No one seems to be writing opinion pieces quite the way I would, so I decided to do it myself.

The name? Taverns are places where one goes to discuss the interesting events and things in the world, so this is my tavern.

I will offer my views on politics, economics, and whatever else strikes my fancy.
I will occasionally publish the entire article from another journal for purposes of causing discussion.

 

DIA - 2002 - No Evidence Iraq has WMDs

CBS News
(CBS/AP) The U.S. Defense Department's intelligence service reported last September that it had no reliable evidence that Iraq had chemical agents in weaponized form, officials said Friday.

The skeptical study's release in September coincided with Bush administration efforts to mount a public case for the urgency of disarming Iraq, by force if necessary.

Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and others argued that Saddam Hussein possessed chemical, biological and other weapons and was hiding them.

Two months after major fighting in Iraq ended, U.S. officials have yet to find any chemical or other mass-killing weapons, although they still express confidence that some will turn up.

Despite searches at some 300 sites, and the capture of several high-ranking Iraqis, no evidence has turned up. Two suspected mobile biological weapons factories were found, but showed no sign of having been used to create weapons.

More CBS News In London, British Prime Minister Tony Blair took it on the chin, as leaders of the British Parliament handed down some vicious jabs.

“The Prime Minister misled Parliament and the country in the run-up to the war,” said Conservative Leader Duncan Smith. “Nobody believes a word now that the Prime Minister is saying.”

Meanwhile, overseas at the Pentagon, officials found themselves fending off accusations from reporters that they had ordered up tailor-made intelligence findings to justify the Iraqi invasion. U.S. government officials flatly deny any such action

Now critics are questioning whether the intelligence about such weapons was exaggerated as a justification for the three-week war.

In the U.S., the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is investigating. In the British Parliament, a similar probe is underway. And CIA Director George Tenet has ordered an internal review of his own operatives by retired intelligence analysts.

Also at issue is the degree to which Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld relied upon a small, Pentagon-based cell of intelligence analysts independent of the CIA.

The investigations could produce more than the usual finger-pointing, as there’s something bigger than blame at stake, that being whether the U.S. intelligence gathering apparatus was politically pressured to see things that weren't there and say things that weren't so.

Congress was stampeded into authorizing war in Viet Nam because of the lie about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. This is no different.
posted by Richard at 3:36 PM