Ralph Rowe
US should be "embarrassed" over failure to find WMDs:
Sat Apr 19 16:40:23 2003
208.152.73.190

Spacewar.com: http://www.spacewar.com/2003/030417232627.crweaphw.html


US should be "embarrassed" over failure to find WMDs: ex-spies


WASHINGTON (AFP) Apr 18, 2003
The US government should be "embarrassed" over the apparent failure to uncover weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, retired intelligence officials who opposed the war said Thursday.

"It's going to be very embarrassing when it turns out they have nothing to declare," said Eugene Betit, a former defense intelligence analyst who belongs to Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), formed in January to speak out on the use of intelligence to justify the war.

Another, former CIA station chief Ray Close, said: "I'm hoping they will be embarrassed into acknowledging a role for some independent body. And who could it be but the UN?"

As the "smoking gun" continued to elude US sleuths in Iraq, chief UN weapons inspector Hans Blix called for experts to return to the country to determine whether the weapons allegations -- the main justification for going to war -- had any foundation.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday he was "reasonably sure" that proof will be found.

"We are quite confident of our intelligence," he told Jim Lehrer of PBS public television.

"There was a huge intelligence collection effort with all of our agencies working together to come up with the body of knowledge that we took to the UN, and that we had been presenting before the world for a long period of time," he said.

Adding to the pressure, Russia, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, said it would not support the lifting of UN sanctions against Iraq unless UN inspectors confirmed the absence of weapons of mass destruction.

But Washington has so far rejected such calls, and US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on Thursday sought to deflect concerns that evidence could be planted.

"The (US search) teams have been trained in chain of control, really like a crime scene," Rumsfeld told Pentagon staff.

He said: "They will have people with them who will validate things, they will have the ability to take pictures, and to make sure that the control over any piece of evidence is as clear as it possibly can be."

Rumsfeld warned however: "That will not stop certain countries, and certain types of people from claiming, inaccurately, that it was planted."

Retired CIA intelligence analyst and VIPS member Ray McGovern told AFP: "Some of my colleagues are virtually certain that there will be some weapons of mass destruction found, even though they might have to be planted.

"I'm just as sure that some few will be found, but not in an amount that by any stretch would justify the charge of a threat against the US or anyone else."

He added: "Even if the planting were discovered by and by, they'll say, 'ok, the weapons were planted -- fine.'"

McGovern said he was alluding to a remark by Powell after it emerged that a letter purporting to show that Iraq had sought to procure uranium from Niger -- a key argument in the case for war and cited in President George W. Bush's January 28 State of the Union address -- was a forgery.

Powell told NBC: "It was the information that we had. We provided it. If that information is inaccurate, fine."

VIPS, made up of 25 former intelligence officials in the CIA, State and Defense Departments, Army Intelligence and FBI, made their first public statement on February 5, critiquing Powell's presentation before the UN Security Council seeking an international mandate for the war.

"Never before has a group of veteran CIA graduates -- all cum laude -- gotten together to critique the government," McGovern said.

CIA spokesman Tom Crispell, asked for comment on the former officials' remarks Thursday, said: "They're criticizing policy, not intelligence."



________________________________________________________
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
(Get used to it.)
________________________________________________________
When Guns Are Outlawed Only The JBT Will Have Guns
________________________________________________________

"I am only one, but I am one.
I cannot do everything, but I can do something.
And because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do the something that I can do.
What I can do, I should do. And what I should do, by the grace of God, I will do."
---Edward Everett Hale

MOLON LABE!
=============================================
From: 4umi@netzero.net

2 news bites from: russian troops being drafted; more censorship in usa :
forst amendment dying? or gone?
http://wrightworld.net/poleshiftnewspage2.htm

175 Thousand Russians to Be Called up for Military Service in Spring 2003:
4-4-03 Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree yesterday 'on the
call-up of Russian citizens for military service in April-June 2003 and the
release from military service of those who have completed their service.' As
the president's press office announced, the call-up will begin today. A
total of 175,050 people will be summoned for military service this spring
but, according to the presidential decree, only men between the ages of 18
and 27 will be called up. Those servicemen who have completed their term of
service will be released from duty according to the law on military service.
This decree comes into force from the day of publication.

State Senate bars Christian prayer:
4-4-03 Jewish lawmakers threaten walk-out over reference to Jesus. A
Maryland minister was barred from giving the opening prayer in the state
Senate after he refused to drop a reference to Jesus. The Rev. David N.
Hughes of the Trinity and Evangelical Church of Adamstown, Md., intended to
round out his invocation yesterday with the line, "In Jesus' name, Amen."
But the sergeant at arms - on the orders of Senate President Thomas Mike
Miller Jr. - shut the reverend out of the body's chambers. Miller issued the
orders after two Jewish lawmakers threatened to stage a boycott of the
legislative session if the phrase was not removed. "I'm shocked by the
response. I've never had this happen in 26 years," Hughes told the Frederick
News-Post. "It just makes me feel that they've taken away my right as an
American to pray, and this is the seat of government, and that's scary." The
pastor - a Vietnam veteran - was invited to give the prayer by Republican
Sen. Alex Mooney. Hughes was Mooney's fourth guest. The other three were
Jewish rabbis.

*******
~~ "Our government was designed for a moral and a religious people," John
Adams

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