Clinton believed Iraq had WMD

[GRClarkesq]

January 9, 2004 - 2:05PM

Former US president Bill Clinton said in October during a visit to Portugal that he was convinced Iraq had weapons of mass destruction up until the fall of Saddam Hussein, Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso said.

"When Clinton was here recently he told me he was absolutely convinced, given his years in the White House and the access to privileged information which he had, that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction until the end of the Saddam regime," he said in an interview with Portuguese cable news channel SIC Noticias.

http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/09/1073437458359.html

[zbdent]

1. And every right-winger believed that everything Clinton said was a lie

so why should they be quoting him now?

If I wrote a fictional account of a historical even, but portrayed it as the truth, and it was widely outed as fiction, why should researchers still use my work as a reference to back up their assertion of what happened?

This is why I think it hilarious that they are stating "Yeah, but Clinton said that Saddam had WMDs, so there!" They are now touting him as someone who was speaking the truth, after all those years of claiming that he couldn't tell the truth to save his life. Now they're banking on Clinton's "truth" to back up their own failure of intelligence.

[StClone]

2. Yeah so

He knew we (Bush/Reagan) sold them to them and that was during the 90's during the early inspections and removal.

Even at that, Big Dog didn't grab a big stick and invade Iraq when he thought Saddam had them. He was content to occasional raids and economic restrain (which were very bad for Iraq).

This dog will not hunt and comes to you via the Corporate Sponsored GOP disconnecter/spin machine.

[wingnut]

3. No suprise

He's said so repeatedly over the last several years.

[MsUnderstood]

4. Yes, but did he start WWIII to verify WMD?

The difference between Clinton and Bush is that even though Clinton may have thought WMDs existed, he would not have violated international law in order to find the WMD.

Instead he would have support the UNs attempts to control Iraq through sanctions.

Bush on the other hand decides he is bored decimating Afghanistan and moves into Iraq with such bold claims as "Sadam is a terrosist" (show me the connections) and "WMD exist" (where?) and "If we don't strike first they will" (with what?).

Sadam was so busy terrorizing his own people and laundering their money that he didn't have time to bother the US.

[d_ashley]

9. although...

clinton did fire 2,000 missles into iraq

[GRClarkesq]

5. It would be interesting

to replay some Clinton era quotes from rightwing types dismissing the reports of Iraqi WMDs.

Can anyone point to any links or other info?

[StClone]

6. Like

"Terrorism is the number one threat to America."

Did BushCo listen to that especially after security meetings prior to Bush's WH takeover eminently warned them of that?

[d_ashley]

8. here are some of clinton's quotes

What if Saddam Hussein "fails to comply, and we fail to act, or we take some ambiguous third route which gives him yet more opportunities to develop his program of weapons of mass destruction and continue to press for the release of the sanctions and continue to ignore the solemn commitments that he made? Well, he will conclude that the international community has lost its will. He will then conclude that he can go right on and do more to rebuild an arsenal of devastating destruction."


"If Saddam Hussein fails to comply and we fail to act or we take some ambiguous third route, which gives him yet more opportunities to develop his program of weapons of mass destruction...he will then conclude that he can go right on doing more to build an arsenal of devastating destruction.... Some way, someday, I guarantee you he'll use the arsenal."


- President Bill Clinton on February 18, 1998 speaking at the Pentagon

[papau]

7. Bush changed something that is an opinion into a fact - Clinton didn't

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=306228

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/politics/politics-iraq-usa-weapons.html

Questions About Iraq Weapons Haunt U.S. Election Year
By REUTERS


Filed at 0:46 a.m. ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The failure to find Iraqi weapons of mass destruction looks set to dog the Bush administration in an election year amid persistent accusations it exaggerated evidence in making a case for war.

The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a liberal-leaning U.S. think tank, issued a report on Thursday that compared public and declassified intelligence information with statements made by administration officials.It concluded that the administration made the threat from Iraq sound more dire than the underlying information.<snip>

Mathews said this was an example of how a possibility cited by the inspectors became a likelihood and then a stockpile in Bush's speech.<snip>

(Joseph Cirincione)”In that process they changed something that is an opinion into a fact, and they consistently did this,'' he said at a briefing on the report.<snip>

Former CIA Director Stansfield Turner said he was in general agreement with the Carnegie presentation, and that he believed no Iraqi weapons of mass destruction had been found for several reasons.
``A combination of the intelligence people overestimating what was there, policy people exaggerating the intelligence estimates, combined with the fact that the inspections and destruction by the U.N. from '91 to '98 eliminated a lot of these and made it very difficult for the Iraqis to start it up again because they couldn't get the materials or the equipment,'' he told Reuters.

[GRClarkesq]

10. The Clinton quotes allow Bush to spin that lack of WMDs

as an "intelligence failure" that originated before his administration.

Of course, a serving of cold "WMD Suprise" may yet be served.

[rock]

11. So, he was wrong

too.

[stopbush]

12. Wasn't Rumsfeld one of the people telling Clinton that Iraq had WMD?

I know that the PNAC urged Clinton to follow the course bush took but he said no (here: http://www.sundayherald.com/32185). But I recall reading somewhere earlier this year that even though Rummy wasn't in power he was somehow providing Clinton with "expert" opinion on the Middle East.

I'll do some research.

Here's Rummy's PNAC letter to Clinton from 1998:
www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm

[Dr Fate]

13. Did Clinton ever present false WMD documents?

Did Clinton ever present plagerized dossiers or edited audio tapes? Bush did.