Untitled Document
George Bush, yesterday:
| "I wanted people to see the truth and thought it made sense for people
to see the truth. And that's why I declassified the document." |
But, although it was at almost exactly the same time, strangely enough George's
desire for people to "see the truth" didn't extend to another
document:
On May 29, 2003, 50 days after the fall of Baghdad, President Bush
proclaimed a fresh victory for his administration in Iraq: Two small trailers
captured by U.S. and Kurdish troops had turned out to be long-sought mobile
"biological laboratories." He declared, "We have found
the weapons of mass destruction."
The claim, repeated by top administration officials for months afterward,
was hailed at the time as a vindication of the decision to go to war.
But even as Bush spoke, U.S. intelligence officials possessed powerful
evidence that it was not true.
A secret fact-finding mission to Iraq -- not made public until now --
had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological
weapons. Leaders of the Pentagon-sponsored mission transmitted their unanimous
findings to Washington in a field report on May 27, 2003, two days before
the president's statement.
The three-page field report and a 122-page final report three weeks later
were stamped "secret" and shelved. Meanwhile, for nearly a year,
administration and intelligence officials continued to publicly assert
that the trailers were weapons factories.
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Two things to note about that, aside from the obvious. First of all, it was
obvious from day one that this story was false. Not just that a real weapons
facility wouldn't be a "weapon of mass destruction," but the entire
original claim (e.g., as presented by Colin Powell at the U.N.) posited sets
of three trailers, each accomplishing a different part of the task. But the
two captured trailers were identical, and each lacking the other two trailers.
There were also, as I remember it, no traces whatsoever of any relevant chemicals
or biological agents. In short, there was no reason whatsoever to believe these
were intended to make biological weapons. None. That didn't prevent the media
from dutifully repeating the claims of the government.
And the second is the "deathbed conversion" aspect of the story:
| The authors of the reports were nine U.S. and British civilian experts
-- scientists and engineers with extensive experience in all the technical
fields involved in making bioweapons -- who were dispatched to Baghdad by
the Defense Intelligence Agency for an analysis of the trailers. Their actions
and findings were described to a Washington Post reporter in interviews
with six government officials and weapons experts who participated in the
mission or had direct knowledge of it. None would consent to being identified
by name because of fear that their jobs would be jeopardized. |
If they weren't going to consent to be identified, why didn't they speak up
in June, 2003? It's not like this information should have ever been classified
in the first place. The analysis of an alleged bioweapons facility which was
concluded unequivocally to be not a bioweapons facility could
hardly contain any kind of national security information. The only security
information it contained was job security information for George Bush and his
cronies. And, knowing that, these six people kept silent for nearly three years
while more than a hundred thousand people died.
The Washington Post ran this story on page one. The report it describes
is still classified. Does the Post editorially call for its declassification?
Not today, anyway.
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