Just kidding

[Insp. Clue!So?]

Personally, I think it is high treason to lead a nation off to war under false pretenses.

Is the penalty for Treason still hanging? Just curious...

From: http://billmon.org.v.sabren.com/archives/000172.html

What a Tangled Web We Weave . . .
. . . when first we practice to deceive!


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.
--Defense Policy Board member Kenneth Adelman
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

[Jimbo]

"Personally, I think it is high treason to lead a nation off to war under false pretenses."

You certainly have pretty low standards and quite an imagination if you think declaring war on Iraq was treasonous. If anything it was the exact opposite. Below is the constitutional definition of treason:

"Whereas it is essential to the preservation of liberty to define precisely and exclusively what shall constitute the crime of Treason, it is therefore ordained, declared & established, that if a man do levy war agst. the U.S. within their territories, or be adherent to the enemies of the U. S. within the said territories, giving them aid and comfort within their territories or elsewhere, and thereof be provably attainted of open deed by the People of his condition, he shall be adjudged guilty of Treason."

So it seems it might have been treason not to go to war with Iraq.

[John Cole]

I love the last statement. In other words, for bureaucratic reasons, we may have just as well invaded Iraq for its bad architecture.

John

[MMMMMM]

The guy had weapons of mass destruction, but he suddenly turned into a saint and unilaterally destroyed them all after kicking out the U.N. inspectors. All the Iraqi exiles are of course lying. The mobile labs recently found were for civilian research purposes, and the trailer trucks just found with self-contained germ lab production facilities were really used to develop highly nutritious formula for animals in the Baghdad Zoo.

There were many good reasons to invade Iraq, and casualties were probably the lowest of any war in modern history, and even the Iraqi people are glad to be rid of Saddam--but those who engineered this good deed committed treason. And since we haven't yet found the proverbial smoking gun, time's up!-- so we can safely assume there isn't one.

[Chris Alger]

“the threats posed by Iraq are very serious and rapidly growing. If nothing is actively done, soon organized terrorists will possess biological wmd along with the means to deliver them on our soil (and much of this will be courtesy of Iraq). Containing Iraq is a great idea but Saddam is developing and producing these weapons even as inspections are going on.”
MMMMMM, from "This is naive" 2/6/3

Why don't you (1) admit that you didn't have a clue about Iraqi WMD or (2) tell us all where they're at?

[MMMMMM]

I already posted where they likely are: buried in the Bekaa valley 100 meters deep under freshly planted groves. Syria needs to turn over the GPS coordinates of the exact spot.

[Chris Alger]

If you can tell that the groves are "freshly planted," then why don't you provide the exact location?

[MMMMMM]

Among lots and lots and lots of other freshly planted groves.

You guys give all the benefit of the doubt to the worst people in the entire world--I can't understand why.

[nicky g]

The weapons inspectors were never kicked out; they withdrew in 1998 after concluding Iraq was not cooperatin fully. This was after the spying scandal when the UN admitted that some of the insspectors had been passing their findings on to US and Israeli intelligence.

All but one of the high profile defectors said that the weapons programme was stopped in the mid-90s.

[MMMMMM]

It's hard for me to believe that anyone could believe that Saddam, on his own, renounced WMD programs. It would be sort of like Castro suddenly deciding to become a free-speech activist.

Besides, numerous reports from Iraqi exiles conflict with that claim. I've seen many reports or quotes from exiles saying he has WMD; none saying the opposite.