Admit WMD mistake, survey chief tells Bush

[The_Bearded_Liberal]

David Kay, the man who led the CIA's postwar effort to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, has called on the Bush administration to "come clean with the American people" and admit it was wrong about the existence of the weapons.

More...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1160842,00.html

[Lindsay]

1. David Kay gets it.

I despair at the notion that the (mis)administration ever will.

[darkstar]

2. I look forward to Hannity

talking about his good friend--and "respected seeker of truth," as he was calling him last summer--David Kay all day tomorrow. The butterflies are such that I don't think I can even eat until I hear Hannity address this most troublesome issue. Personally, I fear Saddam Loyalists must have gotten to Kay somehow.

[Barrett808]

33. kick n/t

n/t

[joeunderdog]

3. This has GOT TO HURT!!! Unfortunately, it's only asking the obvious:

What don't we understand about "They aren't there"? We are investigating what again?

Forget about asking where's the WMD's. This is what I'm wanting to know...Where's the outrage by Bush? Where's the sense of betrayal? Where's the demand to get an explanation on his desk with names and responsible parties by monday? Where are the firings?

Shrub isn't going to like this statement by Kay. His investigation is merely a stalling tactic so that he doesn't have to actually admit it before the election. This is EXACTLY what he didn't want to talk about. Love it.

[Nevernose]

7. You're confusing WMDs

With Janet Jackson's breast. Common mistake, especially at higher levels of government.

[Robin Hood]

27. Ahhh, Thank you grasshopper.

You are very wise. Janets breasts do come first.

[JoFerret]

4. Fess up Georgie boy

your porkie pies stink.

[saltpoint]

5. It's not very good news for the administration when --

-- someone as solid and capable as David Kay indicates that the rationale for pre-emptive war on Iraq was a lie.

The Bush Administration gets beat up on DU and other sites not because Democrats are bullies, but because the Bush Administration is guilty of bad government.

I can't imagine Chuck Hagel or Olympia Snowe making the same sort of hostile, divisive decisions as Bush & Co.

This administration embarrasses good Republicans and infuriates us.

There will be a regime change in Washington in November.

[darkstar]

6. Somebody w/ an alias at Freeptown

please drop this turdlet into their party punch over there. Just days before the Kay Report came out, they were wetting themselves over the prospects of vindication via this guy's investigation.

[TolstoyAndy]

10. Mmmm - punch

Darkstar, I love your phraseology there.

But when I saw the headline I thought:

"No George, dont admit you were wrong -
it's much better for us bc it makes you look insane
(which you are). Stick to your lies in the face of the truth so more people can see you for the Wormtongue you are".

It's a win-win: Mark Crispin Miller's "Dyslexicon" has analyzed:
A) * will be totally insincere + incoherent if he does admit he was wrong
or
B) * will not admit he was wrong, bc he just can't!
It's not in his prep-school-entitlement nature or experience.

Me, I love it.

I'm in IL and I'm still voting Kucinich, btw.

[BadGimp]

12. done :)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1089526/posts

Thanks for the inspiration!

[darkstar]

13. Thanx for the cast iron stomach!

Going for a peek right now. Bet they savage the guy.

[BadGimp]

14. 8 posts already :)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1089526/posts

Freerepublic is located on a river. Unfortunately for them its that river over in Egypt, you know the one: Denial

[Eureka]

15. I'm calling the SPCA

Posting that was cruel :-)

The poor dears are having a fit trying to work this one out.

[lovedems]

16. LOL!

Some want Kay to just go away, others think we will still find WMD's and some, LOL, want dissenters in the bu$h administration driven out of the country! What a pathetic group!

[darkstar]

17. And number 8 was full of lovely sentiments,

was it not?

PS: Started thread in GD. Not sure if we're supposed to hijack LBN news threads w/ evil hijinx such as these.

[Zero Gravitas]

19. Thoe poor poor freepers

"That was why the democrats, french, and germans stalled for 6 months until they had a chance to move them into Iran and Syria."

"I believe that kay is a democrat or communist plant.

"David Kay should shut up and go away." :nopity:

"If manage this right- the term "WMD" won't even come up during the first debate or the election season." :D

"I wouldn't be surprised if the Clinton's didn't go over there at that time and personally help with the cover up." :eyes:

[Darkseid69]

23. They are like the mafia over there

To: Galtoid
There is something so weird about this whole issue

There is something weird about David Kay.

Why doesn't he go away? What business is it of his what the Bush administration does?

This guy is getting on my nerves. He couldn't be more subversive if he tried. Like Joe Wilson, he's a backstabber whom the administration trusted and who turned on them.

He may have to be knee-capped.
8 posted on 03/02/2004 8:05:26 PM PST by sinkspur (Adopt a dog or a cat from an animal shelter! It will save one life, and may save two.)

[Art_from_Ark]

20. Actually, FR is located at the confluence of Denial

and Shit Creek

[BadGimp]

24. hehehe

.

52 posts and counting

[salin]

29. no kidding... so far in my read.. most common response

SINCE the WH won't admit they were wrong... Am convinced they must KNOW that they are right and we will FIND WMDS.

Go figure :shrug:

[DS1]

21. BANNED!!

:hi:

http://www.freerepublic.com/~leftcoastrons/

[BigBigBear]

26. This one's my favorite

"Kay is pulling a McCain. He likes the limelight."

LOL ! Kay was hired BY BUSH to look for WMD, and he did the job he was told to do. Evidently telling the truth has become a badge of disloyalty and ego-driven grandstanding for these bobnogs.

I swear, every time I go out there, I'm impressed with the craven smallmindedness of that crowd. Everything is possible EXCEPT that Bush sold the country and the Congress on war with Iraq over lies and hyperbole. To these people, ANYTHING ELSE is likelier than that. Wow.

[0007]

31. Why don't you drop this turdlet - you can get a alias at freepville

[AtTheEndOfTheDay]

8. Too little, too late.

[maggrwaggr]

9. That's a start. Now if they'll admit the real reasons:

Three reasons we invaded Iraq:

From a DIA analyst who was there:

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/13/news-cooper.php

(snip)
One of those reasons is that sanctions and containment were working and everybody pretty much knew it. Many companies around the world were preparing to do business with Iraq in anticipation of a lifting of sanctions. But the U.S. and the U.K. had been bombing northern and southern Iraq since 1991. So it was very unlikely that we would be in any kind of position to gain significant contracts in any post-sanctions Iraq. And those sanctions were going to be lifted soon, Saddam would still be in place, and we would get no financial benefit.
The second reason has to do with our military-basing posture in the region. We had been very dissatisfied with our relations with Saudi Arabia, particularly the restrictions on our basing. And also there was dissatisfaction from the people of Saudi Arabia. So we were looking for alternate strategic locations beyond Kuwait, beyond Qatar, to secure something we had been searching for since the days of Carter — to secure the energy lines of communication in the region. Bases in Iraq, then, were very important — that is, if you hold that is America’s role in the world. Saddam Hussein was not about to invite us in.
The last reason is the conversion, the switch Saddam Hussein made in the Food for Oil program, from the dollar to the euro. He did this, by the way, long before 9/11, in November 2000 — selling his oil for euros. The oil sales permitted in that program aren’t very much. But when the sanctions would be lifted, the sales from the country with the second largest oil reserves on the planet would have been moving to the euro.
The U.S. dollar is in a sensitive period because we are a debtor nation now. Our currency is still popular, but it’s not backed up like it used to be. If oil, a very solid commodity, is traded on the euro, that could cause massive, almost glacial, shifts in confidence in trading on the dollar. So one of the first executive orders that Bush signed in May <2003> switched trading on Iraq’s oil back to the dollar.
(snip)

[Martin Eden]

11. There was NO mistake.

To call on the Bush administration to admit they made a mistake about Iraqi WMD is to assume they actually believed Iraq possessed a threatening arsenal, and that their decision to invade was based on that belief.

I don't believe either of these assumptions for a second.

The conquest of Iraq had been a decade-long goal of the neocons who siezed the reigns of Bush foreign policy. The decision to invade was made as soon as 9/11 gave them the opportunity to go forward, then their propaganda machine went into high gear to hype the WMD threat.

Their only mistake was caving in to the State Department by going through the UN. When it was becoming apparent the inspectors under Hans Blix would soon find exactly what David Kay eventually found, they had to invade before the WMD pretext evaporated.

That was a bit of a close call, but the American public stayed on board and a majority still supports the war despite the bloody quagmire and the absence of WMD.

I wouldn't characterize that as a mistake.

It was an incredibly successful coup.

It was a crime, and an impeachable offense.

But not a mistake, from their point of view, when you consider their goals and the fact they got away with it.

Even if they get voted out in November, we are in Iraq for the long haul ... unless Kucinich, Sharpton, or Nader becomes the next president.

Kerry will smooth things over with "old Europe", and is much less likely to launch the other Mideast invasions the neocons drool over, but I think they can count on a long term U.S. military presence in Iraq and control of the oil.

[Disturbed]

18. Crime

I wouldn't characterize that as a mistake.

It was an incredibly successful coup.

It was a crime, and an impeachable offense.

The above bears repeating.

Unfortunately they will not be prosecuted for it, not censured nor impeached.

Why not? The sheep are grazing on other food.

Hopefully, they will be voted out.

[Poiuyt]

22. The CIA made us invade!

That's what bush will say if he does admit mistake. "It wasn't my fault...the CIA said they were going to attack us!"

[NNN0LHI]

28. And if that don't work he can blame it on Clinton like everything else n/t

[Jack Rabbit]

25. Bush won't come clean

Bush thinks that always being right is part of his mistique. He cannot admit to error.

Moreover, to admit that he was wrong opens up the can of worms of how he and his aides could have been so wrong. Of course. they are trying to blame this on the intelligence community. However, too many people have been paying enough attention to know that the OSP's mission was to distort intelligence, not to use it properly.

Sooner or later, that story will come out. Bush had to know that Saddam was a paper tiger with nothing to do with Osama.

[papau]

30. continued evasion create public cynicism about the administration's motive

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1160842,00.html

"In an interview with the Guardian, Mr Kay said the administration's reluctance to make that admission was delaying essential reforms of US intelligence agencies, and further undermining its credibility at home and abroad.

He welcomed the creation of a bipartisan commission to investigate prewar intelligence on Iraq, and said the wide-ranging US investigation was much more likely to get to the truth than the Butler inquiry in Britain. That, he noted, had "so many limitations it's going to be almost impossible" to come to meaningful conclusions.

Mr Kay, 63, a former nuclear weapons inspector, provoked uproar at the end of January when he told the Senate that "we were almost all wrong" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction (WMD). <snip>

However, Mr Kay said that continued evasion would create public cynicism about the administration's motives .....<snip>"

this will never be in the US media!

[Malva Zebrina]

32. no mistake

Kay is being kind to Bush--he is not about to say that Bush coveted Iraq and the slaughter done in our name was done entirely with the knowledge that Saddam had no WMD. We would have to be fools to believe that this extraordinary rich country would not have better intelligence than a tiny country somewhere off in the rain forest. But it appears we are to believe that--our intelligence services are no better than that of the smallest countries. We are to believe that they are naive, stupid, lazy and theu failed to protect us from 9-11 and they did not give truthful intellegence to the UN. What a bunch of doofuses in the CIA, eh? I do not believe it for one minute. The CIA is supporting Bush

It looks as though the CIA is willing to be the whipping boy, also.

Bush has successfully turned around the first reasons he and all the others foisted upon us when he shocked and awed--that title just turns my stomach.--

he has done it-and done it well-no one called him on it.

No one-over time-we went from Saddam having WMD, to Saddam thinking about a WMD program, to Saddam would have been a threat to the US if we did not invade and kill ten thousand Iraqi citizens. And no one called him on it. No one.

Bush is quite used to it. He will demand, and probably get the same from them all no matter what egregious war crimes and atrocities he commits in the future. I believe that. There is some hold on people I have yet to discover what.

I gave up expecting anyone to have any integrity or honor. Under the coward in chief, all stops are pulled as he invisions himself the Machiavellian conquorer, Christian sword in hand

--and how do I know? Maybe they all do -- maybe Kerry does too. He voted for the slaughter when it was the politically expedient thing to do--and look--he has been rewarded for that -- I don't see him apologizing or admitting he was wrong.

The country is broken