ADMartin, is correct, but let me add some additional facts. I was a lead inspector for UNMOVIC, which acted on all of the "best" intelligence. We went to sites that the US was sure WMD existed. Each time, the inspection found no physical, or even anecdotal evidence to spot US claims. We found chicken farms where the US insisted a biological weapons was working to produce toxic agents. I could go on but will spare you. These empty or innocent sites were inspected weeks before Colin Powell"s infamous UN speech. USG officials were briefed in detail, but never provided the public, or Congress with dated judgments. Blix and IAEA both publicly expressed the findings in the weeks before the invasion, yet no one in Congress, the media, nor the Bush admin raised a hand to ask why the inspectors might be right, primarily because Cheney and Bush did everything they could to discredit the UN inspectors. This is the real crime, the US did not have bad intelligence in March, before the conflict began. Rather they showed bad judgment and ignored available evidence,,fresh form the field from real experts.
ADMartin, is correct, but let me add some additional facts. I was a lead inspector for UNMOVIC, which acted on all of the "best" intelligence. We went to sites that the US was sure WMD existed. Each time, the inspection found no physical, or even anecdotal evidence to spot US claims. We found chicken farms where the US insisted a biological weapons was working to produce toxic agents. I could go on but will spare you. These empty or innocent sites were inspected weeks before Colin Powell"s infamous UN speech. USG officials were briefed in detail, but never provided the public, or Congress with dated judgments. Blix and IAEA both publicly expressed the findings in the weeks before the invasion, yet no one in Congress, the media, nor the Bush admin raised a hand to ask why the inspectors might be right, primarily because Cheney and Bush did everything they could to discredit the UN inspectors. This is the real crime, the US did not have bad intelligence in March, before the conflict began. Rather they showed bad judgment and ignored available evidence,,fresh form the field from real experts.