In his recent book entitled "Against All Enemies," Richard
Clarke, the Bush administration's counterterrorism adviser for over
two years, alleges that the President gave the elimination of Saddam
Hussein regime higher priority than the elimination of Al Qaida, that
he asked for evidence of Saddam's involvement in 9/11, and insisted
on finding nuclear, chemical and biological weapons in Iraq.
The White House contradicted Clarke's story and characterized him as
embittered by his demotion from cabinet level status and motivated by
political ambitions. Whom should the American people now believe, Clarke
or the White House? A look at some of the administration's own pronouncements
helps answer this question.
"There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass
destruction," Vice President Cheney asserted on August 26, 2002.
On October 2, the President himself insisted: "The Iraqi regime
is a threat of unique urgency … It has developed weapons of mass
death." On October 7, when he described the alleged Iraqi threat,
the President was adamant: "Facing clear evidence of peril, we
cannot wait for final proof--the smoking gun--that could come in the
form of a mushroom cloud." Later, on July 13, 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld
confirmed: "We said they had a nuclear program. That was never
any debate."
Yet, on February 5, 2004, CIA Director Tenet testified that the intelligence
community "never said there was an 'imminent threat'".
When British Prime Minister Blair fabricated a story about Iraqi purchases
of yellowcake from Niger, Mr. Bush promptly repeated it in his State
of the Union address on January 23, 2003: "Saddam Hussein recently
sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."
In September 2002, Messrs. Bush, Cheney, Powell, and Rumsfeld at separate
occasions told us that Saddam had chemical and biological weapons. On
March 30, 2003, Rumsfeld was very specific: "We know where they
are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south,
and north somewhat."
Yet, on October 5, 2003, weapons inspector David Kay told members of
Congress: "Iraq's large-scale capability to develop, produce, and
fill new CW munitions was reduced--if not entirely destroyed--during
Operation Desert Storm and Desert Fox, 13 years of UN sanctions and
UN inspections."
In his address to the United Nations on February 5, 2003, Secretary
Powell spoke of "ample evidence that Iraq has dedicated much effort
to developing and testing spray devices that could be adapted to UAVs
[unmanned aerial vehicles]." Yet, David Kay saw no "existing
deployment capability at that point for any sort of systematic military
attack."
On May 29, 2003, Mr. Bush told the President of Poland: "We found
biological laboratories. … They are illegal. They are against United
Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two." On March
5, 2004, however, David Kay explained that the trailers containing biological
laboratories "were actually designed to produce hydrogen for weather
balloons, or perhaps to produce rocket fuel."
In his January 28, 2003, State of the Union address, the President had
declared that "evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications,
and statements by people now in custody reveal Saddam Hussein aids and
protects terrorists, including members of al Qaida." Yet, The New
York Times found "At C.I.A., many analysts believed that Mr. bin
Laden saw Mr. Hussein as one of the corrupt secular Arab leaders who
should be toppled." The F.B.I., moreover, discovered that, at the
date of the alleged Prague meeting between "a senior Iraqi official"
and 9/11 lead attacker Mohammed Atta, the latter was actually in Virginia
Beach.
The House Committee on Government Reform produced a compilation of "misleading
statements" made by Messrs. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Powell,
as well as by their parrot, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice.
It shows that "in 125 separate appearances, they made 11 misleading
statements about the urgency of Iraq's threat, 81 misleading statements
about Iraq's nuclear activities, 84 misleading statements about Iraq's
chemical and biological capabilities, and 61 misleading statements about
Iraq's relationship with al Qaida."
There is ample evidence to sustain Richard Clarke's claims about the
confusion, the delusions, and the mistakes that have been frustrating
the foreign and defense policies of the Bush White House.