23 April 2016 12:01 am
President Barack Obama has observed, “ISIL [Islamic State] is a direct outgrowth of Al Qaeda in Iraq that grew out of our invasion -- which is an example of unintended consequences -- which is why we should generally aim before we shoot”.
The so-called “justification” for going to war in Iraq 13 years ago was based on a 93-page classified CIA document that allegedly contained “specific information” on Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction programmes and his close links with Al Qaeda.
The document that has now been declassified thanks to the work of the investigative journalist, John Greenewald. His findings have just been published in the on-line magazine, VICE.
The document, before published with a large number of deletions, is available for everyone to read in its entirety. It reveals that there was zero justification for the war. It reveals that there was “no operational tie between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda” and no weapons of mass destruction programs.
President George W. Bush’s Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, claimed that the US had “bulletproof evidence” linking Saddam Hussein to the terrorist group. “We do have solid evidence of the presence of Al Qaeda members in Iraq. We have what we consider to be very reliable reporting of senior-level contacts going back a decade, and of possible chemical and biological-agent training”.
The CIA’s National Intelligence Estimate report takes a very different line. The document observes that its information about a working relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein was based on “sources of
varying reliability”.
“As with much of the information on the overall relationship we do not know to what extent Baghdad may be actively complicit in this use of its territory for safe haven and transit”.
One example is that the CIA report concluded that Iraq “probably has renovated a vaccine production plant to manufacture biological weapons, but we are unable to determine whether biological weapons research has resumed”. The report also said that Hussein did not have “sufficient material” to manufacture nuclear weapons. But on October 7, 2002, in a speech in Cincinnati, Ohio, President Bush simply said, Iraq “possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons” and “the evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons programme”.
Another example is Rumsfeld’s claim to have “bulletproof evidence” on Al Qaeda’s link with Saddam Hussein. “We have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of Al Qaeda members.”
But the CIA report’s information about Iraq’s supposed working relationship with Al Qaeda and Iraq concluded that it was not at all clear that Saddam Hussein had even been aware of the relationship, if in fact there were one.” Congress’ later investigation concluded that the intelligence community based its claims on a single source.
The RAND study also concluded that the report was wrong on mobile biological labs, uranium ore purchases from Niger and Iraq building rocket delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction.
Yes, aim before you shoot. And don’t tell such terrible lies.