Reply #4: Too bad this was dropped down the Memory Hole in the USA

[LynnTheDem]

Coz it was very widely read in the rest of the world and tens of thousands of people would still be alive today;

Arms Control Today June 2000
The Case for Iraq's Qualitative Disarmament

"Given the comprehensive nature of the monitoring regime put in place by UNSCOM, which included a strict export-import control regime, it was possible as early as 1997 to determine that, from a qualitative standpoint, Iraq had been disarmed. Iraq no longer possessed any meaningful quantities of chemical or biological agent, if it possessed any at all, and the industrial means to produce these agents had either been eliminated or were subject to stringent monitoring."

http://www.armscontrol.org/act/2000_06/iraqjun.asp

And of course Rumsfeld admitted the US had had no fresh intelligence prior to 1998 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq before going to war.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,995042,00.html

The bipartisan Senate House Intelligence Committee report backs Rummy up on that;

"Most of the information was collected before 1998, when U.N. weapons inspectors left Iraq because the United States had made it clear it was about to strike the country", the two members noted.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A19528-2003Sep29¬Found=true

And of course the IAEA said flat out that Iraq had NO NUKES PERIOD.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0%2C2763%2C882074%2C00.html

In Cairo, on February 24 2001, Powell said: "He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbours."

On May 15 2001, Powell went further and said that Saddam Hussein had "not been able to build his military back up or to develop weapons of mass destruction" for "the last 10 years".

America, he said, had been successful in keeping him "in a box". Ie, the sanctions were working.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/28/iraq/main575469.shtml

Two months later, Condoleezza Rice also described a weak, divided and militarily defenceless Iraq. "Saddam does not control the northern part of the country," she said. "We are able to keep his arms from him. His military forces have not been rebuilt."

http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0107/29/le.00.html

Seven Months Before 9/11, CIA Director George Tenet, testified before Congress that Iraq posed no immediate threat to the United States or to other countries in the Middle East and that they had no new evidence Iraq had or was acquiring WMD

http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/LEO306F.html

And of course if bush hadn't KICKED OUT the weapons inspectors before they were allowed to finish their work, we wouldn't have needed any invasion at all.