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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (147531)	10/10/2004 8:16:50 PM
From: Michael Watkins	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Sorry...you pbviously did not read the report carefully You got me! You are right... I clearly have not read the report carefully. No, to date I've skimmed quickly through big sections of Volume 1, and spent far more time reading volume 2 and 3. I estimate that I've read word for word only approximately 1/3 of the total report. It took quite a while to download the report and print it; I am using a combination of keyword searching the PDF documents to jump to key sections, following up with page by page reading to get a sense for the nature of the entire report. One of my conclusions -- there is a ton of conjecture in the report, especially so in the "Key Findings" summary document. They could have saved themselves the trouble and simply stated "Saddam was a bad man, and if he was ever left alone to his own devices, without international supervision and in-country inspectors, he would want to get back all his bad toys if he could." Anyway, I've been making notes along the way. Have you? Want to share? Here's the bottom line in what I've read -- despite "wanting to" get or develop weapons -- of all types, not just nuclear, chemical or biological WMD, Saddam's capability to do so at the outset of Operation Iraqi Freedom was substantially less than than it was before 1991. Key points: - Saddam himself terminated Iraq's nuclear WMD program in 1991. No credible evidence was found to indicate that Saddam ever attempted to restart this program. Not ever. - Iraq unilaterally destroyed any remaining chemical weapons stockpile in 1991, and as far as I have read in Volume 2, as well as in the report summary, no credible evidence points to Iraq restarting its chemical munitions program. Not ever. - In the mid 1990's any prior focus on biological WMD was discontinued; a production facility was scrapped; and the investigators could find no directive that suggested Iraq or Saddam were pursuing biological weapons since that time. So yes, you are right, Saddam was a sworn enemy. But he was a completely toothless enemy, as the CIA itself has confirmed. If you don't believe me I suggest that you read the report.