[Straw casts new doubt on WMD hunt] Dr. David Kelly

[Kellanved]

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has cast fresh doubt on whether weapons of mass destruction would be discovered by British and US forces in Iraq.

He admitted that he could not be certain what would be found by the Iraq Survey Group, which is leading the hunt for Saddam Hussein's banned chemical and biological warfare programmes.

"I can't say precisely what will be discovered. No one can say that," he told BBC1's Breakfast with Frost programme.

His comments came as the Government was facing intense pressure from the Hutton Inquiry's investigation into the death of the Ministry of Defence weapons expert Dr David Kelly.

...
http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0200nationalnews/content_objectid=13354390_method=full_siteid=50002_headline=-Dr-David-Kelly-name_page.html

[joshdawg]

1. This is news that most of us already knew a long time ago.

Thanks for the post.

[donco6]

2. So, let me get this straight . . .

We were so sure there *were* WMDs in Iraq that we had to rush in there and "remove Saddam."

Now they "don't know what they'll find"? Well, they need to find the 45-minute ICBMs, the tons and tons of Sarin, the distribution mechanisms, refined uranium and plutonium, etc.

That's what they *won't* find, however. All they will find is bombed out buildings, no water, no electricity, and a populace ready to string up the lot.

[bvar22]

4. They also need to find....

...level five bio-labs. Secure research, weapons development, and bio-safe storage facilities... not to mention the infrastructure to develop, manufacture, upgrade, store, and test nuclear weapons. And then there are all the components necessary to develop, test, store, upgrade, maintain and DEPLOY the sophisticated systems necessary to DELIVER these weapons on an intercontinental basis.

[donco6]

6. Maybe there was more under that rose bush . . .

. . . or under a whole LOTTA rose bushes.

Bush Lied - plain and simple.

[VolcanoJen]

5. Fuckin' A Skippy, donco6!

Well put. Thank you for that. :-)

[donco6]

7. Don't you wish there was a way to . . .

. . . secretly drop off Shrub and his ilk right in the middle of Baghdad with no protection, and send out messages to everyone saying, "these are the guys responsible."

They'd be selling pieces as souvenirs in a few minutes, I'd think.

NOT THAT I WOULD IN ANY WAY EVER EVEN THINK OF THREATENING ANYONE - THIS IS JUST A WHAT IF, SILLY, IMPOSSIBLE SCENARIO FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY. THANK YOU, MR. ASHCROFT.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

8. "45 minute ICBM's" weren't actually that ...

John Scarlett -- the Chair of the Joint Intelligence Committee (basically the guy who directs intelligence from Mi5, SIS, GCHQ & DIS to number 10 & the cabinet) -- revealed in his testimony to the Hutton inquiry this week that the 45 minute claim

"related to munitions, which we had interpreted to mean battlefield mortar shells or small calibre weaponry, quite different from missiles."

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/hearing_trans_19.htm

real friggin' scary stuff, given that the claim came from hearsay:

"This was a report from a single source. It was an established and reliable line of reporting; and it was quoting a senior Iraqi military officer in a position to know this information." (also John Scarlett)

http://www.the-hutton-inquiry.org.uk/content/hearing_trans_18.htm

God I hate my Government(!)

[goforit]

3. They really want to go down the hard way!!!

So be it!!!