a lie?
If people can be honest with themselves when they answer this, they will realize it because it is what they WANTED to be true because the other information put that Champion of the free world, that beacon of Liberty and Justice in a bad light.
These people could NOT face the truth that the "Despot" Saddam Huseein was telling the truth, and their own champion and Government was LYING.
This is the power of propaganda and this shows how "Patriotism" is more often then not, the inability to think for oneself and the willingness to "Follow the Leader"
instead.
Which is at the end of the day about the most un-patriotic thing one can do.
PK
Sioux Rose
GW NORTH: True, added to the fact that many who work for the MSM work for General Electric and companies that directly or indirectly profit from the war business, that, weapons, and Hollywood's often violent entertainment depictions probably constitute the bulk of our exports... in other words, they're protecting their jobs.
I would suggest that the CM (Corporate Media) is deeply interwoven with all other major corporate sectors in the frighteningly gigantic MIPC (military-industrial-petroleum complex, as Margolis calls it). The profits to be made in the arms industry/war business are out of control and there is no firewall between the media and the elephant of the US economy.
So at the top, they're literally all in it together. The NYTimes and Judy Miller says it all. Miller was really close to Shulzburgher (sp.), the owner. People like him are no longer about journalism--he's all about $$$. Miller had a completely inappropriate professional (who knows what else...???) relationship with Libby (Cheney's Cheney) and even had security clearance!! That's how much she had been 'turned' into a PR cheerleader for the administration.
Cheney would pass the word to Libby who would tell Miller and presto, first page of the NYT above the fold! Emails would go out to the usual suspects who would go on all those Sunday yakyak shows and make the claim that came from the Dick Cheney. They would also point to the NYTimes (supposedly a "Liberal" paper) and say: "Don't take it from me, check out the NYT". Once it's in the NYT/Wash Post, everybody else in the country picks if up: it's NEWS. So now the whole country would hear about it.
All echo chamber.
Started by the Dick, spread around by foot soldiers to a certain extent, but really 'forced' onto the world by a silly, unprofessional pseudo journalist who was given access to the # 1 bully pulpit on the planet and her reporting was full of holes and UNCORROBORATED. Journalism 100.
The other side of the coin is that the Bush administration was brutal on those who "weren't with us". Things really hit the toilet after 911 in that regard. The media was already merely a shadow of its former self (as late as Watergate, the media did it's job to a certain extent), but now it completely caved in.
Most of us who read CD (and further left) knew how shaky was the case for WMD in Irak. But for the vast majority who depended on the CM, it likely looked like that case to go to war was solid.
To me, here's a bit of...irony. Because the CM is more about $$$ than anything else (directly and indirectly) it provides some opportunities you might not expect. Someone like Frank Rich is not a fire-breathing leftist, but he is a very good reporter with deep understanding of and disdain for the Bush administration. And because Rich is so popular ($$$), the Times gives him and others of his ilk (left and right) a lot of freedom. So while Miller was writing that obviously stupid garbage on page 1, Rich (and others) were telling it like it was on page 20.
For the truth about the lies of the Bush administration, no better source than Rich's "The Greatest Story Ever Sold". With an incredible 70-some-odd page time-line at the end to show: "What they said and when, and what was subsequently proven". Page after page of perfectly documented lies. It's so good, it's almost a work of art.
And Scott is worth his weight in gold. Been saying it like it is for a long time. We owe him a lot.
Sioux Rose
GET REAL: Excellent analysis.
Thank you so much.
I'm not 100% positive, but I believe it was Reagan's head of the CIA, William Casey, who made the claim that the CIA controlled the Media.
Why is Scott, a highly credible source, never seen the MSM?
Surely you have seen him talk. His knowledge and information is rock solid as the true is and, here is the biggest obstacle to an informed american citizenry, now with the msm(the place the veggies all go to get some kind of information which will never be enough to enable them to make an intelligent and proper decision)is in the hands of 4 or 5 owners that are all following rupert murdoch's fux news style of informing the citizenry where everything is presented in a disney land type format and what they don't want you to see is , well, not shown like in Scott Ritter.
This important fact is brought to us all, or those that rely on msm for information, by the 'elite'. There are 2 points in the world that the elite want to control, money through those worthless and destructive institutions called the federal reserve, world bank, international monetary fund or any central banking entity. The second is the media. There is so much out there that describes this and '1984' is as good a place to begin. Fortunately there is the internet and books that can and will explain and reveal that which will never be on msm. For a detailed analysis on dvd about the subversion of our media, go to this web site, OrwellRollsInHisGrave.com, very very telling. I have turned several people on to it and none have come back and said that was bullshucks. As a matter of fact most are more angry than me some are just sick about it and most all are very worried about it and none are not effected by that dvd. It is not the end of the world but we better get our sources of information back for our democracy to work properly.
More unfinished business: 9112010.com
From "The War in Common" by William Rivers Pitt,
Truthout 12/17/08
"I met a journalist, a fourth-generation American of Lebanese descent, whose horror and disgust at the mainstream media's insipid cheerleading coverage of the Iraq war in 2003 compelled him to travel to Iraq and do some reporting on his own. Through his unfiltered and most decidedly unembedded perspective, we learned of the Iraqi hospitals overflowing with feces and urine, of villages targeted by Coalition forces for reprisal attacks, about bodies rotting in the streets of devastated towns, about dogs feasting on those corpses as they bloated in the sun, about gas lines lasting two days and about what America's war really looked and smelled like when the media's self-serving airbrush treatment was not applied."
As I recall, Bush demanded that Saddam open Iraq to the weapons inspectors in early 2003. He gave them 90 days to find WMD, so he could then legitimately attack Iraq, or failing that, he would attack Iraq! He never allowed for the inspectors to confirm that Saddam had no WMD...only that he did, and Bush would attack, or he didn't, and Bush would attack. Circular logic is a wonderful thing if you're the Deciderator!
I began collecting articles on the upcoming war in early 2003, and I was fully engaged in following the world news prior to that. My adolescent son could have told Bush in 2003 that there were no WMDs. We discussed it, watched 10 million people all over the world protest the onset of the war - and many of you have already touched on this point: the Bushies could not have cared less what the world thought. America is rapidly becoming what Germany was in the early 1930s - and I am convinced that is exactly 'their' plan. When you can lie with impunity, steal with impunity, kill with impunity - the world is yours. Every progressive in this country should drive Obama and the Dems' asses to the wall on the point of accountability for these crimes. From now on, there is no party loyalty - and I think even the labor unions are beginning to realize this! Everything revolves around issues, actions and consequences. The world will change only when enough people hit the streets.
WMDs? There are WMDs in every state in the Union and Israel. Saddam had no WMDs.
Iraq had no need of WMDs then. But thanks to Cheney and Sharon they sure do now.
Are we 'safer' now? I think there is no doubt at all about that.
Maybe Saddam Hussein could have produced weapons of mass destruction but so what?
What would he do with them? Maybe send U.S. Army Anthrax through the mail to frighten the Senate into passing the USAPATRIOT Act? Yeah, maybe but I would not look toward Saddam as the source for that. A former Secretary of War is more likely - means, motive, opportunity...
Just a thought: Let's invite Pres. Bush, V.P. Cheney, and Condi Rice to a nationally televised debate with Scott Ritter, Dahr Jamail, Chris Hedges, and Naomi Klein. Any takers . . . .
A nice idea, but the criminals have repeatedly snubbed the attempts to even testify before Congress in any meaningful. Besides, it wouldn't qualify as a debate, since our "leaders" can only muster a few short, well-scripted points which they parrot over and over and over.........
The ignored elephant in the room is that Cheney and Bush, along the rest of that ilk, are utterly STUPID! That's the real problem Mr. Ritter, like Reagan, they were adverse to academic subjects; those were beyond their collective aability to comprehend. Had the votes been properly protected and recorded, and the Supremes properly turned them down and if they had been properly vetted, the truth would've become apparent and their hopes and dreams just dust in the wind.
Why wasn't this article published in a U.S. newspaper instead of in England? The Guardian is a highly respected paper but it should have run in the NY Times or Washington Post.
Visitor: I beg to differ. These people are not stupid. They are insidiously, dangerously, malevolently intelligent and totally focused on their goals. There are many types of 'intelligence.' But the base of the action is the result of morality - or a lack thereof. One can possess the former and be totally lacking in the latter. To repeat what I previously said: those who can lie with impunity, steal with impunity, and kill with impunity will rule the world. That is their quest - it has nothing to do with native intelligence, it has everything to do with an absence of morality, humanity, charity and compassion. When your life is guided by the twin sceptors of greed and power you really don't have the capacity to relate to other human beings. That is their true problem - not their alleged stupidity.
Sioux Rose
ODOCO: I fully agree, although I see greed as worship of Mammon and power as an over-identification with Mars. In either case, the old gods hold souls hostage to dark desires that cost the rest of us almost everything. Only the circle can save us from this savagery, for it demarcates how the various principles that vie for power in ourselves (and in our solar system, timed to didactic cosmic clockworks) can negotiate a balance that works to preserve rather than destroy life and living beings.
Here's an idea: instead of the principals debating their stories (which will never happen), let's have accredited news professionals debate the evidence on prime time over several nights, if necessary, to generate public support through disclosure of the facts, leaving no doubt on any issue and hope the public outcry will finally get congress to act, or at least the attorney general to file appropriate charges, if any, so that justice may be served. One way or the other, we can get on to the next drama.
JohnT - great idea. My little jot about a debate among principals was half sarcastic, half wishful thinking. However, yours has great merit. Which news outlet would pick up such an undertaking - and how would the mainstream propaganda machine be forced to cover the results?
President Cheney has destroyed Appalachia to the point we are www.wisecountyissues.com Third World America. Greedy Bastard !
It is truly telling that Scott Ritter's piece appears in a UK news source instead of an American one. Of course, the corporate media wants to run and hide from it's complicity in this fiasco of epic and historic proportions. Dick Cheney must really live in a bubble, truly believe his bile, or be so cynical as to spout obvious BS in a vain attempt to at least spin the few remaining nimrods who actually still buy the lie. It is an odd world that someone of Ritter's background and prior political leanings (quite Republican before this mess) has become the Kassandra (I am referencing the character from the Illiad) who is unafraid to speak bluntly to power.
www.wunderman-comics.com